There are many drugs for anxiety attacks available these days. These medications definitely help many people. If you have anxiety attacks, they may be part of your treatment.
To begin I want to be up-front about my beliefs. I believe these drugs are only part of the answer to be used for a limited time to help while more permanent therapies have a chance to work.
Fortunately with a combined approach, almost everyone can free themselves from the suffering of anxiety attacks.
Commonly, a therapist will usually prescribe a drug for these problems that is likely to be one of two classes: sedatives or antidepressants.
Most of the sedatives prescribed are derived from Valium. The various drugs differ in onset of action and how long their effects last.
Different drugs work best for different people. Everyone reacts differently to a given medication. A therapy that works great for one person may not work at all for another.
sedatives have a rapid onset, so they are useful in “taking the edge off” if a person is going into a situation that they have had problems before.
The other major class of drugs is an antidepressant. The frequently used antidepressants are serotonin uptake inhibitors.
Serotonin is a compound in the brain that’s part of the way one nerve cell (neuron) communicates with another.
Decreased serotonin levels are associated with depression and anxiety. Serotonin uptake inhibitors raise the levels by slowing the reabsorption of the chemical after it has been released.
The drug in this class that most people have heard of is Prozac. There are lots more. Each has its own characteristics of effects and side effects.
Often finding the medication that works the best is a matter of trial and error.
One thing swrotonin uptake inhibitors have in common is that they don’t work immediately. Usually, it takes at least one or two weeks to see a benefit.
Obviously with that type of time frame, these aren’t drugs to take only when you feel an attack coming on.
There are some other types of used, but they aren’t used often.These other drugs either cause more side effects than the ones I’ve mentioned here or they carry greater risks.
Even though the types of medicatons I talked about above usually don’t cause problems, you still should find out about the side effects of antidepressants used to treat panic disorders.Follow that link for more information.
Again, remember that it is best practice to use medication as part of an over all treatment plan using other forms of therapy. Drugs can be useful, but they aren’t the whole answet.
One issue that can come up is what amounts to a psychological dependence.
As I’ve mentioned, a person will use other forms of psychotherapy as well as the medications. As they get better, they may tend to attribute all of their progress to the medication and not the other treatment they have been using.
This can make them resist stopping the medication since they think it’s the only reason they got better.
A skilled therapist helps work through this.
Even before you start taking the medication, talk with your therapist about how long you’ll be on it and how you’ll come off it.
Use drugs to treat panic attacks prudently and you can reap their benefits while avoiding their problems.
Find out more about anxiety attacks and what you can do about them at Panic Attack Release.
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