Interpersonal therapy to treat panic disorders focuses on learning how to interact with other people in a way that protects your personal rights. Many people who experience panic disorders have issues concerning attitudes about self and how they maintain their individuality. These issues involve a fear of confrontation and a tendency to be submissive even when it makes the person unhappy.
Using interpersonal therapy to treat panic disorders is now a common practice. The most important goal of this form of treatment is to teach people how to be assertive so they can express true feelings and needs. The problem with submissiveness is that it’s self-defeating. If you always give in to others, placing their needs before yours, it eventually impacts self-esteem. In other words, you never see your needs and feelings as ever taking priority. The result can be devastating to an individual and often leads to depression in addition to constant anxiety.
Fortunately, it’s very possible to learn how to be assertiveness without being aggressive. Assertiveness is being able to express your real feelings about something and being able to ask for something that meets your needs. When you are assertive, you are able to say “no” to people without panic. Often aggressive behavior is really hiding a lack of assertiveness. When you aren’t comfortable making your feelings and wants known, it can be easy to lash out. Most of the time though, someone who doesn’t know how to be assertiveness simply lets others always have their way. Worse, people who lack assertiveness frequently manipulated by other people.
With interpersonal therapy to treat panic disorders, time is spent learning how to express feelings and desires through choice of words. The words do not attack, belittle or manipulate the other person. You learn to make true statements that let others know how you really feel about a situation or request. Learning to be assertive includes learning how to recognize when it’s time to be assertive, being aware of your real feelings, learning to say no when you really want to say no, and developing a means of communication that conveys exactly what you want to say.
Interpersonal therapy to treat panic disorders teaches one more thing: how to use body language that’s not submissive or aggressive. For example, you want to look at a person you are talking to so they know you mean what you say. You also learn how to use good posture so the other person never gets into a dominating position. It’s amazing how much better you will feel about yourself when you learn to make your feelings and needs known to other people.
Panic disorders result in panic attacks that occur after ongoing anxiety. If you are a non-assertive person, it can easily mean you’re living in a state of anxiety that you’ll be forced to do something you really don’t want to do or because you never get your feelings or wants taken into consideration. It’s no surprise this can lead to depression also. By using interpersonal therapy to treat panic disorders, you learn to evaluate situational consequences, express yourself in a straightforward manner and make requests.
One of the most important things you learn through interpersonal therapy to treat panic disorders is that you have certain rights as a human being. For example, you have the right to say “no”, the right to express your feelings and the right to have your needs taken into consideration. In other words, you have the right to be a human being as much as the next person whether it’s family, friends or strangers. In as little as 3 to 4 months, you can learn assertive behavior through interpersonal therapy to treat panic disorders.
