Panic Attack (Anxiety Attack) Help.

Panic attack, anxiety, anxiety attacks, panic disorder.

You're not alone. Panic Attacks and Anxiety Disorder (including anxiety attacks) affects 12 % of the world’s adult population (ages 18 to 54).

While everyone experiences brief anxiety caused by a stressful event, anxiety disorder is recurring, persistent, can get worse over time, and often restricts the individual's lifestyle.

Anxiety Disorder is a condition that can affect a person both physically and psychologically. It often starts with intermittent underlying symptoms, and over time, can be followed by persistent intensified symptoms (for a list of some of the more common symptoms, see below). Other indicators can include a sense of being overwhelmed, feeling stressed, unexplainable mood swings, depression, excessive worry, anxiety and fear.

Anxiety disorder doesn't have to be a life-long condition. The worst thing you can do is nothing! Anxiety disorder (as well as panic attacks) almost never goes away by itself. The longer nothing is done the more entrenched it often becomes. However, with the right information lasting normal health can be attained.

"When I was suffering with severe anxiety disorder including intense panic attacks, many people told me that I might have to live with it (and be on medication) for the rest of my life. I'm certainly glad I didn't follow their advice." - Jim Folk

If you are experiencing panic attacks or anxiety, you can regain control of your health...naturally and permanently. You can live a normal life again...and medication free!

Don't suffer needlessly--because you don't have to. Discover what you can do today to regain your normal health.

ABOUT ANXIETY AND PANIC ATTACKS (they are the same thing), AND ANXIETY DISORDERS:

There are several categories associated with anxiety disorder, each having their own specific causes and characteristics. While some of the symptoms associated with each category may be unique, the majority of symptoms are common to all types.

The National Institute of Mental Health lists the six main categories of anxiety disorder as:

Panic disorder
Panic disorder is described as a sudden attack of terror, intense fear, or feelings of impending doom that strike without warning and for no apparent reason. This can be immediately followed by a number of symptoms including pounding heart, rapid heart rate, nausea, hot or cold flashes, chest pain, hands and feet may feel numb, you may be lightheaded or woozy, irrational thoughts, fear of losing control and a number of other symptoms. The peak of an attack can range anywhere between 5 to 30 minutes, but the symptoms can last much longer.

While many people have at least one panic attack in the course of their lifetime, panic disorder affects approximately 3% of the population. Panic disorder often begins in adolescence or early adulthood, and as is reportedly more likely to develop in women than in men. However, the statistics may be misleading because men are more reluctant to seek professional help.

If diagnosed early, panic disorder can be treated successfully. But if left untreated, it can develop into a more complex and lengthy condition. However, with today’s treatments the success rate can be very high. Treatments include Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Behavior Therapy (BT), and medication.

Panic disorder often co-occurs with other disorders such as depression and GAD.

Generalized anxiety disorder
Most people experience anxiety on and off throughout the course of their life, but those who suffer with GAD do so on a day to day basis. Their anxiety becomes chronic and fills their life with exaggerated worry and tension, even though the subject they are worrying about doesn’t warrant it. Individuals with this disorder are always anticipating doom, disaster, and ‘the worst’. They often worry about their health, money, family, work, and the world in general. Often their reason for worry is hard to pinpoint. Even the thought of getting through another day can bring on anxiety.

Individuals with GAD feel that they can’t stop worrying, even though they know the subject they are worrying about isn’t that serious. They can also experience accompanying symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, aches and pains, difficulty swallowing or as having something stuck in their throat, trembling, twitching, irritability, hot and cold flashes, profuse sweating for no reason, and often feel lightheaded or ‘dizzy’. They may also feel nauseated or that they have to go to the washroom frequently.

Individuals with GAD feel that they can’t relax and startle more easily than others. They may also have difficulty in concentrating or that they feel joyless and frustrated. Often their sleep patterns are disrupted with their inability to sleep becoming yet another reason to worry or be anxious.

People with GAD often appear just fine and can go about their day seemingly normal. However, it’s their thought and internal life that undergoes the turmoil.

GAD affects about 6% of the population and affects twice as many women as it does men. The disorder usually comes on gradually and can begin at any age, though it is more frequent between childhood and middle age. Those who experience incessant worry for six months or more are typically diagnosed as having GAD.

