What are Panic Attacks?
A panic attack occurs out of the blue. You have this intense feeling of fear and doom and you are terrified. Physiologically your heart rate is elevated, you may be shaky, and you feel as if you are going to have a seizure or worse. You feel that you must escape the environment or situation you are in immediately or something terrible may happen.
Other symptoms of a panic attack include: tightness of chest and feeling like you cannot take a deep breath, dizziness or feeling light headed, trembling and sweating, hyperventilation, tightness of throat and difficulty swallowing, hot flashes or chills and the immense fear of going crazy or death.
Living with the fear of another attack
A Panic Disorder is diagnosed when you are heaving frequent attacks and live in fear of having another one. This fear can become so intense that the person will not leave the house, having developed agoraphobia. Once you have an attack you fear going back to that same place anticipating that you will have another.
Panic attacks are a form of anxiety that can literally disable people. Once you have had an attack in a certain area you may feel anticipatory anxiety and will not be able to go to that place unless you get some treatment to handle the panic disorder. The real intense feelings last only a couple minutes and they gradually disappear in 30 minutes to several hours. If this is your first attack and you do not have any mental health providers, you should go to the emergency room and have them rule out any medical condition.
Who Suffers from Panic Attacks?
Commonly, the person with panic attacks may have some other mental illness as well, including General Anxiety Disorder and Depression. It occurs more often in women and usually onsets between the twenties and thirties or childbearing years. Teens and people in their in their forties are also vulnerable. This could be due to lifestyle and stress.
What Causes a Panic Attacks?
No one knows for sure where panic attacks come from, but there can be hereditary and biochemical causes such as elevated stress hormones. People describe their attacks as very frightening and uncomfortable. The attack stimulates the “fight or flight” action and the sympathetic nervous system is responsible for the physical symptoms.
Other triggers for panic attacks can include Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and vitamin B deficiency. Other triggers may be a break up with a partner, another significant life change, or illness. It has been suggested with growing evidence that people who suffer with panic attacks are non-assertive passive people.
A panic attack once triggered, releases epinephrine, the chemical that induces the fight or flight response. This will lead to the physiological reactions discussed. These symptoms make the person feel like they are having a nervous breakdown or are suffering from a severe medical condition.
If it is your first attack, it is best to rule out medical conditions that mimic panic attack symptoms.
The above information is based on my real experience and online research. Please check with your doctor before trying new techniques or medications.
