Panic attacks have you under their control. The disruption to your life is like nothing you've ever known. You are petrified. You live every day in constant fear. You shy away from people, even those you've trusted for many years.

What's wrong? You never used to be like this, yet here you are. Afraid to step out the door and enjoy the things you once did. A walk down main street now poses a substantial threat, but you can't identify what kind of threat it is that has you so afraid. It's a vague feeling of uneasiness, that something bad is going to happen. There's a constant sense of impending doom.

You tremble at the very thought of being alone or attending a social gathering. You used to enjoy going out with your friends and co-workers, but now things are different. Your constant anxiety gives you hot flashes. Your hands sweat. You feel light headed and dizzy. You feel like your head is going to explode. You're afraid you're losing your sanity.

You're convinced that if the panic attacks get worse, you'll pass out or worse… die. You wonder if you can hold on until the attack passes. In a rare moment of relative calm, you realize this doesn't make sense and that you have to fix it. But how do you do that?

Panic attacks are terrifying events that people experience when they have lost control, or feel they have lost control, of their lives. The panic attacks are in full control, it seems. They ravage your body, take what they want, turn you into a quivering mass, and then depart as rapidly as they came.

You know you can't continue like this but you don't know where to turn. Your doctor just wants to put you on medication to calm you, but that's the last thing you want… to take drugs. There are several reasons, perhaps most importantly, a fear of getting addicted to them. Finding a natural cure for your panic attacks seems out of reach. You've heard lots of advice on panic forums, in books, and from friends and family.

The worst advice you've received is having a loved one or a friend tell you to "get a grip." People who have never had a panic attack just don't understand it's not that easy. Panic attacks can't be turned on and off as they seem to think. They come at you unexpectedly because of something going on inside you. A thought flash of some sort.

Panic attacks are anxiety attacks in their extreme form. Anxiety attacks repeated over time eventually break you down and you fall victim to panic. Back in the 1970s or so, little was known about treating this disorder. Today, scientists have great faith in something called Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP). This is just a long name for how you program your thoughts based on the information you receive.

You see, when you have panic attacks, it's because you have "learned" to get anxious when you sense a real or perceived danger. The trick is to turn off that learned response, or retrain it. Some time in the past, you programmed yourself to think "panic" when a similar event in your life makes you nervous or scares you in some way. So when you sense something alarming, your mind says "panic", and you do.

Here's an example of how we program our minds.

People react differently to the same situation or stimuli. Let's say you have a fear of snakes because you were raised where there were lots of deadly snakes crawling around. Your friend, on the other hand, loves snakes because he didn't have that fear experience.

While both of you see a snake, each of you interprets the image differently. Your brain takes such experiences, both good and bad, and by adding your own biases, opinions and experiences, you convert that image into useful information. At some point, you determined that snakes are a thing to be feared and that you should stay clear. You learned to avoid snakes at all costs. You might even have a phobia about snakes.

Your friend decided they make great pets. He keeps one in his bedroom and plays with it on his bed every night. Your friend has learned to react with happiness at the sight of a snake because he's never had any reason to fear them. You, on the other hand, learned to react with fear, whether that snake is dangerous or not, based on your upbringing.

So what is neuro-linguistic programming? Neuro-linguistic programming refers to several aspects of how the mind works to make use of information it receives. It can be broken down into three areas:

Neuro refers to the brain and its neural networks. This is where nerve cells are used by the nervous system to transfer and store signals about the information it receives. Linguistics deals with the verbal and non-verbal information as it travels through those neuro pathways.

Programming is the final step where we take all that information and turn it into something we can use. For example, it might tell us to respond with fear and take evasive steps to avoid being harmed in some way. Neuro-linguistic programming was developed in the early 1970s by a scientist and linguist at the University of California. It's initial purpose was to identify what behaviors made people successful. The goal was to learn how to duplicate those behaviors so people could experience the same success.

The theory was that the brain can learn healthy patterns and behaviors to achieve positive physical and emotional health. Today, it is proving to be one of the most successful methods for treating panic attacks and anxiety disorder. Once you understand which behaviors or thought patterns need to be changed, it's a matter of learning how to make those changes.

That's where a therapist who specializes in neuro-linguistic programming can help. In your search for help, seek out someone who has this expertise. Medications might be helpful to get you over the major symptoms, but they are not a cure. NLP therapy and medications are considered to be the best approach to curing anxiety and panic attacks permanently.