A Panic Attack is an extreme stage of fear that happens for no perceptible reason and is illustrated by the following symptoms, though you only need to experience four of them to categorize your situations as a panic attack:

The symptoms are shortness of breath or smothering sensation; dizziness, unsteady feelings or faintness; accelerated heart rate; trembling or Shacking; numbness or tingling sensations in fingers, toes or lips; chest pain; flushes or chills; fear of going crazy; fear of becoming seriously ill; sweating; choking and nausea.

Feelings of unreality are part of a Panic Attack 

If you experience an attack with fewer than four of the above symptoms is called a limited symptom attack. Panic attacks have different time frames; they can build gradually over a period of several minutes or hours or strike very suddenly. While they can last from a few minutes to several days, most usually don’t last more than half an hour.

When anxiety or panic is felt regardless of where one is, it is called spontaneous anxiety or spontaneous panic, depending upon the degree of intensity. If the anxiety or panic occurs only in a particular situation, it is called situational or phobic anxiety or panic. If anxiety or panic is triggered by simply thinking of a particular situation, then this is called anticipatory anxiety or anticipatory panic.

People with anxiety-related problems often feel that they are alone and are the only ones that suffer form this problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to the National Institute of Mental Health anxiety disorders are the most common mental-health problems in the United States. During any given six months, about 9% or 16 million people in the country will suffer from any of the known anxiety-related problems. Also, during the path of their lives, anxiety-related problems will affect about 14.6% or 26 million people. In line with this statistics, it is very obvious that anxiety problems are not unusual but quite common in the US.

For the past 10 years, I have been helping more number of anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, PTSD and OCD sufferers to eradicate their illness permanently. Yes, I did say permanently, because, contrary to popular belief, they can be eliminated 100%!

Facts about Anxiety Disorders

So how do I cure mental illnesses like anxiety disorders? Well firstly, they are not mental illnesses, they are behavioural conditions which are stored as memory, habit and instinct in an organ called the Amygdala, seated inside the subconscious brain; and, secondly, I don’t like the term disorder, it implies illness and inappropriate anxiety isn’t an illness, it’s inappropriate anxiety!

Psychologists and doctors are wrong! Anxiety doesn’t require drug treatment, in fact it’s counter-productive; neither does it require counseling or psychological analysis. So what is needed? It’s simple, the Amygdala which is confirmed by the National Institute of mental Health as the cause of anxiety disorders, stores the anxious response as memory, instinctual memory which reacts independently of ‘conscious’ control. You just can’t control it by thinking about it! So, when this organ becomes ‘re-set’ at a higher than normal benchmark level of anxiety due to stress, work pressure, bereavement, or whatever, the subconscious continues to fire anxious signals out from it even though YOU know ‘consciously’ that it is wrong.

By dejection this reaction and replacing that subconscious anxious reaction with a more appropriate reaction, the Amygdala can be‘re-set’ to a completely appropriate ‘normal’ anxiety level… This reduces the inappropriate anxiety completely and restores the patient back to normal condition, free from anxiety, panics, phobias and signs and symptoms.

Have you affected from a panic attack? Then you’re probably very popular with the symptoms – sweaty palms, mental confusion, and an overly high heart rate. There are other possible signs as well, but these are the most common. It’s important to recognize that these symptoms identify a panic attack, so that a proper diagnosis can be achieved. It also means that the sufferer can identify what’s going on as early as possible, so that measure can be taken to try and avert the panic attack. Lack of knowledge can exacerbate the severity and duration of a panic attack.

It may sound a little silly, but the most common symptom of a panic attack is simply that – panic.

It’s often highly intense, and can be triggered by even the small provocation. Issues arising in the family, at work, or problems with money, can all trigger a panic attack. The sufferer may start to shake or cry, break into a cold sweat, or almost instantly develop a pounding headache. People who experience severe panic attacks on a regular basis will sometimes even go so far as to exclude themselves from society, afraid that if they go out in public they might suffer another panic attack, with the result that others will laugh at them.

Many sufferers also turn to drugs or alcohol on a regular basis. Unfortunately, this reliance of the numbing effects of alcohol and particular types of drugs is of concern, as it can point to a severe underlying issue. Sufferers who try to prevent or reduce panic attacks by heavy drinking or drug use are often trying to suppress emotions and feelings that they don’t wish to express. This can have serious implications for their health, but the person suffering from panic attacks may consider this preferable to having another panic attack.

