Did you ever notice the sudden change in any of your friend’s behavior or family member? The one who loves to shop and go for outing is no more interested in even talking to anyone. He/She doesn’t feel like enjoying pizza or disc or do things that once he used to be crazy about. Well, these feelings of sadness and unhappiness because of any known or unknown reason are appropriate and transitory but if such changes and feelings persist and start messing up with daily life, then get alert as these may signal an underlying serious depression.

Remember, depression is more than “the blues” or the mood disorders. Depression is much more severe, powerful and obnoxious than the short episodes of unhappiness that we all experience in daily life from time to time. The feeling of depression is much more powerful and unpleasant than the short episodes of unhappiness that we all experience from time to time.

Life may throw numerous situations like a loss or a failure or an unexpected rejection, to make you fall prey to depression. It not only influences your mood and thoughts but also your daily routine and above all, your self esteem. Apart from mental sickness, depression may also involve physical symptoms, like headaches, stomach pain and rapid heartbeat. Depression sees no age, color, race or the economic status; it just hits the person at any walk of life especially in today’s growing complexities and crises.

Most of us are capable to cope with the stressful events, changes, and challenges of life and get back to normal activities. But it depends upon the personality type whether the person can heal himself or let the sadness reach the level of clinical or chronic depression. You must know that sadness and loneliness are temporary blues but depression is a horrible woe and is far more difficult to cope with than a physical sickness. At its worst, depression may even direct you to mull over or commit suicide.

How People Get Trapped in Depression

There is no single and certain cause of depression. They are complex and include genetic, social, biological and personal factors which lead to the development of depression in a person. Depression can be lead by a single cause or may be directed by many and for some people, the causes remain unknown forever. Anyway, let’s get into the little details of these probable factors causing depression.

Genes and Heredity

When issue is so critical, then why would medical sciences and research stay idle? Many studies have suggested a significant role of genes in depression saying depression runs in family if you have a long family history of depression. However, it is not the only and solid reason for depression. People who don’t have any family history of depression are also equally prone to depression.

Unexpected or Expected Circumstances

Sometimes unexpected and stressful life events, like loss of a partner, accident, abortion or expected events such as divorce, job loss, and prolonged disease can lead to the feelings of loneliness, helplessness and finally severe depression. Problems like obesity can also found to be the cause of depression. Moreover, in this condition, lack of friends and support may increase the severity of the disease.

Individual Differences

Many people can deal with sudden or expected changes in life but some may have certain personality traits that make them more prone to depression. Such individuals are more sensitive, insecure, dependent and attention seeker. So, how one respond to challenges thrown by life, depends upon the personality traits one possesses.

Prolonged Medications

If a person is on medications for a long time, he may get hold of depression. Medicines prescribed for diseases, like blood pressure, insomnia, and even birth control can cause depression.

Poor/ Unbalanced Diet

Although the factor seems to be insignificant but diet does matter and is found to play a specific role in causing depression. Deficiencies in certain vitamins, like folic acid and B-12 can lead to depression.

Addictions & Substance Abuse

Well quite contradictory factor but surveys and studies have revealed that people who drink in excess have more chances to develop severe depression. Such people try to come out of depression by drinking more and more, unaware of the fact that alcohol and drugs are taking them deep in the den of depression

Social Isolation

Nobody is that poor or incapable to deal with changes that life throws, but complete social isolation can make one feel rejected or inferior. This feeling of loneliness can also lead to depression

Does Gender Matter?

Well, depression sees no age, color and race but research has found that gender differences exist in case of depression. Females seem to get depressed more than men do. It doesn’t mean that males are not prone to depression. In fact they are equally prone. The most probable reason behind this belief and finding is the mind-set about males who are less are less likely to admit or express their feelings, bottle them up or if express then only in form of aggression or through drinking heavily. On the other hand, today’s women have more responsibilities of working as well as taking care of the house and children, this additional stress can throw them in depression.

