First Line for Panic - Let's heal the world

And it is an anxious and stressful common disturbance was affordable to most? This is the proposal of the Office of Psychology for a first-line intervention.

Do you know what a panic attack is? We hope not… But more than 1 out of each 50 persons suffers from repeated panic attacks. During one of these crisis, all of a sudden people feel like they’re going to die or go crazy: for no apparent reason, their hearts start racing, they sweat and tremble, vision goes blurred, they feel reality as distant and strange, and there’s this horrible terror for very long minutes. When panic attacks become panic disorder, an anxiety condition, not only do these crisis become very frequent (like several a day) but they also strongly limit life autonomy.

Fortunately it can be treated very effectively. Unfortunately most people either don’t know that or don’t have access to adequate treatment. Why? Because they live far from where adequate help can be found or because they don’t have the financial capacity to pay for psychotherapy.

As in all heath issues, the earlier treatment starts, the better the results. But with difficulties such as cost and having to travel every week for Psychology sessions, people arrive for their first session on average 10 to 12 years after having the first symptoms, which makes panic disorder more difficult and longer to treat.

At Oficina de Psicologia we are trying to make it easier for them, as we want to develop a web-based intervention. This first line of treatment does not replace individual and face-to-face good old psychotherapy, of course, but it’s a very good starting point to help preventing the disorder to progress and, if needed, it can also be used as a stand alone intervention able to produce significant results by itself.

Being an automated solution, based on international best practices and scientific guidelines for the initial psychotherapy treatment of panic disorder, it allows for an extremely low cost. And being online, it is available for anyone having a computer and an internet connection, anywhere in the world.

In order to develop First Line for Panic we need your help. Together, we can start healing panic disorder in the world. Shall we?

A nossa psicoterapia

About the author

Oficina de Psicologia is the leading Psychotherapy Clinic in Portugal. It’s been around for the past 6 years, changing minds and lives. Everyday we post information about mental health, and interviewed several times a week by national media, reaching thousands of people. We run 5 Psychology websites in Portuguese, receiving over 80.000 monthly different visitors and have grown to 160.000 fans in Facebook.

We take our responsibilities in healthcare very seriously, knowing that we have to contribute to the limit of our abilities to the well-being of people in need. So, over the years we have developed services and specific intervention programs for those who require help but have financial constraints limiting their access to quality psychological healthcare. We also have differentiated prices, ranging from 3.6€ to 65€ a session, and leave it to our clients to choose whatever suits their specific budget situation.

Budget and due dates

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