Panic attacks are extremely disruptive and painful. Repeated attacks of panic can lead to aggravation of anxiety disorders, which would then require long-term medication and therapy. You need to beat it before it snowballs into a bigger problem. Here are a few steps that would help you do so:

As an OCD patient, you are aware that what you are doing is not normal or acceptable; however, you find it impossible to stop or check your compulsive behavior. In most cases, people with OCD find it difficult to make friends or even keep their jobs. It has also been observed that left to itself. Anxiety disorder seems to worsen over time.

For SOS help to counter OCD try using the 5-R approach, which consists of the following four steps:

The best thing to do when you suspect you are suffering from GAD is to rush to your family medical practitioner and seek immediate medical help. Side by side, you could start with some SOS measures that would keep the disorder in check or even regress it:

Anxiety disorder is a recent entrant in medical analogy not because it is new, but because earlier it was confused with agoraphobia or fear of market place (derived from the Greek language). Those suffering from agoraphobia would do anything to avoid being in a crowd.

On the other hand, when you suffer from SAD you lead a normal life on the surface, though you would experience extreme anxiety symptoms every time you would interact with people. Somehow, though you normally tend to brave it out, people would make you nervous and restless.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of positive thinking, positive energy and positive behavior. This is because being positive is the best vaccine against anxiety. It is only when you allow yourself to be overwhelmed by negativity that anxiety is able to get hold of you and harass you. As long as you are successful in keeping negative thoughts at bay, you would be anxiety free.  When you manage to do so, you would be as close as you would ever be to identifying a “cure” for anxiety.

1. Do you often find yourself suffering from ‘butterflies in the stomach’ feeling?
2. Do you find you are afraid of something but do not know what?
3. Do you find that you are startled easy?
4. Do you have dreams where you see yourself falling, missing the train (or bus or whatever vehicle), or climbing high on the edge of something from where you are just about to fall?
5. Do you feel you have to repeat certain activities over and over, or you would incur bad luck?
6. Do you fear going out from your home?
7. Do you find yourself replete with guilt from things you did in the past?
8. Do you experience a total loss of control over your life?
9. Do you feel suicide would be a good option and think about it often?
10. Do you break into sweat thinking of ways that any certain things in your life could go awry, without any reason?

We have seen that stress is at the root of all troubles, particularly in triggering anxiety and depression. The following quiz would help you find out whether stress has become part of your life style yet. Answer the quiz with ‘YES’ or ‘NO’.

Since anxiety attacks silently and stealthily, you need to ensure that you are able to recognize it early and you can assist the medical practitioner in the diagnosis. An early treatment and targeted action to eliminate stress from your life are the best remedies for anxiety.

Here is a quiz that would help you understand better what is going on with you when you are preyed upon by anxiety. All you need to do to find out whether or not you are suffering from anxiety is take these quizzes as truthfully as you can. At the same time, I like to underline here that this is by no means a medically prescribed method for diagnosis. These quizzes are meant to put you on the right track to (i) understand what happens when you suffer from anxiety, and (ii) recognize the symptoms so you could seek medical help at the earliest possible.

The PTSD or the post-traumatic stress disorder is easy to explain - this is a disorder that follows a traumatic incident. Your mind, filled with the horror and terror of the helplessness you felt during that particular incident, would overreact whenever anything triggers (or reminds you) about the scene. For example, a child is sexually abused by someone close in her or his family, but is unable to stop it or tell it to anyone. When this person grows up into an adult, he or she would have panic attacks every time he or she would be reminded of that incident. This could be a smell, a person who looks like the abuser, a particular word, a sound, a certain type of weather, a song and the like.

Stress, which is the main trigger for anxiety attack comes in two categories: (i) physical causes and (ii) environmental causes.

Physical Causes of Anxiety
1. Age - Physical causes for anxiety are those which are triggered by tangible changes in your body. One of the most often quoted factors under this category is middle age. Though more commonly identified with women and menopause, men too experience anxiety symptoms in their mid-to-late 40s. This is because of sudden changes in hormone production which affect the functions of all the systems in the body. Doctors normally prescribe HRT or hormone replacement therapy for women who experience extreme anxiety levels during menopause. For men, the only way out is counseling and symptomatic treatment.