How to Find the Right Support for Panic Disorders in Recovery
When people struggle with mental health issues, it can feel like a huge burden on top of addiction and recovery. Panic disorders are difficult for people to navigate because they are a form of anxiety, characterized by heightened fear. It has a lot to do with fear of losing control, even if the danger is not anywhere near the person or around them. Physical and emotional reactions can keep the person from being able to function, go outside their home, or even go to work. Learn more about panic disorders and how to find help if you or a loved one struggle with this mental health issue.
Symptoms of Panic Disorders
When a person struggles with panic disorders, they can have symptoms that pop up suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. The biggest challenge is learning how to notice them before they become out of control and seek opportunities to mitigate symptoms. Some of them are physical and others are more emotional in nature. In combination, they can make a person feel like their life may be at risk, when the actual threat may be quite minimal:
- Physical symptoms including sweating, chills, nausea, chest pain, dizziness or other things
- Worrying about past attacks and wondering when the next will happen
- Avoiding any place where panic attacks that happened in the past or where a person thinks it may happen
- Repeated, sudden experiences of fear and anxiety that come out of nowhere or occur in similar locations
The root causes of panic disorder can create challenges for people who do not identify what is underneath the layers of anxiety and fear. Learn more about panic disorders and how to navigate them effectively.
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): feelings of overwhelm, resulting in a panic attack are the first symptoms of GAD. a person may worry about the next panic attack and feel some of the physical aspects as well
- Exaggerated fear: this can include phobias of pretty much anything, including drowning, the dark, spiders, snakes, balloons, clowns, outdoors, anything that makes a person feel panicked
The severity of the panic disorder will vary in intensity each time for some people and will likely not get better just trying to avoid it or not seek help since root causes are usually where a therapist can tackle some hardwired anxieties and fears.
Addiction and Panic Disorders
Dealing with daily symptoms of panic disorders along with addiction recovery can make someone feel like they are under water. Dealing with so much at once can be overwhelming without the right support. The main thing is to find support in a treatment center that focuses on mental health and addiction issues (co-occurring disorder or dual diagnosis) so the approach is holistic. Dual diagnosis treatment will address therapeutically and medically the ongoing issues and provide support for the longer journey of recovery after treatment ends. There is help and hope with the right trained practitioners who understand what a person is dealing with head to toe.
Helping you cope with recovery is our forte but we also realize you have wide and varied needs coming into our program. Our goal is to help set you up for success with dual diagnosis treatment options available as soon as you arrive. Our therapists and trained counselors will support your recovery with detox, treatment, and other options tailored to your needs. Call us to find out more: 866-848-3001.
