Panic Attacks Support Groups

Approximately 40 million American adults suffer from panic disorders and, consequently, from panic attacks. According to the psychiatric community, panic attacks are characterized by the sudden onset of severe symptoms like feelings of doom and death coupled with the physical signs of rapid heart rate, trembling, shortness of breath, chills and hot flashes, nausea and abdominal cramping, headache and dizziness, and tightness in the throat and trouble swallowing.

Unfortunately, panic attacks do not just affect the individual suffering from panic disorder but their family and friends as well. This is because when panic attacks do happen, the family and friends within the immediate vicinity ideally must assist the individual to calm down. However, it may not be possible to do so if and when said family and friends have little, if any, knowledge, information and empathy for what their loved one is undergoing.

Benefits of Joining

Now, this is where panic attacks support groups come in. You as well as your family and friends can join these groups and reap the benefits of doing so sooner than you had expected. Just to enumerate a few of these benefits:

• You have a circle of fellow sufferers who can and will provide support during your most trying times with the mental disorder. In many ways, emotional support from people who knows and feels where you are coming from is as good a therapy as lying in the proverbial psychiatrist's couch.
• Your family and friends will have hands-on education about what to do when your panic attack happens. Indeed, empathy will go a long way toward better relationships and, hence, healing.
• You will know the latest in panic disorder treatments as well as know many of the natural methods used by other members that may also prove useful in your case.

Plus, there is also the matter of group behavioral therapy provided to the participants by qualified mental health professionals. In a way, you are reinforcing your own individual therapy sessions.

Panic attacks support groups are very valuable components of treatment. You need not worry about negative judgments like being a loony simply because you are all in the same boat and that definitely will ease your anxieties.

Where to Find

Finding the right panic attacks support group is as easy as asking your psychiatrist for referrals. Usually, the mental health community is a tight-knit group within a big city or even in mid-sized towns so much so that establishing support groups is a given. You may be referred to a paying or a non-paying support group although you need not worry too much about the costs as only nominal fees are charged.

You also have the benefit of non-profit organizations involved in mental health to ask about available panic attack support groups in the area. These groups are also supported by professionals so you are in good hands.

Or you can always log on to the Internet to find support groups in your area as well as to find online an panic attack forum. The latter have the advantage of always being open 24/7 along with the fact that you can also ask for assistance, seek answers and participate in discussions.

In conclusion, panic attacks support groups will significantly assist in your search for effective treatment. The trick is in choosing the right one but that's another topic altogether.

Panic Attack Support