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.
