Are you getting enough sleep? People who go for several days without sleep could experience more anxiety attacks, according to a new  study. Lack of sleep causes the amygdala to become hyperactive. This is a small gland in the brain that controls our sense of fear. When it becomes over activated by lack of sleep, our fears become intensified.

It’s not just that we become increasingly fearful, although that certain is enough. We can also begin to experience changes in our perceptions. We don’t  interpret things the same way. For example, if we are shown a scary picture, perhaps of snakes or demons, our brains have more difficulty understanding that they are just pictures and not the real thing.

This happened to me. While I already was experiencing fairly regular anxiety attacks, I began to see grotesque figures in everyday items, like roots of trees reaching into the sky, oddly shaped tree trunks and tied bags of garbage at the roadside. Those images further enhanced the frequency of my anxiety attacks.

If you are suffering anxiety attacks on a regular basis, or more often than normal, see whether you are getting sufficient sleep every night. For this problem to arise, you don’t need to have no sleep at all. It can happen if you have one sleepless night but the symptoms will be less severe. If you get 5-6 hours of sleep over several days or more, the symptoms are much worse.

A good night usually means 7-8 hours of sleep, although there are some people who believe they don’t need that much. If you are having anxiety attacks on less, it might mean you really do need more sleep every night.

Anxiety attacks can be scary in themselves and when you add lack of sleep, they can intensify. When I began to get proper sleep, my anxiety attacks didn’t disappear completely, but they did subsided considerably.

For help with overcoming your anxiety disorder, check out the anxiety relief products that I have reviewed for you at www.book-titles.ca/anxietycure.htm .

Don’t click away if the idea of prayer turns you off. This post is not intended to be a lecture on the benefits of bible worship. It’s to remind you that traditional “spiritual” methods can help relieve your anxiety and panic attacks.

Do you ever resort to prayer when you are afraid or don’t know where else to turn? It’s been scientifically proven that prayer by the person seeking help and by others for that person (even strangers), can help that individual find peace and recover from illness.

This is startling news, but it will be no surprise to people who are regular worshippers.

The gurus who became popular in the ’60s and ’70s used a technique that brings spiritual, mental and physical healing. They chanted specific phrases or sounds that relaxed the mind and body so that healing could take root. Ultimately, anxiety and panic attacks were held at bay.

There are other things you can do to overcome stress and panic attacks. You can pray to God, but the idea is not to ask “why me” or make deals “if you cure me of this, I’ll do this” or make threats, “I’ll abandon you like you’ve abandoned me”. Prayer must be a simple request for help in getting through your anxiety and panic attacks or whatever else is interfering with your quality of life.

I’m not particularly religious, but I used to pray a lot when I was going through severe anxiety attacks, and for many other reasons as well. Doing so often brought me to tears as I delved deeper into my pain and asked God for help. This “unloading” usually left me feeling much lighter, less burdened and more strengthened. And certainly more relaxed and refreshed.

I still use prayer when stress becomes overwhelming and anxiety attacks threaten because it energizes me so that I’m able to feel positive again. It also produces a relaxation that lasts the entire day, sometimes more.

We can get too wrapped up in our search for “why”… “why me?”, “why are you doing this?”, “what have I done to deserve this?”. Such questions are more likely to place blame than to seek help.

My prayers usually include apologies for some way that I’ve lived my life, perhaps by not always showing compassion for others.

If your anxiety and panic attacks persist, perhaps prayer will help you, too. If you have a bible, flip to a random page and read a few entries. I found this very helpful because the passages almost always could be related to my specific need. When I found some that were particularly relevant, I marked them and went back to them regularly.

Repeat the Lord’s Prayer or whatever prayer is used by your religion. If you aren’t religious and don’t have a bible, you can still pray. Think about who you are and what you need at this time. Just come right out and ask for help in your own words. Poetry is another type of “prayer” because it has the rhythm similar to what the gurus used to alleviate their stress.

Today, I came across an article written by a cancer survivor who uses prayer to help her through the rough spots. You might find it helpful. You can read it here: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2007/10/28/columns/columns50.txt

Researchers are always finding more astonishing facts about anxiety disorder. A new study just released reveals that teen smokers appear to be more susceptible to anxiety disorder as well as other mental health issues.

