Panic attacks can come on suddenly, without warning, even in a person who has no history of previous panic attacks or anxiety disorders. This can be frightening and alarming to the person who is experiencing the attack. Often, panic attacks happen without the person being aware they are feeling anxious and in a place they believe they are safe and entirely comfortable.
Symptoms of Panic Attack
Often, people who have panic attacks report that they feel as if they are totally and completely out of control and as if they are having a heart attack and will die. This makes them deeply afraid and provokes fear in them. They feel as if they are entirely alone in their fears and experience deep feelings of anxiety and physical discomfort.
Common symptoms of having a panic attack include feeling as if your heart is racing or increased heart rhythm, breaking into a cold sweat, tremors, difficulty breathing or hyperventilation, chest pressure, chest pains, nausea, dizziness, disassociation, feelings of being out of control, fears of dying, chills, tingling or numbness in the hands and feet.
What are Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder?
Panic attacks and panic disorder are not well understood. It is known that people who have the disorder have a dysfunction of the brain that makes their bodies and minds hypervigilant, so that their nervous systems are constantly on high alert. This makes the adrenal glands work overtime and the person experiences unexplained panic in situations that are otherwise completely normal and safe.
What is understood about panic disorder and panic attacks, however, is that stress can trigger an attack and exercise and diet play a role in reducing stress levels and adrenalin in the body.
Many people who have panic attacks have significant and debilitating fears about having another attack. This actually increases their anxiety and stress levels and can bring on additional attacks. Without treatment, it is possible for a person to become entirely frozen and isolated in their fears and soon they become lost in a cycle of attacks and fear.
Treatment for Panic Attacks
The best recommended treatment for panic attacks is a combination of psychotherapy and medication to manage the symptoms and anxiety that come with this disorder. Psychotherapy often focuses on behavioral methods to control the anxiety symptoms, including relaxation techniques and stress reduction techniques. Other recommended adjunctive activities include yoga and exercise to help reduce stress.
Self education is also key to helping to manage the anxiety that is associated with panic disorders. Many people report that just learning about the disorder and discovering that they are not alone goes a long way to making them feel better about their illness. There are many books available that provide extensive information about anxiety and panic attacks.
Patients can also find assistance by going to clinics dedicated to mood disorders, including anxiety, post traumatic stress, generalized anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Panic attacks are not life threatening and they are not fatal, even though they are uncomfortable and frightening, but with education, medication and therapy, they need not be debilitating.
