When anxiety becomes so severe that panic attacks ruin your life, don’t despair. Changing your thoughts can change the way you face stressful situations.

Australian psychotherapist Carole Kelly offers advice to the panic-stricken on her website, based on her years of work with people suffering from anxiety and panic.

She says, once people learn to deal with the symptoms of a panic attack, it’s time to tackle the thoughts behind the symptoms.

Negative Thinking Makes You Vulnerable

“How we interpret experiences and situations will influence how we feel about them and hence our emotional responses,“ she says.

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The terms “anxiety attack” and “panic attack” are used almost interchangeably in today’s culture, but they have very different meanings to many mental health professionals. In reality there is not that much difference for the sufferer of these problems but for the sake of clarity we will show the differences.

An anxiety attack is when something bad has happened to you or you are afraid that something bad may occur so you start to get very anxious. You can get so anxious that you might even experience some physical symptoms. For example, you might get real nervous, and you might start to have heart palpitations and increased sweating. An anxiety attack can last anywhere from a few minutes, such as just before a public talk, to a few days – such as when you are starting a new job. The main thing about an anxiety attack is that you are worrying about something and you usually know what it is.

A panic attack on the other hand descends upon you suddenly, out of the clear blue for no apparent reason at all. You suddenly feel like you are having a heart attack, or that you are going crazy and losing control. You can have many of the same symptoms as an anxiety attack with the racing heart, shortness of breath, tightness in your throat and nausea but it comes upon you very sudden.

The primary focus during a panic attack is worry about your body (dying) or mind (going crazy). Some people have anxiety attacks that turn into panic attacks. They will start to get worked up about a stressful event in their lives and it turns into a full blown panic attack.

The bottom line is that either a panic attack or an anxiety attack can be a very disturbing event in someone’s life.

Having a panic attack is one of the most frightening experiences in a person’s life. A panic attack is a sudden, measurable time period of acute anxiety and fearfulness. There is usually a general sense of feeling uncomfortable and stomach problems may be present.

The onslaught of these episodes is usually very abrupt with no noticeable triggers that brought it on. We could get into the physiological aspects and how adrenalin is being produced to deal with the fear response but for now lets keep it simple.

Different people experience panic attacks in different ways. First time sufferers usually think they are having a heart attack and dying therefore trips to the emergency room are not unusual. More experienced sufferers recognize the symptoms and usually they are able to ride out the episode.

Panic Attacks usually last from 15 to 30 minutes. Sometimes they come in waves and the entire time period may extend for several hours. Many times those afflicted will experience generalized anxiety with a sense of dread prior to the onset of a full fledge panic attack.

There is really no evidence to prove that anti-anxiety medication is anymore effective in treating panic or anxiety problems contrary to a lot of popular belief. On this website we will be focusing on drug free ways to treat panic and anxiety problems.