Online Cures for Panic Disorder

Having your first panic attack is extremely frightening. If this progresses to recurrent, sometimes even daily panic attacks, the effects can be totally overwhelming. Panic disorder can consume your every waking moment. Your life can feel as though it has been taken over by a constant fear and dread of so many things, but none scarier than that next big panic attack.

We would just like to switch it all off and feel back in control of things but the power of anxiety and fear is all so great. Feeling nervously exhausted, confused and somewhat powerless, you search for the answers. You want to be cured and you want to be cured now! Where do you look and who has the answers to what appears to be the mystery of your suffering?

No, this isn’t a list of online help programs and I will tell you why. When I suffered with panic disorder, I scoured the internet almost daily at times looking for that elusive cure.

There are so many programs on the internet that claim to cure you of your anxiety problems, especially panic attacks. Those who are reading this and already seeking the cure may well know of the programs I talk of.

For those who haven’t yet looked very far, I can tell you that ninety per cent of what you will find will not be free and you will have to pay. It is usually a one off payment but sometimes it may be by installments. I bought four such programs from the internet. One was a download in PDF format and I dutifully printed off about fifty pages of the cure. The others came to me in a package delivered to my door. Only one of them came with the offer of telephone support and that support turned out to be next to useless as I just kept getting told the same thing. You must be doing it wrong! I didn’t mind being told that but I became despondent when I wasn’t told how I was doing it wrong or what to do about it.

The PDF download almost looked like a copy/paste of the usual information on panic disorder that can be found widely on the internet for free. I already knew the facts but I wanted a cure.

The cure turned out to be mainly a diet change, an exercise plan, hobby proposals, the good old paper bag treatment and a special offer to buy another book written by the same person ( probably with much the same information in it). It had looked so convincing on the web page but I had totally wasted my money. Still, that didn’t put me off. There must be a program that works I told myself and I continued to search. Each time I found a new offer of ‘the answer’ I would become optimistic and spend more money. None of the programs I bought worked for me, and I can tell you that all four had common elements within their approach.

• You will learn about the flight or fight response, the biological reasoning behind your symptoms.
• You will learn what you have been doing wrong by way of response.
• You will learn how medication isn’t the answer (that’s not a bad thing).
• You will be given advice on how to handle a panic attack – remember you don’t want to handle a panic attack you want them to go away.
• You will be given various takes on the cognitive behavioral approach which is the norm.

There is no point in me listing the programs that I bought because frankly, I feel you would be wasting your money. Now and again I have read positive testimonials about a couple of the more expensive programs and yes I have been tempted but decided to stop buying into programs altogether. Be wary of those that have offers or discounts. Why are they being offered at a lower price?

Anxiety problems and panic attacks are big business these days and those wanting to earn a quick buck in this area are flocking to the internet. It’s impersonal and you could get cheated out of your money with no fantastic results. If you look on eBay you will find a mass of claims there also in PDF and CD format.

Be wary also of natural remedy claims. Most of these natural remedies will not be backed up by any scientific evidence. Here too there is a growing market which claims to cure or treat anxiety disorders and quell panic attacks. The first natural remedy / cure claim I looked at today on the first page of a Google search result yielded this:

Cure Your Anxiety and be Free Again Now!

Believe me, if this was the cure it would be common knowledge by now and available to everyone everywhere. I am not saying there is any harm with taking vitamin supplements because our overworked nervous state can cause depletion in this area. I took a B-Complex vitamin regularly and although marginal I believe it was of some use. Chamomile tea for example does relax one a little, though you shouldn’t really have any more then 2 or 3 cups a day.

I am talking mainly about concoctions here; potions with cure claims. St John’s Wort is heavily advertised as being a soother of anxiety, but the warnings not to take it alongside SSRI antidepressants are often lacking. It might be wise to check with your doctor when thinking of taking natural products because they may interact negatively with any other prescription medications you are taking. You may also have a chronic physical condition that may be made worse by taking "natural" products.

Panic disorder can be cured in as much as it can go away. Whether by legitimate therapy or self –help, your panic attacks can stop. You may well be left with a residual anxious state however and need to address your general anxiety levels thereafter.

Your heightened anxiety can be cured because it can be addressed and controlled to an extent whereby it becomes a normal level of anxiety that is rational. Chronic anxiety is usually at the root of panic disorder but we all need some anxiety.; some anxiety is healthy. The word ‘cure’ basically means to recover from disease or restore health. Yes, this is certainly true of panic disorder. You can recover and health can be restored. Will you relapse? It is possible. I didn’t say probable but it is possible. You are more likely to relapse if you have no mental tools at the ready to deal with a possible future panic attack that can lead to panic disorder.

Anyone is open to have a panic attack at any time in their lives so it would be folly to say that you will never have another panic attack. Some of you will wonder how or why you ever got that first panic attack that then led to your panic disorder, so how could you possibly know that you would never have one again. You don’t, but you do know if you are confident enough to deal with it appropriately and so avert panic disorder developing. That, in my mind, is where the true cure lies.

Desperate anxiety sufferers will be very tempted to try anything, and sometimes at any cost. Instead of wasting a lot of money on online so-called "cures", look out for forums where people can be seen to be recovering. Support can be very important during the process of recovery, and many online offers don't give you this.

Find out if the person offering the "cure" has had panic disorder themselves, because it is easy to take a bit of information from various places on the internet, write an eBook and sell it online. You need to know that if you don't understand some of the advice there is someone to write to or call.

Self-help books can offer the majority of the information that you will actually find being sold on the internet, so look out for good self-help books on places like Ebay or from marketplace sellers on Amazon.