| Cognitive Behavioral Therapy | | | | these internal bodily sensations and feel a greater |
| Cognitive behavioral therapy is generally seen as the | | | | sense of control over their panic. Eventually panic |
| one of the most effective form of treatment for panic | | | | won't control them, they will control panic to |
| attack, panic disorder, and agoraphobia. Cognitive | | | | manageable levels. |
| behavioral therapy focuses on the thinking patterns | | | | Defining agoraphobia can be a bit confusing. It used to |
| and most behaviors that are sustaining or triggering the | | | | be held by many, that the definition of agoraphobia |
| panic attacks. It enables you look at your fears in a | | | | was a fear of wide-open spaces. Indeed, most current |
| more realistic light. | | | | dictionaries still carry this meaning. Possibly, this is due |
| If you had a panic attack while driving, what is the | | | | to the word being derived from the Greek words |
| worst thing that would really happen? While you might | | | | "agora", meaning marketplace or meeting place and |
| have to pull over to the side of the road, you are not | | | | "phobos", meaning fear. So, the literal meaning would |
| likely to crash your car or have a heart attack. Once | | | | be "fear of the marketplace or meeting place". |
| you learn and accept that nothing truly disastrous is | | | | However, the more up to date definition is along the |
| going to happen, the experience of panic becomes | | | | lines of: A fear of losing emotional or physical control, |
| less terrifying and manageable. Panic attack alone by | | | | following a panic/anxiety attack, in a place or situation |
| itself is never dangerous. | | | | where a return to the sufferer's safe zone may be |
| Exposure therapy for panic attack and panic disorder | | | | difficult, embarrassing or, indeed, impossible. |
| In exposure therapy for panic disorder, patients are | | | | If you have agoraphobia, exposure to the situations |
| exposed to the physical sensations of panic in a safe | | | | you fear and avoid is also included in the treatments. |
| and controlled environment, giving them the opportunity | | | | As in exposure therapy for specific phobias, you will |
| to learn healthier ways of coping and adapting. They | | | | face the feared situations until the panic begins to go |
| may be asked to hyperventilate, shake their heads | | | | away. Through this experience, you learn that the |
| from side to side, or hold their breath. These different | | | | situation isn't harmful and that you have control over |
| drills cause sensations similar to the symptoms of | | | | your emotions. This treatment for panic attacks will |
| panic. With each exposure, they become less afraid of | | | | control and eventually remove the fear entirely. |