Another symptom often exhibited in conjunction with panic attacks is an intense level of social anxiety. The individual may be reluctant to meet other people and talk with them, and will avoid any type of social gathering. Unfortunately many people who react in this anti-social way also exhibit other symptoms like dry mouth, stammering, or difficulty talking. This results in others labeling them as very shy or introverted, which garners little sympathy from their peers. Some may even dismiss them as mentally ill. All this does is exacerbate the problem, leading sufferers to believe that their fear of social interaction is correct, and that others don’t care about their mental well being.

Many sufferers also exhibit symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and the two often go together. The individual will be consumed by a limited number of thoughts, and will think the same thoughts over and over again in an endless loop, growing more obsessed and distressed by what them. This obsessiveness can lead to a principle that things have to be done a certain way, or something dreadful will result. So someone feels they have to wash their hands 4 times after going to the bathroom. This in itself is challenging, but if the conditions aren’t satisfied, definitely the result will be panic attack.

Anxiety is a general mental illness in America, with nearly 20 percentage of the youth population affected. Woman are twice as likely to experience life disrupting general anxiety disorder, GAD, and specific phobias than men are, however the numbers for those suffering with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are equal for the sexes.

It is interesting to note that approximately 1/3 of all adult sufferers of anxiety disorders had experienced some symptoms when they were children. Women also hold the dubious honor of being far more likely to experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and twice as likely to suffer with Panic Disorders. In these studies it is noted that childhood sexual abuse is often a precursor for PTSD, and regardless of the age of the attack, rape will trigger PTSD in 65% of the men and almost 46% of the woman who experienced it.

We all face anxiety producing events in our daily lives,

Beginning when we were an infant and we realized our mother had left the room. From that day on the stress in our lives continues to be experienced, overcome, and the knowledge of our successes helps us move on to the next challenge.

The child goes to school for the first day and both the parents and the child are anxious. The first sleepover, away camp, learning to drive, and going away to college are all important milestones that can cause normal anxiety in the parties involved, even though there may well be an undercurrent of excitement, also.

For adults, the list for potentially stressful situations is virtually endless. Losing a job, serious debt, awaiting medical test results, the imminent death of a loved one are just a few. All of these and more are legitimate causes for anxiety. It is only when the anxiety becomes the defining factor in a person’s life, dictating their every move in some cases, that it is time to seek professional help. If the fears are no longer based in logic, if the affected person’s daily life is seriously diminished, and if no amount of reassurance will ease their fears, it is time to obtain an evaluation from a mental health professional.

There should be no stigma associated with seeking help with for mental health concerns. It is no different than hypertension or diabetes, in that, left untreated will severely impact the suffering person’s ability to interact with their family, friends and co workers, and possibly escalate to where the affected person is unable to even leave their home.

When basic daily functioning is impacted by the anxiety disorder, and the ability to enjoy life is disrupted, a family member may need to seek advice on how to best encourage their loved one to obtain necessary help. The need for this intervention is a vital one. An anxiety disorder left untreated can easily escalate to include other mental health concerns, including depression and suicidal thoughts.
As miserable as this may all sound, help is readily available, and cost or lack of insurance does not need to be an issue. Resources for help are as close as the telephone directory or the computer, and many state and county mental health dispensary accept sliding payments depends upon the ability to pay.

Have you ever get worried out at the thought of clearing clutter from your home? Is clutter making you nervous or anxious?

Are you reluctant to prevent clutter?

You look around and see nothing but clutter that never seems to go away. You clean but it doesn’t seem to make much difference – not for long, anyway. What’s wrong? How can you fix it?

Well, I know exactly what you mean, although those of you with large families with have that many more people making your cleaning stress and anxiety worse.

Over the past 5-6 years, my house has become extremely cluttered. I’ve been busy with my online business which, in itself, causes clutter believe it or not. And here I thought that working electronically would eliminate all that paperwork – Not.

One day, I turned around from my computer and wondered where the heck all that mess came from. It was closing in on me with alarming speed. I can’t remember the last time I sat on my couch or ate dinner at the dining room table.

That’s when I made a decision to sort and clear the clutter. To my surprise, it wasn’t nearly as easy as I had expected. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, though, because I do tend to under-estimate how much work and how long it will take to do things.

After spending several days clearing clutter from one of my spare rooms, I got back to work at my computer to give myself a brief reprieve from cleaning. I needed a break from clutter clearing stress.

A day or so later, I realized that my living room was even more cluttered than it had been when I started my cleaning crusade.

Again I got to work clearing the clutter. I shuffled, sorted, threw out some stuff, actually put away a few items where they belonged, and managed to clear off my dining room table.

The next time I went into the spare room I’d cleared earlier, I was shocked to see how cluttered it had become when I wasn’t even using it. That’s when I made a startling revelation.