The study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University indicates that because the brain of teens is still developing, it is more susceptible to damage.

The damage can lead to alcohol and drug addiction as well as mental illness, including depression, panic and anxiety disorder. The report states that teens who smoke are 13 times more likely to meet the criteria for substance abuse and dependence than teens who don’t smoke.

The study looked at teens between 12 and 17 years of age. Of those, twice as many smokers as non-smokers had symptoms of depression in the previous year. The earlier teens starts smoking, the more likely they were to experience hopelessness, depression and worthlessness.

These conclusions indicate that smoking at a young age can be directly related to panic attacks, general anxiety disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.

What we might determine from this is not that smoking causes these disorders, but that teens who begin to develop these disorders use smoking as a release from their discomfort.

If your teen is smoking, it might be worth taking a closer look at why. The sooner mental disorders are caught and treated, the less damage will be caused and the faster they will recover.

Remember, too, that teens are highly susceptible to their surroundings. If their friends smoke, they will be tempted to join in simply because of the peer pressure. It’s likely, therefore, that they are smoking just to fit in. If someone smokes in the home, consider how it might be affecting your teen.

A teen who smokes might be more tempted to try other chemicals, such as marijuana and cocaine which, as you know, can lead to serious addiction. In fact, it’s well worth keeping in mind that it only takes one use for a teen to become addicted to illegal drugs.

If you or your teen wants to quit smoking, Here’s a Program I’ve reviewed for you. If you’re looking for natural anxiety relief, Go Here to learn about some of the top programs to help you.

Recent stats show that mental disorders account for slightly more sick days than back and neck pain. Social Phobia, or Social Anxiety Disorder, is at the top of the list.

This is interesting because it would seem to show that people with general anxiety disorder and panic disorders are better able to get on with their day than people with social anxiety disorder.

It makes sense when you consider that a person with social phobia is, as the term implies, afraid of social places. The workplace is just one more social environment.

While panic and anxiety can be debilitating, the condition usually does subside at some point whether the person’s location changes or not. In social anxiety disorder, the condition is ongoing as long as the person is in a social setting. It persists even when they are not in a social situation. Just the thought of having to go out in public to shop, visit the doctor, take the kids to school, or go to work is enough to paralyze them.

This explains why it’s so difficult for a person with social anxiety disorder to hold a job.

It takes more than the usual exposure therapy to resolve this condition because there is little respite from the fear. A person who is afraid to drive because of their panic disorder can simply not get behind the wheel. It’s not that simple for a social anxiety disorder sufferer.

In order to face those frightening social events, the person will require some sort of medication to calm them so they can gradually be introduced to the social setting. However, medication alone isn’t enough.

While there are programs available that they can use on their own, there comes a point where it’s just not enough and professional treatment should be sought.

Here are the comparisons between mental illnesses:

Americans with depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders lost about 1.3 billion days per year of work, school or other activity. People suffering with back and/or net pain miss 1.2 billion days.

Depression accounted for 387 million sick days per year, social phobia 214 million days, post traumatic stress disorder 113 million, generalized anxiety disorder 110 million, panic disorders 101 million, and agoraphobia (which might be related to social anxiety disorder) accounts for 37 million lost days.

Click here to learn more about finding an Anxiety Cure.

Many of us have had moments while we’ve been out in public and felt some unexplained discomfort. It’s difficult to identify exactly what it is, but something just doesn’t feel right. It might be that we subconsciously sense danger, perhaps because of the environment we’re in. In most cases, the discomfort passes and we never really figure it out.

For others, however, the discomfort takes on a life of its own. They become agoraphobic.

What is Agoraphobia?

Broken down into it’s root words, agoraphobia comes from the Greek language. “Agora” means a meeting place or market place. “Phobia” is a fear. In this case, it’s a fear of places where people gather, of being in public.

An agoraphobic, then, is a person who is afraid of being in crowded public places. They don’t even have to be that crowded. An agoraphobic can experience fear when there are only a few people.

