Anxiety disorder is a recent entrant in medical analogy not because it is new, but because earlier it was confused with agoraphobia or fear of market place (derived from the Greek language). Those suffering from agoraphobia would do anything to avoid being in a crowd.

On the other hand, when you suffer from SAD you lead a normal life on the surface, though you would experience extreme anxiety symptoms every time you would interact with people. Somehow, though you normally tend to brave it out, people would make you nervous and restless.

This condition came into public recognition only in the 1970s when the teen American Idol, Donny Osmond talked about his insecurity when in front of a crowd. He had mentioned then that he felt everyone was judging him, therefore it made him anxious and uncomfortable when he was surrounded by a large crowd. Some of the symptoms you would expect with SAD are:

1. Loss of control - everything is about control with all the anxiety disorders. Here too, you would feel that you are likely to loose control in public, which for you would be catastrophic.

2. Fear of interacting with people - you feel safe as long as people stay where they are and leave you alone. Whenever somebody tried to befriend you, talk with you, and interact with you at any level you would feel the anxiety rise.

3. Fear of being judged - you would never enter a crowded party place because you would not be able to bear so many eyes on you when you make your entry. You would be horrified to think that all these people would be scanning and judging you from head to toe.

4. Fear of being ridiculed - you would rather not speak, sing, dance, play or whatever it is there that you have to do - because you fear you would make a mistake and people would laugh at you. The thought of being ridiculed would make you cringe; therefore, you would avoid everything that would give the slightest chance for you to fail in front of any crowd.

5. Fear of being in crowded places - every time you find yourself surrounded by a sea of people, you find yourself vulnerable. What if somebody from this crowd watches you intently and find out your flaws (whatever you think these are)? What if somebody out there in the crowd is laughing at you? What if somebody out there is judging you? You have no cover, no way to protect yourself, no defense.

Fortunately, among all the anxiety disorders this is the least harmful and the easiest to treat. Often a few sessions of therapy would be able to help you lead a normal life. The key to finding the right treatment is to get to the root of the cause of SAD in your case. This is most often than not investigated and treated successfully with the help of hypnosis, counseling and mediation.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of positive thinking, positive energy and positive behavior. This is because being positive is the best vaccine against anxiety. It is only when you allow yourself to be overwhelmed by negativity that anxiety is able to get hold of you and harass you. As long as you are successful in keeping negative thoughts at bay, you would be anxiety free.? When you manage to do so, you would be as close as you would ever be to identifying a “cure” for anxiety.

Auto-suggestion or positive self-talk is a powerful tool towards this purpose. You have read how, even when you anticipate an anxiety attack, you should talk positively to yourself until the fears that bring on the attack have been nullified. Self-hypnosis works exactly the same way, but on the level of your sub-conscious and therefore it is much more powerful. The best part is that you can do this without any help from outside, and you will find that it works like a charm.

The Internet is full of low-cost (and sometimes even free) downloadable CDs, which would assist you with self-hypnosis. There is plenty of information too, which would tell you the whys and hows of hypnosis. It is good to educate yourself on the subject before you attempt self-hypnosis because the better you understand the concept the better you would be able to work with it. I would advise that before you do it for the first time, you learn it from a professional (human being not CD) because there are a lot many things that can interfere with you success and possibly even harm unless they are done correctly. Once you have understood the basics, it should be easy for you to practice it at home any time you want.

The hypnosis process has four stages:

(i) relaxation,

(ii) trance,

(iii) suggestion, and

(iv) exit.

You need to retire to a place where you would not be disturbed for at least 20-30 minutes and where outside noise has little access. Sit in a comfortable chair preferably in a reclining position. Some people prefer to lie down, but as a beginner it might better if you avoided the lying-down position because it might put you to sleep.

Anxiety is the expression of any human being at times of fear and surprises. At times of anxiety, sympathetic nerves that increase the adrenaline hormone, become stimulated, and starts secreting, causing you to become excited. This adrenaline hormone has certain properties of pumping blood at a faster rate to your heart and then routing blood to all muscles, which results in excessive sweating. You later find out that this was caused by anxiety disorder, a state of fear that comes without being triggered by something that actually scared you. The threat of anxiety attacks are more prevalent in America than in any other country on the planet. Treatment of anxiety attacks should be considered only after you’ve analyzed the symptoms and are ready to start understanding what anxiety is really about.

Treatment of Anxiety Attack

Anxiety attacks might occur all of a sudden without any causes. They might be associated with any of a particular situation. They might be either due to psychological effects or due to heredity too. Understanding the symptoms is far more important than analyzing the causes. Some of the symptoms would be sudden sweat, which prolonged for hours, pain in your chest, dizziness, and more.

If you suffer from panic attack you might want to consider seeking medical help from a therapist in conjunction with a proper medication regiment. The most general and the immediate treatment would be the therapy of Relaxation and breathing. This is one of the vital treatments that should be done for any sort of anxiety attack. The specialty of this treatment is that the people who undergo an anxiety attack could practice this treatment themselves and come out of the attack easily.