Anxiety & Panic Disorders


Panic Attacks

Anxiety is simply a normal reaction to stress, and in and of itself, is not a bad thing. It’s a state of apprehension that helps us deal with tense situations, or those situations outside our normal experience, or “comfort zone”. It comes into play countless times ranging from helping us focus on making a speech in the classroom or the boardroom, to heightening our awareness in heavy traffic, or while walking alone at night.

But when anxiety becomes excessive or irrational, it turns into panic. Unlike anxiety, panic is a sudden overwhelming fear that produces hysterical or irrational behavior. It tends to produce a “fight or flight” response to danger, and often the urge to run and hide in the face of imminent disaster. (Learn what to do here!)

A panic attack is an intense, sudden onset of overwhelming fear or distress, that happens abruptly without any warning or apparent reason. This irrational dread of everyday situations can become temporarily disabling. Someone who suffers from frequent panic attacks can develop a panic disorder from these experiences of terrifying feelings coming over them with no obvious rhyme or reason.

What Happens During a Panic Attack

Panic attacks bring on some of the fastest and most complex changes experienced by the human body. These drastic changes affect the functioning of many major organs and muscle groups. It’s no wonder so many, especially first time sufferers, believe themselves to be “going crazy” or “about to die”. Even traumatic injuries and poisons often have less overall effect.

In response to panic, and in preparation for major strenuous activity, the body floods the bloodstream with adrenaline and other chemicals. With no real threat to expend itself against, the body is left with drastically altered pH and carbon dioxide levels in the blood. The net effect is to worsen the physical symptoms which in turn reinforce the sense that something is wrong. This becomes a negative feedback loop that eventually ends in exhaustion.

Physical Symptoms:

Mental Symptoms:

What’s at the Root of a Panic Attack

As can be seen from the above list of symptoms, panic attacks often masquerade as some sort of physical illness. Nearly every panic sufferer believes they have a serious medical disorder, of a physical or psychological nature, and end up visiting countless doctors for treatment of new symptoms as they appear.

While it’s true that in some cases, various medications and/or therapy may be useful in treating panic disorders, it’s also true that an amazing number of folks find relief and an ultimate cure after taking advantage of other techniques to cure panic attacks.

A Common Disorder

Panic and anxiety attacks are the most common emotional disorders, ranking above schizophrenia, bipolar, phobias, depression, and alcohol abuse. They are also a disorder having the lowest rate of people looking for help and getting it.

At some point in their lives, about one in seventy-five people worldwide will experience a panic attack. Over the course of each year, approximately one third of adults in America have a panic attack, although most never develop a pattern of repeated attacks.

For those who do experience repeated attacks, about one in ten get to where, after several months, they are unable to leave home alone. After some years approximately a third can’t keep a job or means of earning an income. As sufferers feel more and more closed off from life and social interaction, the risk for alcoholism and chronic depression increases greatly.

How to Eliminate Panic Attacks

But the outcome described above doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Panic disorder can be readily diagnosed by those qualified and trained to do so. There are ways to treat panic that have proven highly successful over many years and not all of them depend on therapy and medication.

All too often, folks spend a considerable amount of time and money trying to find a way to end their panic and anxiety attacks and yet don’t succeed. This is simply because they’re focused only on treating symptoms as opposed to getting at the underlying cause. Although there are some cases that may indeed require medical treatment and/or therapy, there are an overwhelming number of people that have used a different approach and completely eliminated their panic attacks forever.

Don’t Let Panic Win

Panic is what keeps panic going, both during an attack and as the thing that can lead to panic disorder. The expectation of another “attack” and worrying about when it might come, causes them to happen more frequently and become more intense with each occurrence.

If you or someone you care about suffer from anxiety attacks or panic attacks, there is an abundance of information on treatment and how to go about eliminating this disorder. Do some investigating and find out how to be rid of these for life.

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