It’s possible the fear developed out of a panic attack.

They might have experienced a panic attack while in a public place, and from there developed a fear of public places. The initial attack might have had nothing to do with the location, but subconsciously, the panic became linked to it.

In essence, they became afraid of being in places where they might have a panic attack. Their solution, which isn’t really much of a solution, is simply to avoid places where they think they might have another attack.

For many people, their agoraphobia severely interferes with their lifestyle. They experience fear when they shop for groceries, when and if they attend social events, on their way to work, at work, and even at the library. Eventually, the fear gets so bad they become housebound.

Panic attacks can be scary because the symptoms are so dramatic. The heart pounds, the person has trouble breathing, they feel dizzy and wonder if they’re having a heart attack or if they might die. This increased fear feeds the panic, and a cycle of fear and panic becomes established.

The discouraging thing for someone suffering from agoraphobia is the difficulty in getting a diagnosis from their doctor. Their symptoms might imitate something more serious, but the examination doesn’t reveal any problems. Unfortunately, many doctors don’t know the specific diseases that can cause anxiety, such as diabetes, so the connection is never made.

Unable to diagnose your complaint, the doctor might write you a prescription for something to calm you. The problem is that medications alone will not cure your underlying problem… agoraphobia, which is just one aspect of panic disorder.

What Can You Do?

The solution is to break the vicious and extremely debilitating cycle of fear, panic and isolation.

As I’ve mentioned before, the first step is to talk to doctors who specialize in such mental disorders. They will be better able to make a proper diagnosis and prescribe the best mode of treatment.

As with any condition, whether it’s medical or a mental disorder, the earlier you seek treatment the less severe the problem will become. With agoraphobia, the sooner you get relief the sooner you will be cured and able, once again, to enjoy life on the outside.

You will find links to some programs that will help you by visiting my Anxiety Cure pages at http://www.book-titles.ca/anxietycure.htm

After all the insistence from mental health researchers and others that panic attacks won’t kill you, a new study seems to indicate otherwise.

The study of 3,000 women between the ages of 51 to 85 has revealed that those who have experienced a panic attack had three times the chance of having a heart attack or stroke within the 6 years following the attack.

This is alarming news, since we’ve all been led to believe that there’s no cause for concern.

Study organizers say that the risk is still relatively small, but this doesn’t help to alleviate the fears that all panic attack sufferers endure with each attack.

It’s interesting to note that the study points out that there is an even higher risk for women who are post-menopausal, in other words, women who have gone through menopause are at an even higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke following a panic attack that occurred in the previous six years.

This puts women in even more jeopardy because it’s already proven that women are at higher risk than men of having panic attacks.

The study points out that it only requires one panic attack to start the ball in motion. Apparently, the stress hormones that are released because of the panic attack can damage the heart rhythm. Any damage can worsen over time when that ongoing stress continues.

It’s imperative, therefore, that if you suffer from panic attacks, the sooner you find a cure, the better.

There is a specific path you can take.

1. Start with your medical doctor to see if there are any potential underlying conditions that can be causing your panic attacks. Once any are identified and treated, you can focus on treating the panic attacks themselves.

2. If your medical doctor writes you a prescription to ease your symptoms, insist that you get a referral to a therapist who can help you determine the cause of your panic and how to alleviate your attacks. It’s already proven that medications alone will not cure your panic. A combination of talk therapy and drug treatment offer the best cure.

3. If your first therapist or doctor doesn’t provide you with immediate access to the services and treatments that will help you, seek a second opinion. As with any association, we have different personalities and don’t get along with everyone. It’s the same with therapists. It doesn’t mean they are bad therapists. It just means that it’s not the right match.

These results send a clear message - don’t wait to seek help. This means that you should go directly to those who are in the best position to help you. While forums, friends and companions offer excellent support and the perfect environment for airing your concerns, the advice given is often of little value when it comes to treating and curing your panic disorder.

Panic Disorder is a serious condition that needs immediate treatment.

There are programs available to help you. The Linden Method uses neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which is the same type of treatment that an effective therapist will use to alleviate your anxiety and panic attacks.