THE PANIC/AGORAPHOBIA PROGRAM Goal:
To overcome the vicious cycle of panic, anxiety, avoidance, fear, and
depression.
1. First, we cut off the panic
attacks by giving people the control they need to stop them. We use a combination of
proven methods, techniques, and strategies that help develop the feeling of
being in control
that it takes to stop the
panic attacks. We use cognitive-behavioral therapy, which research
indicates is the most effective and fastest way to overcome panic, with or without
agoraphobia. The therapy requires the persons’ active cooperation.
2. Then, we work on the anxiety that
causes the physical symptoms that go along with panic. The physical symptoms differ from
individual to individual (e.g., heavy, uncomfortable chest; nausea; choking sensation;
dizziness; heart palpitations, breathing, etc.) It is essential that even though
people can prevent themselves from going into an attack, that they learn to deal with
these symptoms and are able to eradicate them.
When people have
enough control to stop the panic attack itself, but continue to have one or two nagging,
negative physical symptoms, then two things can happen if this is left untreated: (1) at some later point in life, as a result of a stressful
trigger, the panic attacks recycle and come back again with its original force, or (2) the
"panic" gradually evolves into a syndrome that closely matches the clinical
definition of generalized anxiety disorder. It is imperative that the person with panic
follows through with CBT past the point that their panic attacks are cut off.
THE SYMPTOMS MUST GO, TOO.
I have seen too many of us whose lives
no longer exhibit "attacks" but now have a fairly constant level of anxiety most
all of the time. This situation (having generalized anxiety disorder or GAD) is
not an
improvement over panic and agoraphobia. It is simply trading one anxiety disorder for
another. DON'T DO IT.
Stick with your CBT until all the physical symptoms are
gone and eventually you can test them out with your CBT therapist successfully.
Be persistent -- do not give up too early. Remember, CBT is a
relatively short-term therapy -- don't try to shorten it down so much that you risk
recycling panic or developing GAD. It is vitally important in the panic/agoraphobia area
that all the therapy becomes "overlearned". If it is overlearned (technically,
becomes a conditioned habit in your emotional brain), then panic cannot recycle or
redirect toward GAD.
Overlearn, overlearn, overlearn.....don't stop until you're sick and
exhausted from the repetition of the therapy......!
3. We make sure the cognitive-behavioral
therapy is "overlearned" and thus, is literally "conditioned"
into the brain so that the control over the panic and anxiety cycle becomes automatic,
like a habit. This step is essential
because panic has a tendency to recycle or come back later in life if it is
not permanently stopped.
Success Rate:
Researchers are reporting a very high success rate using cognitive-behavioral methods. We
are experiencing similar rates of success for people who complete the panic/agoraphobic
program.
What is our
mission?
The anxiety problems are not taken
seriously by many people within and without the professional fields. For example, it is
quite common for people with panic to have spent years and years and thousands of dollars
in pursuit of an answer to these painful, very real, traumatic attacks. Our distinct
specialty is to work with people with anxiety disorders. Our psychologists and staff
members have suffered with anxiety disorders and know what it’s like to experience
these life-restricting problems themselves When you come to the
Anxiety Disorders Clinic, you don’t have to worry that your therapist will understand
what you’re saying. We do understand the severity and pain of these conditions
and therefore we use the latest research strategies to help you grow less and less anxious
and more and more in control of your own life.
Potential
Problems
Some people with panic tend to drop out
of the program when their panic attacks have stopped and they feel they have control over
them. This is a big mistake because stopping the panic
attacks alone is never enough. The anxiety and thought
processes that accompany panic must also be reconditioned into the brain and made
permanent and automatic. The danger is that panic recycles or tends to reoccur throughout
the lifetime. Unless CBT is completed so that we can prevent panic from recycling, we
do not consider a person’s panic and anxiety successfully treated, despite the
temporary improvement.
Cognitive-Behavioral
Therapy for Anxiety
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an
active
therapy. We work on methods, strategies, and techniques that gradually reduce and
eliminate panic and anxiety. Each method is practiced at home when the person feels
relatively OK, and is always stress-free, peaceful, and positive. The therapy takes about
thirty minutes of practice per day. The key to success is
persistence.
People that seriously practice these techniques and methods each and every day make very
nice and quick progress.
Number of
sessions: Cognitive-behavioral therapy for panic is a short-term therapy. We consider
twelve (12) to eighteen (18) sessions to be about average for panic without
agoraphobia. Because each person is individual, however, this number is not written in
stone. People who have had longstanding panic over a period of decades typically
need extra sessions.
To be successful, we need to develop that physiological
change in the brain so that the new thoughts and feelings you learn become permanent and
automatic. People who actively participate in the therapy, and are determined to
"overlearn" the strategies, move along more quickly and experience stronger
results.
Groups: To reinforce the therapy and to meet other people who are
overcoming panic and agoraphobia, many people who finish individual therapy choose to
participate in the panic therapy group. We do not mix
groups of people with different anxiety problems. That is, everyone in your group will
also be someone who has lived with panic-anxiety and is in the process of overcoming it.
For panic, a group is not absolutely essential, but does serve as a powerful adjunct to
therapy. Participants usually feel strengthened and more confident as a result of meeting
with similar others and sharing solutions that they have found.
-- Thomas A. Richards,
Ph.D., Psychologist
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