Know the Symptoms of Depression

Depression is not something that you suffer for a day or two. Depending upon the severity as well as the individual differences, depression and its symptoms may last months and even years if not treated. Depression may cause strange changes in thinking making you develop a negative approach towards life. A severe depression can even provoke destructive thoughts in one’s mind. When you are depressed, everything seems to be dull and lifeless. You lack motivation and leave yourself more to apathy. Irritation followed by helplessness is another feeling one can experience in depression. People start neglecting their responsibilities, personal appearance and relationships with others. Either they remain still for hours or feel restless. Here are some cited symptoms of depression according to the age of person.

Symptoms in Kids

• Poor performance in studies
• Continuous boredom
• Lack of interest
• Repeated headaches and stomachaches
• Significant changes in eating and sleeping
• Tend to cry more often
• Prefer staying alone
• Loss of interest from friends and peer groups
• Feeling of worthlessness

Symptoms in Adults

• Loss of interest from activities enjoyed earlier
• Feeling blue
• Significant weight loss or weight gain
• Insomnia or excessive sleeping
• Irritation on almost everything
• Loss of motivation and enthusiasm
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Persistent guilt feelings
• Negative thoughts of suicide

Symptoms in Oldies

• Reduced concentration
• Weakened thought process
• Unending and unexplained physical complaints
• Loss of memory
• Feelings of loneliness

Separation Anxiety Disorder

We have seen children screaming and crying to make their parents understand that they do not like to live alone, without their parents, at school, in boarding or even at home. Normally, every baby develops attachment towards its mother and father and towards all those who are frequently involved with it as it grows. Whenever the near and dear adult leaves the child, it becomes anxious and insecure. Most of the children have separation anxiety, as they grow up with a sense of security and healthy attachment, the symptoms of anxiety die away. If separation anxiety continues to be there impairing a person’s personal relationships and his life style, then this problem should be taken seriously and the person should seek professional help.

What is Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

Every child goes through a phase in which they experience separation anxiety as a part of normal intellectual development. The Separation Anxiety Disorder is manifested in a child when he is separated from his primary caregiver and the child shows distress by crying or screaming or by other ways.

The separation anxiety develops in children along with an intellectual skill called object permanence. They learn to remember objects and particular persons who are present at a specific moment, they are able to recall mental images but at times even miss them.

The children during this phase with separation anxiety understand that a person is leaving but they do not understand that people do return once they are gone. They know from the actions of a person that he/she is going to leave within a few minutes, but they do not understand that the person will return. At this point, the anxiety begins to build in them and they try to stop that person from leaving.

What are the symptoms of Separation Anxiety Disorder?

How Separation Anxiety Disorder is diagnosed?

Usually, separation anxiety is not diagnosed if the symptoms are normal for their age. When the child shows severe or uncommon symptoms or the separation anxiety continues after adolescence, then the mental health professional diagnoses it on the basis of the history and interview.

What are the causes and risk factors associated with Separation Anxiety Disorder?

There are a few triggers that may develop separation anxiety disorder in a child;

Researches show that the chemical imbalance of norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain also contributes to separation disorder. And again, there is a genetic element associated with this disorder, the child who is born from parents with anxiety disorder is expected to develop anxiety disorder on his own. Most importantly, separation disorder is a special risk factor for children who have agoraphobic parent.

How separation anxiety disorder may affect the child?

Severe separation anxiety disorder may limit the child’s normal growth and involvement in different activities of life. At the same time, a child who grows up with ignored separation anxiety disorder may fail to have healthy and loving relationship as an adult.

Here are a few affects particularly associated with separation anxiety disorder;

How Separation Anxiety Disorder is treated?

Parents play the most important role in the treatment of separation anxiety disorder. Parents have to learn to empathize with their child and remain calm when the child is anxious. Knowledge of child’s anxiety triggers, and comparing it with the parents’ behavior will help a lot. The parent or the primary caregiver will have to learn to listen to the child, remind the child of past success and future happiness (how you left and how then returned). Using tricks like playing peek-a-boo to let the child understand that after disappearing or leaving, the person comes back is a good way. The parents can help their child tremendously by giving the child assurance, love and safety and whenever possible, preparing the child for the impending separation and keeping promises by coming to home back on time or picking up from school.

