Cure For Anxiety Attacks - Interoceptive Exposure Therapy
Interoceptive exposure is a very specific and well defined technique used to treat anxiety disorder. It is especially effective when used on panic and anxiety disorder conditions. The foundation of this cure for anxiety attacks that is very compatible with the Joe Barry Panic Away program, is that it helps you confront and deal with the bodily symptoms that are associated with an attack. This is often done by hyperventilating or holding your breath for a short duration to induce the bodily symptoms associated with the fear such as increased heart rate and shortness of breath.It is important to know and understand that panic attacks are almost exclusively caused by the fear of having an attack. The panic and anxiety disorder become circular in nature in that there is avoidance of an attack, followed by fear of an attack, which results in having an attack. The more you try to avoid the situations and things that cause an attack, the greater your fear becomes. The more fear you have, the greater the intensity of the attack. The more intense the attack becomes, the more you work to avoid the situation. Thus the circular process begins. Exposure therapy as a cure for anxiety attacks and closely aligned with the panic away book is based on the ability to provoke and expose the feelings around an attack in a controlled environment so that you can work through addressing them and replacing them with a positive cycle.
The key to success of this approach is that you should welcome the situations that result in attacks and do whatever it takes to make them occur. You should not try to avoid, escape or reduce the intensity. Of course you should never induce them when safety might be a concern. This would mean you shouldn’t purposely induce while driving a car or in any other situation where you could become a physical danger to yourself or those around you.One thing that may be helpful when using this unique cure for anxiety attacks is to think of the panic and anxiety as an external enemy that is trying to take over your body and control you. Your goal is to stop that enemy from doing so. When you are successful at doing the thing or going to the place that would normally cause an attack without having one, you have won a battle. This in turn instills confidence that you can win the next one. You then have more courage to take on the next panic attack situation. With this happening you have laid the foundation for curing panic attacks, by replacing the panic cycle with a positive reinforcement cycle. Each time you repeat and win, the positive reinforcement cycle grows stronger and the panic cycle weakens.
A final point you should be aware of is to not use safety behavior when doing this. These are doing things such as relaxation or distraction techniques, avoiding things or places, having anti-anxiety medications with you, or having someone with you that makes you feel safe. It has been shown that this method as a cure for anxiety attacks is reduced by as much as 50% when you use these safety behaviors. You need to confront the full anxiety directly.
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