I hadn’t really cleared the clutter. I’d redistributed it. What had been in the spare room initially had traveled to my living room and back again. In fact, it probably made its way into several other rooms as well during the process. Instead of finding homes for everything I touched, I put it in another room fully intending to “find a home for it later”.

You see, when I’m on a clutter clearing campaign, I can’t be distracted. I don’t even stop to eat or have a drink. I forge ahead until I reach the bottom of the pile. Stopping to find permanent homes for everything is stressful. It means having to take a moment to think about each item, run it through my emotions to see if I really feel anything for the item, decide where it makes sense to store it, and then create the facility to store it, whether it’s a canister, a cupboard or a file folder.

Yes. For some strange reason, that exercise of thinking, sense testing and decision-making stresses me out. Funny, huh?

Decision making is stressful. Doing it repeatedly throughout the clutter clearing process makes cleaning even more stressful. So, to alleviate (or should I say avoid) the stress, I move things around.

Apparently, I’m not alone in this methodology. A long time ago, I was watching a TV show about how to clear and get rid of clutter. The host pointed out that people pick up an item a certain number of times before they actually do something with it. I think it was 7 times. This is the basis of my thinking, I guess. Items won’t get a permanent home until I’ve moved them 7 times.

I can tell you right now that my moves far exceed the norm. I’ve come across things I was sure I’d tossed out or filed. Yet there they are, making their way back into the spare room.

The solution to this form of cleaning madness is to take each item and make a definite plan for it’s destination. Rather than putting it down elsewhere, make that final decision once and for all. Don’t delay making that decision because to do so will only add to the stress of cleaning.

Are you ready to clear up your clutter?

Here’s what you need to do.

Rule number one is partly taken from a great tip a military friend of mine gave me. Anything you haven’t used in two years is probably garbage. Toss it or put it in a yard sale.

In preparation, take a box and mark it “yard sale”. For each item you’ve decided to sell, put it in there right away. Don’t put it on another table or in a corner of the room to put in the box later. You and I both know that you’ll likely change your mind and you’ll have an item that still hasn’t been taken care of. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve put stuff in the ‘yard sale’ box, only to soften my determination and bring them back inside. So the follow up rule is to have a yard sale as soon as possible, so you can’t change your mind.

For all your other clutter, you need to go through each item and be harsh in your decision. Do you really need it? If so, for what? And when might you use it again. Is it strictly a piece of nostalgia or is it of true value?

Here’s an example.

I just finished cleaning out 3 boxes that held my portfolios from all my work as a reporter. I’d collected every article I wrote, including some very poor quality ones. I had duplicates of articles. I had duplicate copies of the actual newspapers “just in case” – in case of what, I don’t know.

I had extremely poor quality photos I’d taken during my early years, some black and white darkroom experiments that didn’t work. There were also some old photos I’d taken for certain projects I ran while I worked at the Canadian Mental Health Association. These weren’t photos I cared to keep, so why was I hanging on to them?
Nostalgia. Just like the multiple copies of newspapers. I wanted the entire issues so I could have the overall experience of having been published. Well, getting published is no longer that important to me. The thrill went long ago.

Ruthless and determined, I went through each box, tossed out an entire recycling box worth of old articles, papers, brochures, letterhead, graphic designs, magazines and newspapers that were no longer important.

I no longer run a freelance business, so all those promotion kits are garbage. What do I need them for? To fill my closets, never to be seen again? No.

You have to be equally ruthless in your clutter clearing efforts. Be very selective of which items you keep and then find a permanent home for them. If you are reluctant to toss a favorite t-shirt or infant outfit, you could cut out the t-shirt image/graphic or logo, or part of the infant outfit, and frame it neatly and hang it on the wall. Then, you can truly enjoy them for eternityh, rather than having them stored out of sight.

Create file folders for all your paperwork and store them in one of those cardboard file drawers or in a cardboard box.

By the way, if you want a great box for files, drop by your local print shop and ask them for any empty paper boxes they might have. Those are the cartons that hold packages of paper. They make great file boxes because they are sturdy, they are the exact size you need, and they have a lid. They’re much cheaper (free, in fact) than buying “proper” file boxes from the local stationery shop.

Clean out your drawers and allot one drawer per ‘topic’. My stuff generally finds itself in the handiest or emptiest drawer. This has created drawers with mixed content, which makes it that much more difficult to find homes for things.

A friend of mine used to have a ‘gopher’ drawer – one drawer where she dumped everything. That’s where you looked when you had to go-for something, especially items that are one-of-a-kind and don’t justify their own space. These are just some of the ways to prevent from clutter, pass through the clutter clearing stress and bring the clutter free smooth life.