Parents may also involve teachers and school to use strategies to make the school more comfortable for children with separation anxiety disorder.

Also, there are more ways to treat separation anxiety disorder using different types of psychotherapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy : In this therapy, the child learns to challenge negative and fearful thoughts while developing positive thoughts by changing his thought process. He also learns to practice alternative behavior.

Family Therapy : In this therapy, parents learn to manage the illness of their child as well as parenting skills. This therapy helps family members to build a team work and take the responsibility because a child’s problem affects the harmony of the entire family.

Play Therapy : This therapy teaches the child to express his feelings using toys, puppets, games, and art materials.

Bibliotherapy : In this therapy, the therapist uses stories from books to model healthy separation behavior.

We need to remember on the very onset that anxiety disorder or GAD is a treatable mental condition. By using the right tools persistently and believing in the power of mind, one can learn to overcome anxiety and panic attacks. According to Deanne Repich, who has twelve years of experience in this field and has been associated with National Institute of Anxiety and Stress, getting the right information on your anxiety and incorporating it in your life style, is the key to combat anxiety. In her book, the Anxiety Tips: Seven Keys to Overcoming Anxiety, a free publication of the National Institute of Anxiety and Stress, she offers the success keys to combat anxiety.

These seven keys, which have helped millions of people in their anxiety, are;

• Educate yourself
• Address roadblocks
• Set gradual progressive goals
• Train your body and mind to stress differently
• Make wellness a way of life
• Personalize your solution
• Celebrate your success
• Process of Conquering Anxiety

Educate Yourself

Learning about anxiety, its symptoms, affects and reasons is very helpful. One out of every eight Americans suffers from anxiety disorder but what you should know is that anxiety is a treatable illness. Half of the deaths that take place are caused by diseases associated with stress, such as heart disease and cancer.

So let us understand how our body responds when we feel anxiety in our minds.

There is a similarity between flight and fight response and anxious response; in both the cases we feel palpitation, pounding heart or accelerated heart rate, lightheadedness, dizziness or fainting, numbness, sweating, abdominal distress, trembling or shaking etc. And psychologically, when flight and fight system is activated; it exaggerates the fear of danger, similarly, when we are suffering from anxiety, the mind experiences same feeling. At that time, the rationality is forgotten or that area of the brain is turned off and false and illogical explanations are developed.

Anxiety Cycle: This cycle consists of five phases: Trigger, fight of flight, internalizing, assuming the worst, intensification of symptoms.

1. Trigger: Trigger is a situation, in which you start feeling anxiety, e.g. lack of sleep, a tiring day of work, or a fight with someone close.
2. Flight or fight: The anxiety trigger initiates the flight or fight reaction in the body. Everyone, with or without anxiety disorder experiences flight or fight symptoms.
3. Internalize: When we take the flight or fight reactions of the body as symptoms of a problem with our health or your mind, in that situation we internalize the reactions and stress turns into anxiety.
4. Assume the worst: After internalizing the reaction as problem, our minds start thinking on the problem and the false and illogical responses compel us to assume the worst.
5. Intensification of symptoms: The flight or fight symptoms are intensified as we are assuming the worst and our survival seems at risk. We also start experiencing many other symptoms. The combination of all these symptoms is referred to as ‘anxiety’.

Address Roadblocks

Every one of us wants to get rid of anxiety but something holds us back from taking up the measures. Deanne Repich refers to that something as ‘roadblocks’. According to her there are five major roadblocks which hold people back from taking active measures against anxiety;

1. Fear of Change: It is natural for human to resist change. After suffering a considerable time from anxiety, men get used to it and make anxiety a part of their identity. They are afraid of changes even if they are good.
2. Feel lack of Time & Energy: Most of the people say that they are too busy or too tired to practice anxiety-reducing techniques.
3. Feeling not good enough: Many people who are suffering from anxiety disorder think that they are defective and that is why they are experiencing symptoms like that. They do not realize that anxiety is the main culprit so they do not want to do anything about it.
4. Doubting the power within: Many of those who are suffering from anxiety believe that they do not have the mental ability to conquer anxiety. This belief turns into a self fulfilling prophecy.
5. Lacking Skill and Inner resources: Many people understand that they have the power to overcome the anxiety, but do not know how to do that.

