Anxiety is a normal response the body makes when you’re facing danger, pressure, threats, or other challenges. For example, you’ll be anxious before a big test or interview or on a first date. However, it is unhealthy to have frequent anxiety attacks or continuously feel on edge in your daily life.
When fear or worries interfere with your relationships, work, or other activities of daily life, you probably have an anxiety disorder and not just normal anxiety. There are different anxiety disorders, and the symptoms are also varied. Some individuals battle spontaneous anxiety attacks with no trigger, while others get them when they think of uncomfortable situations.
It’s crucial to learn how you can manage anxiety through the Serenity House Detox & Recovery anxiety treatment programs. We also provide some tips to control panic attacks when they happen. Contact us today at 866.516.8356 to learn more.
How Do I Know Whether I Have An Anxiety Disorder?
As stated, it is okay to get nervous or anxious from time to time, but a constant feeling of dread or fear isn’t healthy. People with anxiety disorders have most of the following symptoms:
- Always being on edge, tense or worried
- Plagued by irrational fears, but being unable to shake them
- Struggling with anxiety that interferes with daily life responsibilities
- Avoiding everyday situations because they make you anxious
- Sudden and intense panic attacks at the slightest provocation
- Feeling like calamity or danger lie around every corner
- Believing that things will go wrong if you don’t do things a certain way
During an anxiety attack, a person experiences intense fear or panic, and the episodes come without warning. Sometimes there is an obvious trigger, like facing a phobia. However, sometimes the attacks happen unprovoked.
Typical attacks peak around the tenth minute and rarely go over thirty minutes, but to the victim, this short span is complete torture. They feel entirely helpless, as if they’re losing control or even like they are about to die. Physical symptoms may accompany the attack and maybe frightening enough to resemble a heart attack.
If this happens to you regularly, you need to seek mental health treatment to help you deal with the fears that hold you captive. Anxiety therapy programs can be very useful, whether in individual or group therapy settings.
I’m Having an Anxiety Attack; What Should I Do?
The first step is to realize that you are having an anxiety attack and not a heart attack, even if it feels like the latter! Try to remember that the feeling is temporary, no matter how bad it seems. Try deep breathing exercises to get your breathing back to normal. Hyperventilation often makes other symptoms worse.
If there are overwhelming triggers around you, such as an environment with lots of movement, closing your eyes reduces the sensory overload. Closing your eyes also allows you to focus on deep breathing and to envision more relaxing scenarios. Programs like cognitive behavioral therapy can help introduce you to different techniques.
Anxiety attacks often leave you feeling detached from your reality, so you can combat anxiety by practicing mindfulness. You can also focus on familiar physical sensations during periods of calm, and try to call or recreate the same feelings when you feel an attack looming.
Something as simple as rubbing your hand against your jeans can help you get back to reality. Some people also prefer to pick one object in their clear view and focus all their attention on it. By focusing on this thing, you reduce your focus on the anxiety attack, reducing symptoms.
Find Help for Anxiety at Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston
It is okay if you’re unable to manage every single attack as it happens; most people try to ride out the symptoms until they subside. If you suffer regular attacks, you need professional help. Contact Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston and let us help you get a lasting solution through individualized anxiety attack treatment. Talk to Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston at 866.516.8356 if you need more information or details about our mental health treatment programs.
