No Anxiety over an Anxiety Attack: What to Do When Someone Gets Hysterical

Although hysterical may be too strong a word for mild cases of anxiety attack, it’s still the best word to use to conjure the proper images in one’s mind. When a person has an anxiety attack, he will most probably become hysterical and act abnormally. When that happens, what’s there for you to do?

The Root of the Problem: Anxiety Defined

Feeling anxious is a normal response that all of us have experienced at certain points in our lives. When we feel threatened or troubled, it’s natural for us to become anxious.

Sometimes, anxiety will give us the strength to overcome challenges. Other times, it’s simply a nuisance that will inevitably leave us when the crisis is over. If, however, feelings of anxiety do not abate at the expected time or persist in emerging even in unreasonable circumstances, that’s the time anxiety becomes a medical problem.

Uncommonly Anxious: Having Anxiety Disorder

It’s quite ironic that while anxiety disorder can be explained as the act of being uncommonly anxious, it is also in fact the most common form of mental disorder in the United States. An estimate number of 40 million adults have trouble with this disorder every year.

You are suffering from anxiety disorder if the feelings of anxiety you’re experiencing show the following signs:

-your anxiety is preventing you from doing other things that are parts of your normal daily routine
-your anxiety doesn’t leave you, even if trouble has been averted
-your anxiety has caused you to withdraw yourself from other people’s company

The Next Stage of Anxiety: Having an Anxiety Attack

It’s important to ascertain that someone is truly having an anxiety attack before attempting to give him any treatment or cure to relieve him from his suffering. To correctly identify whether a person is suffering from an anxiety attack or not, watch out for the following symptoms:

Physical: inability to breathe, having an escalating heartbeat, a persistent ache in the chest area, an inclination to shake or tremble excessively, faint, or vomit

Psychological: excessive fear of losing control, feeling that you’re succumbing to insanity, restlessness, increased irritability, inability to focus, having a strong desire to leave, escape, or eliminate something

Determining the Cause of Anxiety

Once you’ve correctly identified that someone is truly suffering from an anxiety attack, the next thing to do is determine the cause of anxiety. Learning the reason behind a person’s anxiety will clue you in on how to effectively treat the disorder and at least temporarily relieve him from his anxiety.

Background – Something in his past or present could be why he’s prone to having anxiety attacks. The neighborhood he has grown up in, the type of family he has, the atmosphere at home or school, and other similar factors should all be considered.

Behavior – Sometimes, people are simply born with an excessive tendency to worry. This, of course, is a psychological problem and must be treated effectively.

Physiological – At times, the fault lies within and there could be a medical problem that’s causing a person to act irrationally. Genetics may also play a role as experts believe that anxiety attacks could be inherited as well.

Diet and Drugs – Certain drugs, when taken beyond the moderate and advised amount, can cause people to have anxiety attacks. Too much caffeine in one’s system could also lead to anxiety disorder.

If you’ve already eliminated everything that there is to eliminate and yet, anxiety attacks continue to affect the individual, you should seriously consider placing him under therapy.