Anxiety attacks can lead to a tough life if not dealt with. As a response to the stress, many will begin to avoid places or events that they feel caused an attack or they associate with the attacks. This is a huge mistake. Avoidance of a fear will give it more power over you. Whole therapy methods even revolve around exposure to fears and discomforts to lessen their effect on a person.
This therapy is actually known as exposure therapy. It centers around the idea that given time a person can get used to anything. For extreme fears such as panic or anxiety attacks, it is recommended that you start by only exposing yourself to a part of the fear and increase it as you can deal with more of it. The mind will begin to focus on stressful situations that you've successfully dealt with and you will gain more confidence. Soon there will be no place left for the fear to hide.
It is not always a good idea to expose someone to an extreme fear in an uncontrolled environment. Such an environment can allow other fears or worries to introduce themselves. Imaginary exposure was created for scenarios like this. Usually this is done more at the start when you are making your first moves to face a fear. It is where you visualize yourself in a stressful situation and how you would deal with it calmly and effectively. It may seem silly, but the subconscious does not differentiate between what is real and what is vividly imagined, so the benefits will be real, given time.
Sometimes it is the physical symptoms that will jump you into a heightened state of panic more than anything. By exposing yourself to these symptoms in controlled environments, you prove that they represent no threat by themselves. This is called physical exposure. Generally the focus will be on the racing heart, tensed body, or breathing difficulties. Some can be simulated without doing anything; the racing heart can be achieved through sprinting or another similar activity. Should you find yourself focusing on one symptom over others during a panic or anxiety attack, you should work on that during this exposure.
A typical addition to exposure therapy is response prevention. It is easier to find patterns in what you do if you are repeatedly exposed to something. Destructive patterns can then be altered. Physical or mental patterns can pop up, but it is usually a mixture. By using these together you have more opportunities to isolate the pattern, break it, and supplant it with a more empowering pattern.
Physical patterns are attached to emotions. This is well known as everyone has observed body language. By changing how you use or hold your body, you can even change how you feel. Monitor how you hold your body when you feel stressed, and make sure to modify it quickly to get out of that state.
When we ask ourselves questions repeatedly, we shape mental patterns. Common questions that panic sufferers will ask stimulate a feeling of powerlessness. Very often a key one is some variant of, "Why is this happening to me?" It seems to be a reasonable question, but it lends itself more to weakness and inaction than doing anything to change the problem. Next opportunity consider, "How can I triumph over this experience and use it to become a more powerful person?" Questions such as this hold inside them the implication of success and they guide you towards that success. There are also many other questions you will probably need to change, so keep a look out for yours.
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