SUSAN Hardstone l ives inMarbella. She is 29 and wasrecently married. Outwardly,she appears to be in perfecthealth.

Three months ago, com-pletely out of the blue, her lifechanged for no ap-parent reason andwith no warning.At that moment ,she joined mil-lions of otherswho suffer withpanic a t tackson a regu-lar basis.

O n eF r i d a y

morning, while shopping inLa Cañada, she suddenly de-veloped an 'overwhelming'sensation all over her body.

She was sweaty and trem-bling and felt that her heartwas pumping too fast. Within

a few seconds,she also suf-

fered fromchest painand short-ness ofbreath. Thise p i s o d elasted forabout 10m i n u t e s ,but shefel t thatthis wasthe worst10 min-

utes of herlife.

Scared by here x p e r i e n c e ,she started tostay away

from shoppingcentres and al-

so avoided be-ing in a crowd of

people.Because of the fre-

quency of the at-tacks, Susan found

she could no longerfunct ion normally:

This had a major effecton her job, and she felt

it was also starting to havea negative influence on hermarriage.

Finally, she became afraidto leave the house or go towork.

Her experience is typical ofsomeone with panic disorder,which is diagnosed whensomeone suffers at least twounexpected attacks, followedby at least one month of con-cern over having another at-tack.

Sufferers feel as thoughthey might die, or develop astroke or heart attack.

Physical changes such asfast heart beat, shortness ofbreath, fa int ing episodes,sweating and trembling aresome of the accompanyingsymptoms.

Panic attacks can either betriggered by a specific situa-tion, or they may come out ofthe blue, not being precipitat-ed by any particular trigger.An attack can last for a few toseveral minutes and of tenleaves the person feel ingtired.

One episode can make aperson feel scared of havinganother one.

In fact, a lot of people feeldistressed anticipating the oc-currence of another attack.So, most individuals preferto stay at home and isolatethemselves from friends, co-workers, and even relatives.

Eventually, they becomeincapacitated.

There are two methods oftreating panic disorder.

The condition can be suc-

cessfully treated with anti-de-pressants such as serotonin-reuptake inhibitors and otherprescription drugs. Your doc-tor would normally undertakea full examination before de-ciding to prescr ibe such adrug.

The second, and usual lypreferred method, which hasproved to be successful , istherapy based; a triple therapyapproach, which incorporatescognitive behaviour therapyand mild hypnosis, will offera usually rapid improvementand a long-term solution. Aswell as being a drug-free ap-proach, therapy-based solu-tions are now becoming thepreferred choice by manyprofessionals.

Susan first visited her doc-tor who confirmed that shewas not suffering from anyphysical condition.

She then decided to visitthe Elite Clinic in Fuengiro-la, which specialises in thetreatment of panic disorderand, within just two weeks,she felt that she was well onher way back to her normalself.

The Eli te Clinic in Fuen-girola offers a completely freeof charge, non-obligatory, ini-tial consultation to all clients.

All therapists are registeredwith the British Institute andAmerican Board of Hyp-notherapy.

Eli te can be contacted on951 311 591.

Additional information can befound on the Elite Clinics

website: www.eliteclinics.com

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41HEALTH & BEAUTYThe Euro Weekly News, 25th - 31st August 2005 Costa del Sol

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The dreaded panic attackAdvertising Feature

A woman suffers an attack.