Anxiety Attacks
Panic or Anxiety Attacks Toronto
Anxiety with Panic attacks or Anxiety Attacks.
Anxiety is the anticipation of future as a threat, to the point you body might start to go into a panic. Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive fear and anxiety that may lead to the feeling to escape, or avoid the problem/fear. These excessive feelings of fear and distress can interfere with normal daily functioning at school, work or in other life domains. The pathological fear may arise because there is either an overestimation of perceived risk, or an underestimation of coping ability, or both. This is why two individuals may be in the same situation but anticipate different consequences and, therefore, react in different ways.
The vicious cycle of anxiety is maintained, beginning with hypervigilance for possible signs of potential threat and the repetitive worry that their ability to cope is insufficient. In response to an internal or external trigger, the anxious person with a perception of threat either draws a catastrophic conclusion that something bad has happened that can have alarming implications for the future or makes a catastrophic prediction that something bad will happen. To cope, the anxious person employs strategies that provide temporary relief, but do not challenge the belief, leaving the fear intact, until triggered again.
There are also different types of anxiety, with some being:
- Generalized anxiety
- Specific phobias
- Agoraphobia
- Panic attacks
- Social anxiety
Generalized anxiety is characterized by feelings of anxiety and worry about a wide variety of activities or situations.
Someone with a phobia, is fearful or anxious about a specific object like, for example, spiders or a situation.
Agoraphobia is the extreme fear of public places and open spaces. People with agoraphobia often avoid their feared situations because they believe they won’t be able to leave or escape, in the event they have a panic attack. In severe cases, individuals are unable to leave their house.
Panic attacks are characterized by recurrent and unexpected periods of intense fear and stress that reach a peak within minutes. During a panic attack, individuals experience physical symptoms such as heart palpitations and shortness of breath.
Social anxiety is characterized by fear, or anxiety about one or more social situations, in which the individual is exposed to possible embarrassment or humiliation from others. Importantly, individuals with social anxiety also fear that others will notice their anxiety symptoms if they blush, tremble or stumble over their words.
Treatment
At Greystones Health we combine the tools of Psychotherapy and Naturopathic Medicine to truly take on a Mind-Body approach. As Psychotherapy explores the individual’s thoughts, emotions and past events, we add in the Naturopathic tools to look for inflammation, food intolerances, gut-brain concerns, blood sugar problems that don’t show up on standard blood work, hormone balance (testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone need to have a healthy balance for both females and males), and consider stress hormones like cortisol levels. There are natural products to help balance serotonin and Gaba to help keep the nervous system calm and better able to engage in the psychotherapy process. This combination of Psychotherapy along with Naturopathic support has been very powerful and has been very successful.
As the individuals, biochemistry improves and their emotional coping skills develop, we additionally improve energy and health behaviours like diet and exercise that the person had often found too challenging to start or maintain.
