Anxiety attacks, disorder, symptoms and treatment

Anxiety is an emotion that we all feel occasionally; the anxiety which precedes a major exam in school. Anxiety that sets in when the doctor¡¦s office calls you and says they need to talk to you.  The anxiety women feel prior to giving birth, and the anxiety of the expectant fathers waiting in the waiting room.

For most people, how anxiety is handled depends on their coping skills. How they learn to face their anxiety, overcome it and not let it rule their lives is crucial to living a healthy life. For some people, anxiety can become a dark place, where they can hide from what they fear the most. Avoiding confronting their fears, they sink further into the darkness, suffering silently, withdrawing from the world around them.

Inside this darkness are monsters of their own making. Vast energy is expended worrying about these personal demons, wondering what would happen if they emerged from the shadows becoming something real and tangible. 

For some, the simple act of opening the front door and joining the real world is enough to send them into an anxiety attack.  When the attack begins, they sink into a corner trembling. Their palms are sweaty, their heartbeat racing. Soon they are hyperventilating and having trouble focusing on where they are.

Giving into anxiety impairs their self-control. Giving power to their fears incapacitates their mind. Most of the time, these fears are unfounded, prompted by an overactive imagination, too much exposure to media shock stories, or just a sense of overwhelming worry about situations fabricated within their mind.

In 2003 the statistics released from the National Institute of Mental Health indicated that over 19 million Americans between the age of eighteen and fifty-four suffered from more than one anxiety attack per year.

In 2005 that number went up to 25 million. Although anxiety is a normal reaction to the stressors of life, anxiety disorders are on the rise as more people make anxiety a part of their daily life.