Panic Attacks: What Are They, and Why Do They Happen?
If you’ve ever had a panic attack, you know that they feel horrible. In fact, they feel life threatening. And if you believe they actually are, you’d be right. In general, these episodes are harmless, are triggered by stress, and resolve on their own. However, medical experts no longer think that they are simply harmless if they are experienced very frequently. What causes them to happen? Before we talk about the symptoms, let’s talk about what causes them. In fact, panic attacks are not the result of disease but instead a condition sparked by an “overdone” reaction to stress and fear.
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.
What makes panic attacks so disabling is that they are unpredictable, so that they can be experienced anywhere, anytime. People who suffer from them never know when they’re going to experience one. When a panic attack begins, there first may be mounting fear, followed by several symptoms. Panic attacks can occur in stressful situations for anyone occasionally, but if you experience frequent panic attacks, you have panic disorder.
Panic disorder earned from but relevant to the condition of panic attacks. You experience the same symptoms, which can be very immobilizing. You may have, for example, feelings of terror or dread, racing heart, shortness of breath, excessive sweating, dizziness, nausea, shakiness or trembling, abdominal upset, numbness or tingling sensations, choking sensations, and a feeling that you might die or at least lose control.
The exact cause of panic attacks is yet unknown, but they occur because your mind and body react to intense fear, and again, while this is a normal reaction in a truly dangerous situation, it’s not when panic attacks occur. It may be as a result of genetic malfunction. For example, panic disorder is more likely if family members have had episodes of panic attacks or have had depression. In addition to genetic components, panic attacks may be also caused by stress and medication.
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.
Most panic attack cases have both the mind and body reacting to fear. For example, if you experience severe depression or emotional stress, your body can have panic attack reactions, which exacerbates the mental fear, which further exacerbates physical symptoms, and so on. As you can see, it’s a vicious cycle. And unfortunately, even thinking of having a panic attack in very severe situations can actually cause one. The mind first registers the fear, which causes the body to respond.
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.