You might have heard the stories of therapy for panic attacks. A woman finds out the source of her panic attacks is rooted in her over critical mother and is quickly cured. Or maybe you heard the one about the panic attack suffer who is actually coaxed into experience one by her therapist and all of sudden the panic attacks are powerless. You may find these stories to sound a bit strange and amazing, and you may even be expecting me to tell you that these stories are made up. But that’s not the case. Not only did these stories really happen, but they happen all the time in therapy for panic attacks. The mind is a very strange and amazing thing that we are only beginning to understand, but once you understand more about therapy for panic attacks, you’ll see how it works and how it can even work for you.
The Success of Therapy for Panic Attacks
The fact of the matter is, therapy has been seen to be very effective in treating panic attacks. One example is a study that was performed comparing psychodynamic psychotherapy with a form of relaxation training that was developed specifically for treating panic attacks. The study lasted for twelve weeks in which therapy sessions were given twice a week. In the end, the number of people who were cured of panic attacks from psychodynamic psychotherapy was twice that of the number of people who underwent the relaxation training. Another example of how effective therapy for panic attacks really is takes results from cognitive therapy. Studies have shown that eighty percent of panic attack sufferers who complete cognitive therapy are panic free, and most importantly, remain panic free.
What Are The Different Therapies?
There are two main types of therapy used to treat panic attacks. They are cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Sure they may sound complicated, but the nuts and bolts of how they each work is pretty simple.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy – I admit, the name sounds somewhat intimidating, and you might even be picturing some type of electric shock and brainwashing going on, but it is nothing like that at all. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is more like what you’re familiar seeing on TV. You’ve got your therapist seated on a very comfortable looking chair with your notepad, and you’ve got the patient sitting on another very comfortable looking chair (or possibly laying down) and they’re just talking.
The way it works is the therapist helps the panic attack sufferer really understand themselves and the emotional reason for the panic attack. One example is the case where a therapist discovered and pinpointed the source of a woman’s panic attacks to the relationship she had with her mother. This allowed the woman to directly face and understand what caused her attacks and take control of them.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – Cognitive behavioral therapy is a bit different from psychodynamic psychotherapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on changing the way you think. Panic attacks are very strongly linked with anxious thoughts and fearful thoughts and cognitive therapy is directed at changing the effect of these thoughts, and eventually eliminating them. This is only the cognitive aspect of the therapy and this alone has been shown to be very effective in treating panic attacks.
The second part is the ‘behavioral’ part. This type of therapy for panic attacks is the one where the therapist tries to bring about a panic attack in the safety of her office. By bringing on a panic attack and coaching the patient on how to perceive and deal with the attack the power of the attacks is severely lessened. The process is similar to curing someone who has a phobia of spiders by showing them a stuffed animal of a spider.