While there are many therapies and medications available on the market, here are a few common options for panic attack treatment: Behavior Therapy This therapy helps to gain control over an individual behavior. Here the individual learn to cope with difficult situations through controlled exposure to the problems. The symptoms are similar to a heart attack, and a sensation that you have lost touch with reality and an impending dread often accompanies the physical symptoms. While you might end up in the emergency room the first time, this is not adequate treatment. In order to control panic attack symptoms, you need to help prevent them in the first place. There are, of course, many other possibilities to these ideologies, but anxiety is a possibility to consider. It is important to remember that stress and anxiety are parts of normal life for many people. Handling this stress, however, is the difference between an anxiety attack sufferer and a person that can cope properly. Alcohol is considered a depressant, and most panic attack sufferers tend to be more susceptible to the effect of such chemicals. Drinking during a panic attack will not help calm a person down, nor will it help relax them and prevent an attack. Most doctors will agree that alcohol and panic attack experiences do not mix. Social anxiety can lead to a fear of certain public places, especially grocery stores and other places that have a large gathering of people. On the other hand general panic disorder can cause the panic sufferer to become embarrassed of their own disorder, which leads to a fear of traveling outside and having a panic attack. Anxiety is also closely related to (but not the cause of) a condition called mitral valve prolapse or MVP. Panic attacks generate a common human response to danger: the “fight or flight” response. This was said to evolve from early human types that either fled danger or took it on if they could.