Anxiety Treatment Options and Complementary Therapies For Panic and Anxiety Attacks

In other articles on my site we looked at ‘traditional’ anxiety treatment and solutions to panic attacks, and their strengths and weaknesses. We then began to consider the role you play in your attacks, and how you can make use of your own considerable power to help bring them to an end – and improve your quality of life. Part of what has been suggested has aimed to empower you; to encourage you to accept full responsibility for what happens to you and realize the amount of control you do have as a natural treatment for anxiety.

The message is: you can do it. I know you can, because everyone (including you) has that vast reservoir of as-yet-untapped potential which I keep talking about to use as an anxiety treatment. I know you can do it. However, you may recognize that you could do with some additional constructive help. Not in the form of prescriptions, medicinal treatment for anxiety or unsatisfactory visits to your doctor, but something more useful. It’s fine to acknowledge your need for that help. In making that acknowledgement you give yourself the option to do something positive about dealing with anxiety attacks using your own anxiety treatments.

Your doctor may be able to suggest some forms of anxiety treatment help, such as local support groups. It can be an enormous relief to talk to people who have experienced the same things you have. If you would like psychotherapeutic or counseling help, the doctor should be able to give you a referral or information about where you can find that sort of help.

If you have family or lifestyle changes to make which you would like assistance with, s/he could point you in the right direction for this, too (for example, marriage guidance, bereavement support, child guidance, social services). You may not want to accept the anxiety treatment prescription your doctor offers, but s/he can still be a useful source of other forms of help. Do ask. You have a right to that support. But if your doctor is particularly unhelpful, or not familiar with these forms of anxiety treatments, contact your local area health authority for the information you need. Their number will be in the telephone directory, or your local library should have it.

In upcoming articles about treatment for anxiety we’ll have a look at another area which could offer more of that valuable support you’re looking for, but which your doctor is unlikely to be able to give you much information about: anxiety treatment through complementary therapies. Many people are starting to question the safety and wisdom of allopathic medicine (your doctor’s sort), and are beginning to look for alternatives. With this growing awareness, complementary therapies are becoming more widely accepted, especially homoeopathy.

Some sections of the medical profession are waking up to this and starting to realize the need to consider the whole mind/body of a person in planning any anxiety treatments (as complementary therapists do), rather than addressing just the panic or anxiety symptoms.

Although total acceptance by the medical establishment is a long way off yet, complementary therapies are available for you to consider now, and could provide useful additional tools for you to include in your panic attack prevention kit. There are a vast number of different types available, some of which may be useful for panic attacks.