Better Understanding Anxiety and How It Affects You
As our anxiety builds up, whether due to life changes, relationship challenges, or trouble at work, we need to find a release. Otherwise, without addressing the causes of anxiety and its increased prevalence in your life, you risk more severe issues like anxiety attacks. Although anxiety attacks differ from panic attacks, they can be just as debilitating and are something you want to avoid having. Thankfully, working with Chapin & Russell Associates can help you identify the causes of your anxiety and head it off before it results in an anxiety attack.
Describing Anxiety Attacks
Simply put, anxiety attacks are a reaction to the stress your body undergoes when dealing with consistent anxiety. Although anxiety attacks aren’t explicitly defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), they are a way for individuals to describe severe symptoms of anxiety all at once. If you have an anxiety attack, you might experience feelings of fear and worry. There are also physical symptoms that accompany anxiety and are often attributed to anxiety attacks. Some of these symptoms include:
- Dizziness
- Knots in Stomach
- Fast Breathing
- Restlessness
- Rapid Breathing
- Hot Flashes
- Irregular Heartbeat
How Do Anxiety Attacks Start, and When Do They End?
As mentioned, an anxiety attack is a direct response to the anxiety you are experiencing. This means an anxiety attack can be triggered by worry, fear and stress over sustained periods. Often, an anxiety attack is a culmination of your anxiety, with symptoms becoming more impactful and continuing for some time. As for when an anxiety attack ends, there’s no peak for an attack, meaning there’s no true resolution either.
What About Panic Attacks?
Although panic attacks and anxiety attacks share many of the same emotional and physical symptoms, they are not the same. An anxiety attack is more gradual and comes at the onset of an extreme buildup of anxiety. Conversely, panic attacks are a symptom of anxiety, can occur suddenly, and involve challenging and pronounced physical symptoms like racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, and severe nausea. In fact, it’s possible to experience a panic attack as part of an overall anxiety attack.
What Can Be Done?
If you find yourself experiencing what you believe to be anxiety attacks or severe anxiety, talking with a mental health professional should be your first objective. Through therapy, a therapist can help identify the causes of your anxiety and provide helpful guidance for reducing anxiety, building your confidence, and overcoming your fears. Additionally, a therapist can teach helpful strategies and activities for coping with anxiety and calming your mind and body.
If your anxiety is severe enough, a psychiatrist can help diagnose anxiety disorders and prescribe some form of medication for treating anxiety and its symptoms. Otherwise, Chapin & Russell Associates offers neurofeedback treatment, a unique approach to treating anxiety and emotional dysregulation in individuals. Through neurofeedback, we analyze your brain’s electrical signals and train your brain to more efficiently manage anxiety, stress, depression, and more.
If you are interested in learning more about anxiety attacks, anxiety disorders, and how you can treat your anxiety, give the team at Chapin & Russell Associates a call! Contact us at 309-681-5850 to ask about our additional counseling services or schedule a session.
