When a person experiences a panic attack, the experience itself can be very frightening. It is very common for the victim to think they could be dying, possibly from heart attack, due to feeling tightness in the chest and the heart beating seemingly out of control. In other cases, the person's bowels seem to go haywire, causing them to have to be in the bathroom every few minutes for one reason or another. Heavy sweating might happen and muscles may get stiff or feel cramp in legs or arms. There might be breathlessness as well and a combination of all of these symptoms. If these sorts of things are happening to you, you are strongly advised to seek help, do not think that you are going crazy and hide it from all other people. If help is not sought, sometimes a person can lose the ability to go about his daily life normally, which leads to further problems.

What to do

Everyone differs, therefore, a treatment for panic attacks that works well on someone may not be as effective on another person. Some treatments, however, have shown to have high chances of success and have worked for high percentages of those who have used them.

One of the best treatments for panic attacks is to go to a therapist. These therapists can help the individual to learn what the fears are underneath the panic attack, thus sparking it. The cause may lie far back in a person's past and they will need to think back, even to childhood, if they are not aware of the reason for the attacks. Finding the cause is the first step, then the therapist will work with the patient to de-construct the event, which allows them to see exactly how their life has been affected by the past event. This is the best treatment for panic attacks because the patient can come to an understanding, which in itself makes the event less frightening.

In addition to de-constructing the events or issues in the person's life, the individual can also learn relaxation techniques that can help him deal with the panic attacks. They can even be used to calm down when the feeling arises that one is about to have an attack, sometimes averting it altogether. The person learns to breathe properly, through his diaphragm in deep breaths, which helps him to focus on the breathing rather than on the anxiety in his body. This method of reducing the initial anxiety can stop a full panic attack from occurring.