It is normal to have road blocks, but one must not wait till the roadblocks fade away. The most effective way to remove roadblocks is to start practicing the anxiety-reducing techniques today.

Set Gradual & Progressive Goals

This is the third key, which requires you to accept that there is a hope of combating anxiety. She says that people with anxiety tend to set high and unrealistic goals leading to feelings of frustration. This may hamper the progress as the man may feel he has failed. To acquire this confidence, you need to set small and practical goals for yourself which Deanne Repich refers to as setting gradual and progressive goals.

For example, a good and practical goal setting would be taking up one emotional symptom at a time. Learn the techniques of dealing with ‘what if’ thoughts and practice them regularly. When you have learnt successfully and can handle your ‘what if’ thought, it is time to congratulate yourself and set a new goal towards your emotional growth.

Train your Body & Mind to Respond to Stress Differently

You can train your mind and body to respond to stress differently by practicing anti-anxiety success techniques repeatedly. There are two ways of overcoming anxiety:

1. Reduce the stressor by improving your external environment, which involves minimizing the physical stress by using strategies for changing your eating, breathing, sleeping, and physical activities like exercise.
2. Change your internal environment by changing the way you think so that you can perceive the world with less anxiety. You have to apply the techniques of transforming self-destructive thoughts into healthy thoughts.

We can re-train our body and mind by practicing the anxiety-reducing techniques daily. This way you will feel more relaxed, calm and will react differently to stressors. So, when the anxious thoughts occur to you next time, you can quickly transform anxiety into harmony and serenity.

Make Wellness a Way of Life

The fifth key to conquer anxiety is to make wellness a way of living life. For this one has to build a lifestyle which can become a lasting solution for anxiety disorder. How we can build that kind of a lifestyle?

Personalize your Solution

Every man is unique, so the solution for overcoming anxiety will certainly be different for each of us. So, we can personalize the anxiety-reducing techniques by combining the strategies, wellness programs, counseling, and even medications, which have helped us. But the main issue here is to practice the personalized solution consistently to achieve the goal of low-anxiety lifestyle and help ourselves to acquire a lasting change.

Celebrate your Success

No matter how small is our success, we must celebrate it. These small successes make the foundation of our permanent recovery from anxiety attacks. This will encourage us to continue our practice and motivate us to keep the commitment of a better life.

Here Deanne Repich asks us to consider our inner power like any other muscle, the more we use it, the more toned it becomes and the more we are able to accomplish. Practice makes men perfect, so with practice, we can use the technique involuntarily as and when required. This way, we will continue to become more skilled in conquering anxiety and creating a peaceful life…so, every positive change has a reason to celebrate.

The Common Process of Conquering Anxiety

Deanne Repich, finally says that every one of us will integrate the anxiety-reducing techniques differently. However, the process of conquering anxiety remains the same.

In this process we have six goals to follow continuously:

Follow the seven keys and open the door to an anxiety-free life by conquering your anxiety. Start the process today!

The realm of human psychology is no longer a completely unsolved riddle. The medical scientists and psychiatrists have explored new venues to understand the enigma with continuous researches, experiments and new technologies. The researchers are going far to understand the reasons that influence the development of anxiety disorder. There are mainly social, biological and psychological factors responsible for inducing anxiety disorder which scientists have further categorized into four main sections.

• Heredity
• Personality
• Brain Chemistry
• Life Experiences

Diet Pill xanax! Seems strange, isn’t it? Well, people always keep trying strange yet interesting combination of keywords expecting Google may provide something good and valuable out of plethora of information in its store. And actually you never get disappointed. Diet pill xanax, indeed strange, so let’s get down to the real facts on Diet pill xanax. So far, xanax is not found to show any weight loss effects except eliminating depression and anxiety. However, recently, many xanax users have reported startling effect of anti-anxiety pill xanax on hunger. Well, it’s not what you are thinking! No weight loss with xanax, some users have reported to experience a weight gain though. These people felt as if they are starving all the time. It’s unlikely to believe but some people found xanax pills making everything taste too good to resist.

