Suggest Treatment For Anxiety And Fear Suffocation In A Crowd

Posted on Thu, 2 Jul 2015

Question: I am 36 yrs old mother of a 5yrs old son. I am afraid of suffocating be it in a large crowd,be it a fear of drowning in water while in boat,or in air during flight . i have a terrible fear of flying. my sleep isnot sound, and its quite restless.

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
You need to relax. Your anxiety needs to be managed properly.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

Let me first ask you to relax. I understand the cause of your anxiety but let me assure you that in a crowd, you are not naturally not the only person to breathe in the changes in the air composition. For you to die in that situation, others would have to be dead as well. Surely this is not going to happen. In other words, the proportion of your fear does not match the proportion of the actual problem. It also applies to the other mentioned issues. Medicines like Prodep (fluoxetine) when taken on long term basis, help to deal with such anxieties. I would suggest you to visit a psychiatrist. He would be able to carefully analyse your situation and suggest you some simple tips which will better enable you to deal with the situation. He would also be able to prescribe the requisite medications which will help in the resolution of your anxiety and would help you to sleep better. Be sure to be in his follow up.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar