When someone experiences an anxiety attack their first thought is likely to be 'what caused it?'. Once we can identify the cause of our panic attack we can begin to deal with it, treat it, remove the worry and enjoy an anxiety free life. First, however, we may need to do some soul searching and also learn about what our anxieties mean, exactly what anxiety disorder we are suffering from and what the best treatments are to take on.

One of the most common causes of anxiety attacks in both adults and children is a fear of something very specific. This might be an event, a situation or even an object, for instance a family occasion, being in a lift or seeing a horse. This disorder is known as specific phobia anxiety and it often begins in childhood where a child perceives a normal situation as awkward, unpleasant or threatening. Take a 6 year old girl who is at a family wedding, for example. She sees another little girl hit her head badly on a step and feels terrified for her. From then on being in family situations makes her worried that someone she cares about will be hurt and even into her twenties she suffers anxiety attacks at weddings, birthdays etc. People with specific phobia anxiety often can't pinpoint why they feel scared of something which is why regression hypnosis can be so helpful for sufferers.

Stress in general can be one of the major causes of anxiety attacks, especially when stress in different areas of people's lives come together. Anxiety attacks are strongly linked to low self esteem and stress from a job where you feel you are not performing well enough, or at home where your step children appear to 'hate' you makes you feel bad about yourself. Soon you perceive the world as a cruel place that you can't cope with and it is so overwhelming you have an anxiety attack. In such cases removing the causes of stress or dealing with them systematically and with help from others will reduce the anxiety attacks to none.

Anxiety can arise as a personal coping method. If someone learns to deal with stress by internalizing it and worrying about it excessively then they will suffer from regular anxiety attacks. This is why anxiety is often seen in families and while it's thought to be genetic there is a strong link between learned thought patterns too. If your mother outwardly worried and cried when your brother came home very late as a child then you will see this as an acceptable way to deal with similar situations in the future. What may have been more beneficial for you is for your mother to teach you that following a plan of action is better, E.G. leaving him a voice mail message and calling his friend's parents. Luckily these thought patterns can often be changed with cognitive behavioral therapy and sufferers stop having anxiety attacks soon after.

The causes of anxiety attacks may be many and varied but that doesn't mean that any are impossible to deal with and eradicate. Some treatments for anxiety work better for some than they do for others which is why it's important not to give up on treating anxiety as soon as you have tried one avenue.

Stan Tian

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