Panic Attacks: What Are They, and Why Do They Happen?
Have you ever had a panic attack? If you have, you know that they feel absolutely awful. At their worst, they can actually feel like they’re going to take your life. And in fact, that can actually happen — but before you panic, let’s take a deep breath. In general, panic attacks are absolutely harmless, and they come because they are triggered by stress, resolving on their own. Medical experts, however, no longer think that they are harmless if you experience them very frequently. Why do they happen? We’ll talk about the symptoms in a minute, but first, let’s talk about what causes them. Panic attacks are not the result of any disease, but instead are the result of an overblown response to fear and stress.
With extremely stressful situations, normal responses are to fight or flee. This fight or flight response is absolutely normal under truly life-threatening situations. However, panic attacks happen when this fight or flight response is overblown physically so that the body is suddenly flooded with adrenaline and epinephrine, which causes the body to respond to the stress as though the person were experiencing an extremely dangerous situation. For those who suffer from panic attacks, experiences can last anywhere from 15 seconds to 30 minutes. Women are more likely to suffer from panic attacks than men are.
Panic attacks are unpredictable and frightening episodes and can occur anywhere and anytime. A person experiences mounting fear may have two or more symptoms. One can experience panic attacks in stressful situations but experiencing frequent panic attacks is a disorder – panic disorder.
Panic disorder is different from but related to the condition of panic attacks. You experience panic attack symptoms, which can be liberally disabling. For example, you may have feelings of terror or dread, shortness of breath, a racing heart, trembling or shaking is, an upset stomach, tingling sensations or numbness, a feeling that you’re joking, suffocating, or even that you might die — or least lose control.
What causes panic attacks isn’t quite known, but they generally occur because both your mind and body react together to intense fear. Again, this is a perfectly normal reaction and actually to be desired if a situation is truly dangerous, such as a near miss with a car accident. However, it’s not normal in the context of panic attacks, which occur in truly benign situations. Panic attacks may occur because of genetic malfunction, in that you are more likely to have panic disorder if family members have also had panic attacks or depression. Medications can also cause panic attacks as side effects, and stress can also cause panic attacks.
Stress especially can trigger panic attacks. This is especially true for protracted stress or a life-changing situation. For example, if you’ve recently lost a very close relative, you may begin to experience panic attacks. You may not know you’re having a panic attack when you first begin to experience your first one, but may simply be perplexed (and very scared) because you feel like you’re going to lose control. One of panic attacks’ hallmarks is that the body reacts to any fear as though there’s a very dangerous situation to be faced, when in fact nothing of the sort is true.
In many cases, both the body and mind reacts to fear. A person experiences severe depression or emotional stress which causes the body to exhibit the identified symptoms. Even thinking of panic attacks can trigger the real attack and excessive fear of life-threatening conditions and situations can bring on the attack. The mind registers the fear and the body responds.
If you have had panic attack symptoms very frequently, see a doctor. First of all, you should rule out any physical disorders that could be actually causing the panic attacks. If none are found, medications can help control the panic attacks, and you may also seek counseling and therapy. These sessions can help you understand your fears, while a trained therapist can also expose you to them so that you must face them and ultimately get them back under control.
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Written by Gordon Dalwood on November 10th, 2009 with
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