Panic attacks affect nearly 1.7% of the adult population in the US. That’s approximately 2.4 million Americans living and suffering from panic attacks in their daily lives. While panic attacks in general cannot be cured (since by definition it isn’t really a disease), sufferers can get panic treatments that help them live their life normally. Many who suffer from panic attacks are able to continue and live a normal life by undergoing a series of treatment and intervention that make managing the condition possible. So what are the secrets that these people possess which enable them to get rid of panic attacks?

1. Accept you need help

Just like other people troubled by other debilitating conditions, panic attacks sufferers must first admit to themselves that what they are experiencing is not normal and that they need professional help. Many sufferers are often in denial and are often ashamed of seeking a psychologist or a psychiatrist for fear of being branded insane.

What everyone who suffers from panic attacks must know is that panic attack is not a mental disorder. While it is true that psychologists and psychiatrists are the health professionals to approach if you want to be treated, it does not in any way mean that you are already crazy and thus need to be admitted to a mental institution. Panic disorder is a behavioral condition, a condition in which your state of mind is not affected but rather your responses to stimuli.

2. Surround yourself with support groups and supportive people

People who suffer from panic attacks need others who understand them and support them in anything they need. They need family members who know the condition well and know what to do in case an attack happens. With loving and caring people around you, it becomes much easier to get rid of panic attacks.

3. Learn to face your fears

As counter-intuitive as it may sound, facing whatever triggers your panic attacks instead of running away from it will help you control your panic much more than continually avoiding them will do.

Psychologists and researchers have long discovered that behavioral conditions such as panic disorders can effectively be treated by desensitizing patients to whatever triggers the attack. For example, patients who suffer from panic attacks secondary to agoraphobia (fear of open and public spaces) are gradually exposed to increasing the space of the room he is in and the number of people around him. The object of the treatment is to get the patient to a level where he becomes comfortable in going out of the house and mingling with people.

4. Avoid negative and self-defeating thoughts

Studies have shown that people with low self-esteem are more prone to panic attacks. That isn’t surprising since panic preys on the weak-minded. If your mind is full of self-doubts and negative thoughts, controlling your fear when a panic attack starts to happens is simply impossible.

But if you start to cultivate positive thoughts and stray away from negative ones, you make it a habit for your mind to become more positive. Positive thoughts are reinforcing and can strengthen your mind against unreasonable fear. Panic is an unreasonable fear but if you have a strong mind, you will be able to overcome it. By making thinking of positive things a habit, you help yourself get rid of panic attacks once and for all.

Author Bio: Do you suffer with horrible panic attacks? Learn how an “Average Joe” beat panic attacks with dead simple techniques! http://www.selfsteps.com

Category: Medicines and Remedies
Keywords: panic attacks,panic attack,panic attacks instead,panic attacks secondary,panic attacks sufferers