Panic Attack Medications – Can You Live Without Them?
Medications, a quick fix solution, are the most common way out of panic attacks. They are, for sure, not the ultimate solution to all behavioral dysfunction and many people have become well without the aid of them. Nonetheless, they are still being prescribed for two reasons—because they work and because they are convenient.
But can people with panic attacks truly live normally without the medications? For those who believe in their capacity to help themselves intro treatment other than taking pills and tablets, they can. Sadly for those who are used to the idea of resorting to meds for cure, it may be a bit hard not to take them.
Recognizing the symptoms of an oncoming panic attack is an important step to stopping them. Watch your breathing, feelings of dizziness, heart beat changes, feeling like you're choking, or lightheadedness. When these feelings come on take a look at your thoughts and try to figure out what's causing your stress.
People who depend too heavily on medication for the alleviation of panic attack symptoms know for a fact that dependence will ultimately occur. Along with the possibility that they will not get cured of their behavioral condition, they also will create another problem for themselves—how to recover from dependence on the medication? This truth is perhaps further exacerbated by the fact that panic attack medications are not the typical over the counter drugs that one could easily get over with.
Oftentimes, these drugs (e.g. valium and antidepressants) are meant to cure serious cases of mental disorders. Eventually, the patients will no longer suffer from only one condition but two serious conditions. The bonus? The addiction adds and aggravates the unpleasant experiences accompanying panic attacks. This is the common experience of people who rely too much on laboratory-produced substances.
Anxiety conditions you to have a panic attack when things seem difficult, so you need to condition yourself to instead do something more positive. When you feel your thoughts begin to go negative, pinch yourself. Use that pain to remind yourself of the pain of a panic attack, and use the shock to flip your mindset to something more positive.
Apart from drug dependence, panic attack medications can also trigger side effects at varying degrees. Typical examples of side effects are slower reflexes, light headedness, lack of energy, nausea, dizziness, upset stomach, blurry vision, disorientation, memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, reduced brain activity, slurred speech and depression. Beyond the typical side effects, panic attack medications can also pose added risks overtime especially when certain combinations of medications are used.
Another problem that may be experienced are the paradoxical effects they could elicit. Paradoxical effects include those conditions that are excited by the use of specific medications which include irritability and anxiety at the less serious levels, and mania, aggression and hallucination at the more advanced stages.
To distract yourself from the panicky feelings that occur during an attack, try progressive relaxation. Tense and release each muscle group from your toes to your head, and try to focus on the sensations in your muscles. This prevents you from clenching your muscles and gives you something relaxing to do as you wait for the panicky sensation to subside.
Further, panic attack medications come with hefty price tags—not really the best way of exacerbating your already serious behavioral disorder.
However, despite all the negativities surrounding panic attack medications, their effects should not be counted as entirely useless or dangerous. They were made to provide symptom relief and possible cure to start with. Thus, not all effects are bad. Nonetheless, it must be remembered that relief from the symptoms should not be entirely dependent on their effects. They must only be used when extremely necessary. Otherwise, these medications, which are by nature foreign chemicals, might destroy something in you that is beyond repairable.
If you are feeling particularly stressed out, it is important that you try to eliminate from your diet certain stress causing things. Sugar and salt are two things that you should try to limit in your diet so that you do not have to battle so hard with your anxiety.
The truth is, there are a number of ways to cure yourself from panic attacks apart from depending on medications to give you the solution. Behavioral therapies as well as cognitive approaches are among the best alternatives to drugs. Group and individual therapies are also good options. But despite all the promises of these therapies and treatments, if the person lacks the determination to take himself out of the grip of panic attacks, all these may prove useless.
Over the years, medical professionals and patients alike proved that only the person, the patient of panic attacks, could find the cure for his condition.
