I'm guessing the diagnosis is panic disorder? Most people with this disorder have a physiological slash biological predisposition to feeling anxiety more often, due to something like an overactive sympathetic nervous system system. Something interesting that came out of studies on people with this disorder is that they exhibit certain unique beliefs and characteristics that essentially maintain the issue. For one, they're overly focused on the physical symptoms of their anxiety. They careful monitor and examine their internal, visceral states. It's like if you feel sick for some reason, you have the option of not paying attention to it, going about your day and allowing yourself to be distracted by other activities until the discomfort passes. People with panic disorder do the opposite. They peer within and bring a magnifying glass to their discomfort. They dissect it, they analyze it, and then the last step is that they interpret that discomfort as meaning something, usually something catastrophic. So the physical symptoms of anxiety get interpreted as being dangerous, as though an impending life-ending health event is coming. The fear of this supposed incoming health event then creates a feedback loop which creates even more anxiety and makes it more likely for a panic attack to occur.
Basically there are cognitive distortions at play that absolutely can be worked on, and probably have to be worked on for any degree of real recovery. Without these two cognitive habits / distortions (magnifying glass on physical symptoms + catastrophic interpretation) the person simply returns to her natural state of being a person prone to anxiety, certainly, but nothing more -- they wouldn't be able to hold the diagnosis. Drugs are nice and all, but they can't fix things on a deeper, more meaningful level.
