Recognise the Symptoms of Stress & Anxiety Attacks
Stress is an integral part of our lives. It heightens our awareness, sharpens our focus, and enables us to stay alert and focused. Stress helps motivate us into action and helps to maintain a healthy balance of hormones and chemicals in the brain. However, abnormally high amounts of stress can result in anxiety attacks.
Anxiety can go unnoticed. It is easy to confuse anxiety and daily healthy stress. Prolonged anxiety and anxiety attacks should be recognized and treated aggressively. Anxiety attacks when left untreated can quickly become out of control and all consuming.
Recognizing indicators for an anxiety attack is an important first step to treatment. Though everyone reacts to stress differently some common indicators of unhealthy anxiety include difficulty concentrating, racing or uncontrollable thoughts, memory lapses, feelings of In order to recognize the indicators for an anxiety attack, you have to understand the symptoms of stress first. Each person experiences stress differently, but some of the general symptoms of stress include problems with memory, confusion, difficulty in concentrating and racing thoughts.
Physical symptoms often accompany anxiety attacks. During an anxiety attack you might experience trembling, shaking, stomach aches, hot or cold flashes, noticeably increased heart rhythm, nausea, or shortness of breath. These symptoms can be very upsetting and can interrupt normal daily activities.
During the height of an anxiety attack the physical symptoms can be so overwhelming that that they are upsetting. People often report feeling “out of control” of their body or as if they are “dying.” The first time a person experiences an anxiety attack they are unlikely to identify the symptoms of those of anxiety and are more likely to feel that they are experience a heart attack, stroke, or serious medical emergency.
Often it is someone else who notices the symptoms of an anxiety attack. Once an anxiety attacks are suspected immediate medical attention should be sought. Anxiety attacks have similar symptoms to more serious, life threatening medical conditions.
A physical will rule out other medical conditions through a combination of reviewing your medical history and, depending on the symptoms you present, additional testing like heart rhythm and stress testing. Once it has be determined that anxiety is the main culprit contributing to symptoms a medication may be prescribed to help relieve some of the symptoms associated with anxiety attacks and lessen the occurrence of anxiety attacks. Anti-anxiety medications often require time to build up in the bloodstream. This can take as little as two weeks or as much as two months. During this time your physical will most likely encourage you to visit a counselor to discuss possible anxiety reduction techniques.
Counselors are individuals specially trained to help patients explore the motivations behind their feelings. This includes determining what factors contribute to stress and how to eliminate or reduce stress. A counselor will listen to a patient’s medical and biographical history to determine what influences are contributing to the overabundance of stress in their lives. Once these stressors are identified the counselor will create a treatment plan and teach the patient to manage their stress through the use of stress reduction techniques. The success of this treatment plans depends solely on the patient’s commitment to follow through with the suggestions outlined in it.
Take time to do some research on stress management techniques. There are many websites devoted to illustrating these techniques, even my weekly newsletter for example! From deep breathing, meditation, yoga, and exercise to changes in daily routines and rituals there are a multitude of techniques that can be experimented with.
Normal amounts of stress are vital for keeping the body and mind healthy, but persistent unmanageable stress is not beneficial. You do not have to settle for overwhelming physical and emotional symptoms of stress and anxiety. Take the necessary steps to reduce or alleviate excess stress and anxiety in your life before your anxiety interferes with your daily activities. Learning to combat stress is a valuable tool for maintaining and improving your physical and mental health.
For more great information on beating stress and anxiety, make sure you sign up for my free report ‘Self-Care Boot Camp’ by joining my weekly newsletter at the top of this page!
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