Is Panic Ruining Your Work History?

Anxiety attacks and panic attacks can cause a great deal of problems in our daily lives. When one gets panic attacks frequently, it often invades their work lives and ruins a good work record. How exactly does this happen? Well to understand this, you have to first understand how panic and anxiety works.

A Panic attack is a normal body response to danger - quickened pulse and heartbeat, shortness of breath, tingling hands and fingers, trembling, and a heightened sense of danger. These are all normal body reactions to fear, and are designed to make us more ready to "combat" the danger. The problem with panic is that the attacks come on without any logical reason apparent to the sufferer. Many people will have panic attacks and have no idea why. This can then perpetuate itself, leading to constant panicky feelings.

Once a person is having panic attacks, they are likely to continue with them for a long period of time. The reason is because the sufferer will then worry about having another one. This, ironically will sometimes bring another one on. Then the cycle is in full swing.

Because the panic is so powerful, and scary, the sufferer will often have to miss work or leave work early. The fear can be so strong that they have no real choice in the matter mentally. Some say this fear is as bad as any on Earth. Dangerous options to self medicate are out there as well, and can lead someone to turn to drugs or alcohol in an attempt to evade the horrible feelings. All of these things can then contribute to a poor work record, forcing the sufferer to lose their job. Then they go out and get another job, only to run into the same problems again. This cycle is common among anxiety disorder patients.

The best way to break this cycle is to get some treatment for the core problem. For this particular problem, exposure therapy can be a powerful tool. This is when the person pushes past the fear and faces the panic. This can be done effectively through a therapist, and role playing. Usually if a panic attack sufferer can push past the fear, they then see that they are afraid for nothing. This can be highly beneficial to the anxiety patient.

This, like all treatments should be done only under the watchful eye of a trained therapist or doctor. Do not try it alone.