Few people reported to crave for sweets after using xanax for sometime. These results and studies confirm that xanax is nowhere helpful in weight loss, rather can make you gain weight unexpectedly. And definitely, this out of the blue weight gain may push you to seek help of Google and look for some good over the counter diet pills that can be consumed along with xanax. But, it is not a good idea at all to take diet pill xanax together. Many weight loss medications like phentermine, adipex and xenical etc, show severe drug interactions with psychiatric drugs and various anti-depressants like xanax, Zoloft, valium etc. These drug interactions can lead to serious consequences. And this may be one of the reasons why more and more people are using keyword diet pill xanax to find more and relevant information on this issue.

Thus, we can see that Diet pill xanax have a trail of events behind it. Let’s summarize this interesting trail step wise:

• Taking xanax to get rid of anxiety and depression
• Relief from depression along with probable weight gain
• Need of diet pills to lose weight
• Willingness to consume diet pills and xanax together
• Search for relevant information and possible consequences
• Increased searches and keyword combinations leading to popularity and misconception of diet pill xanax

However, you must know what you may have to face if you try xanax and diet pills together in order to enjoy goody goody effects of both. Drug interactions may lead to;

• Severe allergy
• Dizziness
• Headaches and tremors
• Upset stomach

However, severe allergic reaction is the most probable negative consequence of using up xanax and any of the over the counter diet pills together. So, you must consult your doctor regarding weight loss if it has resulted from using xanax. Other than taking diet pills, there are number of tactics that can keep you off weight and depression both without facing these unpleasant effects and experiments on your body.

Sleep is an essential part of our daily routine. This is the time when we restore our physical and psychological system. When a person is a victim of stress and anxiety, it is important for him to sleep well. An uninterrupted and peaceful sleep of at least seven hours at night is very important as it helps the body to re-coup the energy lost during the day.

Normally, what happens when we do not sleep enough? According to Rosekind, PhD, an expert on fatigue and performance issues,

• Day time sleepiness
• Effects our mood and behavior
• It makes our work performance worse
• Increases the risk of injuries
• Makes it difficult to get along with others
• We find it difficult to concentrate
• We make mistakes in taking important decisions or following an instruction
• We become lethargic and impatient
• Memory, attention and reaction capacity is reduced
• Loss of sleep affects the alertness of the next day

So, how can we understand the signals of inadequate sleep? The below given symptoms which will let us know that we are not sleeping enough;

• Dozing off while you need more concentration or alertness, such as reading, watching TV, sitting in meetings or sitting in traffic
• Slow down in your thinking and reacting capacity
• You find it difficult to listen or understand directions
• You find it difficult to remember or retain information
• You commit errors or mistakes frequently
• Because of narrowed down attention, you miss important changes in a situation
• You suffer from depression or negative mood
• You become impatience or angry very quickly
• You blink, find difficulty in focusing eyes, or heavy eyelids

The above pointers make it clear as to how loss of sleep can affect our normal life. And inevitably, these adverse affects of not sleeping would further contribute to stress and anxiety. It is important to know how we can improve our sleep. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) offers a few tips for helping people maximize the sleep during the times of high stress and anxiety:

During the day:

At Night:

Get ready for sleep

When you are hearing or watching disturbing news, take your time and stop listening to news programs at least one hour before going to bed…let go the worry.

Relax

Engage in a relaxing activity like, reading something light or listening to soft music accompanied by a warm bath or hot bubble bath. But, make sure to avoid activities that are mentally or physically stimulating.

Limit your food& alcohol intake

Remember, if you are sleep deprived, alcohol is not going to help you. Alcohol is not a sleep aid. And also avoid eating or drinking too much before bedtime.

Get into bed only when you are tired

The thumb rule is to go to bed when you’re tired. Go to bed and wait for 15 minutes, if you do not fall asleep, get out of bed. Now go to another room start reading a book or involve yourself in any type of relaxing activity. Come back to your bed room when you’re sleepy.

