Overcoming Anxiety Attack Symptoms

‘I had given up thinking that things could be different for treating anxiety. My old doctor had always given me tablets to help me deal with difficult situations. When a new doctor told me that I could manage without them, I thought that she did not realize what she was asking. She explained that, overtime, I could develop ways of managing my anxiety symptoms and distress for myself and then I could cut down on my pills. It didn’t happen overnight, but following her approach to treating anxiety I did manage to learn how to deal with anxiety by myself. That boosted my self-confidence and then it became even easier to cope. I felt so much better in myself for not having to turn to drugs and much more able to take on new challenges.’

Strategies for Treating Anxiety

In other articles on this site, we established that worry, fear and anxiety are common and crucial to survival, but that they can develop into problems when cycles of distress become established. You can learn to break these cycles by developing practical ways of treating anxiety and overcoming the unpleasant symptoms. There is a range of coping strategies which can help you to modify the bodily, psychological and the behavioral responses associated with problem worry, fear and anxiety that include:

• stress awareness training;
• techniques for the management of bodily sensations: controlled breathing; applied relaxation;
• techniques for managng the psychological anxiety symptoms: distraction; thought challenging;
• techniques for dealing with problem behavior. graded exposure to fears; problem-solving strategies; assertiveness training; time management; sleep management;
• techniques for coping in the long term: blueprinting; coping with set-backs.

By using these approaches to treating anxiety, you can often bring your problems under control. However, you should remember that coping techniques rarely come naturally and that you need to think of them as skills which will only be learned through regular practice.

The process of developing these skills is rather like learning to play a musical instrument or to master a new language; if you want to learn about treating anxiety properly, you have to find time to practice. With practice, you will find that you develop effective coping techniques to use whenever you are under stress or anxious. You will then be able to cope with the unpleasant feelings and thoughts that you have associated with stress and this will allow you to face a range of situations which were once very difficult for you.