Does Self Help for Panic Attacks Make Therapy Unnecessary?

Self help for panic attacks provides a good example of the possible relationship between therapy and self help. The proliferation of self help resources in recent years allows many people the opportunity to learn information previously available only in the office of a mental health professional. This has raised the question of whether or not therapy is even necessary. Research the web, buy a book online, save money. Why shoulder the expense of therapy when self help information is so readily available?

Comparing Therapy with the Process of Self Help

To answer this question, it is necessary to clarify the respective roles of self help and psychotherapy. Good therapy should provides targeted knowledge and information, a process sometimes referred to as psychoeducation. But the face-to-face aspects of therapy support the process of positive change in a way that can’t be obtained from a web page, video or a book.

Self help for panic attacks offers a good illustration of how therapy and self help approaches compare and contrast. There are tools and techniques that can be extracted from information sources. Information and skills can be obtained using audio training and other types of media learning. But there are at least two important challenges that are difficult to meet without live therapy.

Two Feathers in the Hat of Therapy

First, therapy can save time in the process of change by utilizing the unique strengths of a person for maximum benefit. A good therapist is always listening and adjusting the direction of therapy based the personality strengths and needs of the client as well as the details of the situation. In contrast, a set outline of self help for panic attacks uses the same approach for everyone.

Second, the underlying causes of panic are significant in determining how to proceed in therapy.  If a person is anemic and never engages in exercise, then stopping panic attacks may be quite simple. If the anxiety attacks are primarily due to a long-standing depression, then the therapy takes an entirely different direction.  The relationship between past trauma and present anxiety attacks (and depression, for that matter) is often not recognized by the man or woman seeking relief. Self help for panic attacks and self help for depression become  hard-pressed to provide the kind of emotional intelligence to understand subconscious forces giving rise to recurring panic attacks or the signs and symptoms of depression.

Changing the Question

So, is self help for panic attacks worth the effort? It is worth it and here is the main reason: the more that knowledge, skills, and tools can be acquired via self help for panic attacks, then the less these same basic tasks need to take up the more expensive time of therapy sessions. This has the advantage of freeing up more time in therapy for the conversations that cannot be obtained any other way. On the other hand, the benefit might be that fewer therapy sessions are necessary.

Panic Attacks Complicate Efforts to Get Rid of Depression

Fighting the signs and symptoms of depression becomes doubly difficult when a person is suffering from anxiety attacks.   This forcefully raises the question, “How to fight depression?”  Many people find that when they finally admit they are having panic attacks, they are surprised to find just how many people they know have also had them. Panic attacks make you feel crazy and yet they can leave as fast as they come. Many people have one or two panic attacks during a time of stress and then don’t have them again for a long time.  Depression has a particularly symbiotic relationship with self help for panic attacks.

On the other hand, there are many people who struggle with them frequently. One of the problems in coping with them is the way that depression supplies fuel for them. Panic thrives on the feeling of being off balance and depression does a real fine job of making people feel off balance.  Therefore, depression hinders self help for panic attacks.

Self Help for Panic Attacks or Depression:  Which to Tackle First?

One of the problems in overcoming depression in our lives is that it is aided and abetted by anxiety.  Consider the signs and symptoms of depression. Depression depletes our energy, robs us of the enjoyment of simple pleasures (and big ones), and often makes it difficult for people to stay asleep past 3 or 4 am.  Anxiety ramps us up with an adrenaline rush or it gives fake energy caused by low-grade stress response that doesn’t seem to have an off switch.

Furthermore, anxiety often makes it difficult to fall asleep.  Anxiety cuts our sleep short at the beginning of the night and depression cuts it off at the end of the night.  Finally, the steps for how to fight depression get stuck: we find that we are handicapped by these effects precisely at the moment when we need everything going for us.  It works the other way as well:  attempts at self help for panic attacks are deflated by depression

Now here is the kicker:  depression depletes us, makes us feel weak, unsafe, and vulnerable.  In other words, depression creates the precise environment in our emotional landscape that makes anxiety grow like a weed. Similarly, depression undercuts motivation, our follow-through, and getting started with self help for panic attacks.  One of the signs and symptoms of depression is difficulty getting started (for the day or for a task).

How to Fight Depression When Panic Attacks Pierce the Darkness Like a Shrill Car Alarm in Dead of Night

Panic attacks have a way of making us depressed because we begin to grieve the various losses resulting from our fearful avoidance. At the same time, depression in our lives is often aided and abetted by anxiety.

One of the reasons that anxiety attacks and depression make such a good team is that anxiety thrives on our sense of being unsafe, weak, and vulnerable to danger.   The danger can be real or imagined.  It can be tangible or intangible. Now here is the kicker:  depression wears us down, deflates our motivation, makes us feel weak, unsafe, and vulnerable.  In other words, depression creates the precise environment in our emotional landscape that makes anxiety grow like a weed.

The symptoms of anxiety attacks (panic attacks) make us feel vulnerable like no other type of anxiety. Not surprisingly, panic attacks can feed off of the “less than” feelings that depression so generously provides. The signs and symptoms of depression present roadblocks to self help for panic attacks because it drains away precious energy we need to learn new skills. But before we explore this interaction we need to review the symptoms of anxiety attacks.