Sleepy Ambiance

Create an ambiance which will help you fall asleep…a bed which is soft, clean and comfortable, a room which is quiet, dark and cool.

Important Notes:

• Share your problem with others; you will realize that your problems are not unique. In this way, you will be able to learn how others cope with their sleeping problems.
• When you see that you are unable to solve your problem with sleep, you must seek professional help. There are medications available for helping people with insomnia. Only a doctor can prescribe you those medicines. People do benefit a lot from professional help.

Remember: sleeplessness associated with an acute stressful situation or anxiety disorder usually improves with the improvement in your psychological condition. So, first of all, address issues to control your stress and unnecessary worries.

With ever increasing competition and fast running life, perhaps we can’t even think of a stress-free existence. The pressures of modern living are encouraging the stress around. Throughout the life cycle, we encounter various changes in life. Every change, whether it is pleasant or poor, generates some stress. But, if this stress gets intense or prolonged, it will leave you in depression or with anxiety disorders. Now before we switch over to the coping strategies, we would like to throw some light on their major causes.

As we all know that a man spends most of his time at the workplace. Workplace situations, challenges, and job dissatisfaction are some of the common origins of stress. A recent poll found the highest levels of stress in professions such as legal, banking and finance. Women suffer stress most likely in their personal relations. Whatever the reason, either personal or social, stress leads to acute physical and psychological problems including depression and anxiety, in both, men and women.

While depression generates emotions like despair, hopelessness and irritation, anxiety disorder results into emotions of panic and fear even towards normal conditions. Though exact causes of depression are unknown, but advance researches have thrown some light on it. Today we know that depression results from a troubled communication between the brain’s neural circuits and its chemical neurotransmitters. Other than this, depression may stem from genetic, environmental and emotional factors. The most common causes of depressions are:

Because of very low energy levels, such people often feel weighed down by the daily routines and personal relations. If not treated, these disorders can curb one’s ability to work or even maintain the relationships. Though, it sounds strange but our society has created a gender bias for everything and depression is not spared. In most of the cultures, men are supposed to be successful and resistant to express their emotions. So, depression either comes out in form of aggression, anger and frustration or drinking. Men will prefer drinking heavily or even committing suicide to admitting their emotions or depression. Our male dominating society has taught men to restrain the emotions as this is perceived as a weakness.

More interestingly, men have different coping strategy in case of bereavement. At the loss of a loved one, a woman lets loose all her pain, grief and emotions but man sticks to the belief of being strong and take up full responsibility for their bereavement and suppress the grief. This suppression leads to many complications like escalating anger, substance abuse and physical problems like cholesterol levels, ulcers, high blood pressure, and pain.

Well, now let’s come to the sister disorder of depression i.e. anxiety. Like depression, exact causes of anxiety disorders are still unclear but researches have come up with few possible causes like:

Anxiety disorder is recognized by panic attacks, also known as agoraphobia. It is a severe anxiety condition when a person is scared of panicky feelings. The depression or stress is so intense that one may experience fearful feelings at places which are normal to others. Now here once again, gender differences enter the scene. Let’s see how?

The panic attack imitates heart attack which include chest pain, thumping heart and breathing problem. And because men are considered to be more prone to heart attack than women, panic attacks in men often go undetected. This becomes probably, the most ground reason for the obvious bias in diagnosis of a panic attack in men compared to women. Although women undergo panic attacks and other anxiety disorders in considerably higher numbers than men, but it may be because they look for help more readily. Another reason for not being diagnosed and treated is the effort of self-treatment of the problem with alcohol.

Well, this is not the end but by this time, you must have got a good knowledge about stress, depression and anxiety. Now, if you are one of the sufferers of any of these symptoms, then stop getting scared and embarrassed or consuming alcohol as coping mechanism. Make yourself comfortable and don’t hesitate to visit a doctor. Before stress kills you in silence, better you kill the stress.

A smile can make you dear to all and a laugh can make you near to all. Well, humor does matter in life whichever part we may pick. Be it personal, public or professional, humor can definitely add charm and life to the relations and work. Today, humor has become one of the choice attributes of an efficient employee. HR personnel are specially inclined towards humorous nature as a desired attitude because humorous people go well with fellow employees and help in keeping the office environment happy and chirpy.

