Panic Attack Medications – Do You Need Them?

Prescription medications are a common treatment in dealing with panic attacks. Panic attack medications of course are not the ultimate cure for psychological disorders and many patients find alternative methods to successfully treat them. But because they do offer symptom control and for convenience sake, people do depend on them.

The real question is can people who suffer from panic attacks live a normal life without the use of prescription medications? Sure! Especially those who completely believe in their own mental capacity to overcome this problem and are determined not to rely on popping pills for treatment. It’s unfortunate for those who routinely turn to prescriptions and over-the-counter medications in that their anxiety and panic attacks rarely ever cease.

Physicians will often times prescribe antidepressants and valium as a curative measure for mental disorders. Now you’ve got a patient suffering from panic attacks dependant on pharmaceutical intervention in addition to medication addiction itself. Something just doesn’t sound right in medicating one complaint and causing another. All too common, patients deal with medication addictions all the time when they were really only trying to treat a single symptom or illness.

As if that weren’t enough, prescription medications come with a long line of potential side effects. Particular to medications used for panic attacks the most common of these are decreased reflexes, lightheaded and dizziness, fatigue, nausea, confusion and impaired judgment, loss of memory, reduced brain function, slurred and unintelligible speech, as well as depression. In addition, all prescription medications react with each other in different ways. Some medications the patient may already be on for chronic disease could interfere with treatment and exacerbate side effects from either drug.

Another serious issue when dealing with prescription medications for panic attacks are possible paradoxical effects. One could experience severe irritability or anxiety-related complaints at the lower end, and mania, hallucinations and aggressive reactions on the higher end.

And finally, panic attack medications don’t come cheap. As if you didn’t have enough to worry about, now you’ve got hundreds going down the drain each month to medicate yourself.

Even in light of all the negativity surrounding the use of panic attack medications, they do have their benefits. They cannot be completely ruled out as ineffective and useless. Their creation was simply for symptom control, not a cure. And if they are controlling the symptoms, perhaps there is enough room for the patient to achieve mental health by other means.

There are a wide variety of methods for curing panic attacks aside from prescription medication dependence. Behavioral therapies and cognitive approaches have a great success rate, and are far better for you than lab created, chemically enhanced medications. Keep in mind though, even with the best therapeutic approach, a patient has to have a determined mindset to overcome and a will to fight for freedom of panic attacks or the efforts most likely will be worthless. Medical professionals agree, the patient is ultimately the one in control of the panic attacks, and thus the patient is the answer and the cure.