Decent L.A. Times article about panic and anxiety.

A recent article in the L.A. Times provides a pretty good overview of causes of and treatments for anxiety disorders. A sample:

Though the best course of treatment for an anxiety disorder remains trial and error for now, doctors and patients aren't entirely in the dark. Some predictors point to whether therapy, medication or both will likely work best for a patient.

As a general rule, the milder the anxiety is, the better patients tend to respond to psychotherapy.

People who are more insightful and committed tend to respond better to therapy... They must be able to determine why they feel a certain way and to talk about it, and since treatment is very interactive and can be tedious, they have to be motivated to do the work.

Access, of course, is another factor in the probable treatment course: A lot of people see a primary care provider, get medication and never see a therapist. Medication is a lot cheaper than therapy, which is not always covered by insurance.

Artwork by Malin Lind.

Live-tweeting a panic attack.

This is a piece by Summer Beretsky on PsychCentral, documenting a panic attack, as it happens, at a pharmacy.

My experience is that any kind of interaction with others can help you get through a panic attack. With someone behind the counter in a store, for example, or with a friend on the phone. It takes you outside yourself, keeps you occupied with something other what's going on inside. So it makes sense that tweeting can help, too:

Something about texting or tweeting when I panic makes me feel safer. I suppose my logic is this: if I truly find myself in a worst-case scenario situation, like passed out in an aisle at Target, at least someone will have received a text or tweet from me announcing my less-than-well feeling. Prior to hitting the floor, that is. And someone who loves me or cares about me will have a lead when I don't come home at 8 pm as promised.

Call it a safety behavior. Because it is.

But for now, it helps me to stay in the store. It helps me to stay in the midst of what I erroneously perceive as a dangerous situation. It helps me to not run away from my fears.

And, it helps me to track my cognitions. A big part of panic and agoraphobia, of course, is driven by our thoughts. And tracking those thoughts mid-panic elucidates my underlying fears. It captures fear from the moment of panic itself and not what I later perceive the fear to be.

A nice look inside panic and how it can be managed.