There must be a powerful ground on which humor is taken as a recognized asset in the workplace today. Let’s see how humor shows its relentless and eternal effect at workplace.

Humor Makes Communication Easy and Comfortable

Humor Cuts Down Stress

Humor Shapes Interactions

Humor Boosts Your Productivity

Humor Shapes Viewpoints

Work is the most essential part to survive & sustain life. Obviously, stress is always there as both go hand in hand. But you can make it light by learning to laugh at yourself & your work. This will not only lighten the work but will also refresh you to work more efficiently and creatively.

The worst thing one can ever experience is fear of something that actually doesn’t exist & if exist, seems normal to others. Panic disorder can throw you in the category of psychologically disturbed people. This feeling can make you helpless or left alone that may further heighten the disorder. Let’s see what exactly happens in panic disorder.

Panic Disorder (PD) can make you feel panicky all of a sudden, anytime, unexpectedly. This panic feeling comes together with physical signs, like giddiness, lightheadedness, rapid pulse, shivering, chest pains, breathing problem, nausea, numbness, and a bizarre fear of going crazy or dying. Some people even tend to declare as if they are dying during an attack. These terror feelings can be so intense and real to the person that a sense of lack of control also accompanies the attacks.

Panic Disorder becomes unbearable when the sufferer starts escaping from situations or stimuli which may result into the onset of a panic attack. This way a person starts keeping away even from normal everyday activities as result of which Agoraphobia is diagnosed. Although this has led many to assume that agoraphobia is the fear of open spaces. It is not essentially that, although the word’s original meaning is that only. Agoraphobia usually takes time to develop. Over time, the person may fear leaving the house as they are not willing to come into contact with any situation or stimulus that can cause a panic attack.

Now let’s be aware of some common fears a sufferer may feel in panic disorder.

Fear of losing control:

Fear of going crazy:

Fear of dying:

Fear of hurting someone or hurting themselves:

Sufferers should remember that your activities are all under your control & you can’t lose your control against your will. It’s not too hard to overcome anxiety. Life is simple. It’s you who makes it complex. So, go for an easy life & beat anxiety in a cool way.

In last few years, anti-anxiety pills like xanax, zyban, alprazolam and others, has become popular among teenagers, school students and college going young boys and girls. This young generation is prompt to use these anti-anxiety pills even for little depression or stress for which they are not required at all. Few days back, at Houston , a 13 years old middle school student was arrested for bringing Xanax to school and some high school seniors hospitalized for taking xanax overdose.

There are various reasons why today’s young generation is falling for these drugs without any prescription or better saying, without getting a prescription. Few of the reasons are;

Relaxed Feeling After Taking The Dose

Inexpensive

Easy Environmental Availability

No Immediate Side-effects

More disturbingly, teenagers whether male or female, are overwhelmingly reported to perceive themselves as addicted from their very first dose. After taking first dose, these young students enjoy the feeling that these medicines create and desire for more. In fact, the youth professed themselves as unable to quit, thus building up their own addiction before they actually had. These pills are normally taken along with orange juice, alcohol or an energy drink to intensify the effect. Tranquilizers with alcohol may prove dangerous causing respiratory suppressions.

Interestingly, these anti-anxiety pills are known by different street names among the students, depending on the shape of the pill, its color and dosage. For example, blue pills are known as footballs and white pills are given the name bars, white girls, handlebars, white boys or at times bicycle parts, yellow pills are called yellow boys or school bus. Particularly girls perceive these pills as safe and “cleaner” than other drugs. Unlike boys, they give least preference to marijuana or cocaine, although both genders are equally fascinated towards these otherwise prescription drugs.

To make our young generation aware of the dangerous effects hidden after pleasure, parents need to learn and show concern as most adults are ignorant that their children are using the prescription drugs illegally. Parents are the first most reliable counselor one can have. They should be diligent to make their children relax and keep away from such illegal and detrimental means of relaxation so that the value and effect of these anti-anxiety pills could be confined to only those who actually require them.