GAD often co-occurs with other disorders such as depression, or substance abuse.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder
OCD involves anxious thoughts or rituals the individual feels they must do or can’t control. Individuals with OCD may be plagued by persistent, unwelcome thoughts or images, or by the urgent need to engage in certain rituals like repeatedly washing their hands, repeatedly checking things, counting things, organizing things, and so on.

They may have relentless thoughts of violence or a fear that they may hurt someone they love or are close to. They may have a continual desire to touch things, to symmetrically organize things, repeated thoughts of sexual acts that are repugnant to them, or maybe troubled by thoughts that are against their religious beliefs.

These disturbing thoughts or images are called obsessions, and the rituals that are performed to try to get rid of them are called compulsions. There is no pleasure in doing the rituals, but only temporary relief from the anxiety that builds when they don’t perform them.

A lot of healthy people can identify with some OCD symptoms, such as checking to make sure the door is locked when going to bed or leaving home, or double and often triple checking to make sure the iron is off. However, individuals with OCD spend hours doing this, and are very distressed because it interferes with their daily life.

Most individuals with this condition recognize that what they are doing is senseless, but they feel they can’t stop themselves. However, some people don’t recognize that their behavior is out of the ordinary.

OCD affects approximately 4% of the population and it equally affects both men and women. One third of adults with OCD report having experienced their first symptoms as children. OCD can come and go over time, as well as it can ease or grow worse with age.

Depression and other anxiety disorders most often co-occur with OCD. Like other anxiety disorders, OCD can be successfully treated.

Social phobia (or social anxiety disorder)
Social phobia, also called Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), is a condition whereby the individual feels overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations. In a sense, the individual becomes extremely self-conscious in social environments. People with SAD have a persistent, intense, and chronic fear of being watched and judged by others and being embarrassed or humiliated by their own actions. This fear may be so severe that it interferes with work, school, or any other ordinary activities.

While many people with SAD recognize that their fear of being around people is unusually excessive, they are unable to overcome it. And often, they worry for days or weeks prior to a social situation.

SAD can be a limited to one type of situation, like speaking in public, or it can be as severe as to encompass many or all social situations.

Symptoms can include any of the symptoms associated with anxiety disorder, and can often contribute to the anxiety of a social situation because of the fear associated with the symptoms coming at an ‘inopportune time’ or visible enough for others to notice.

SAD affects approximately 7% of the population and equally affects women and men. This disorder usually begins in childhood or early adolescence. SAD often co-occurs with other anxiety disorders such as depression, substance abuse and panic disorder.

SAD can be successfully treated.

Phobias (including specific phobias)
A specific phobia is an intense fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Examples include closed in spaces, heights, escalators, elevators, tunnels, driving, flying, spiders, snakes, and so on. In addition, these phobias aren’t just extreme fears but include irrational fears such as being able to skydive but can’t use an elevator. While the individual understands that these fears are irrational, they can’t do anything to change how they feel, and often just the thought of facing their feared object is enough to bring on intense anxiety and even panic attacks.

It is estimated that 6% of the population is affected by specific phobias while it is twice as common in women as it is in men. These phobias generally first appear during childhood or early adolescence.

If the object of their fear is easy to avoid, most often the individual won’t seek treatment. Unfortunately, this usually influences the individual when making important life decisions such as not taking an important career advancement because of having to use an elevator.

Specific phobias can be successfully treated.

Post-traumatic stress disorder
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD) is a condition that can develop following a terrifying event. Often, individuals with PSTD have persistent thoughts and memories of this event and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to. PSTD can result from a number of traumatic incidents such as violent attacks, mugging, rape, torture, terrorism, being held captive, child abuse, serious accidents and natural disasters. The trigger event can be something that threatened the person’s life or the life of someone very close to them, or it could be something they had witnessed, such as a death and destruction from a plane crash, bombing or building devastation.

Some individuals with PSTD repeatedly relive their trauma through dreams, nightmares and disturbing memories throughout the day. They may also experience sleep problems, feel alienated from reality, or easily startled. Other behaviors they may experience include the inability to show affection, have difficulty maintaining an interest in things they used to enjoy, they may feel irritable, more aggressive, and even violent.

Memories of the trauma can be very distressing for them, and can lead them to avoid certain places or situations that bring back those memories. Anniversaries of the event are often difficult as well.
PTSD affects approximately 6% of the population, and women are more likely than men to develop this condition. It can occur at anytime, including childhood.

PTSD often co-occurs with depression, substance abuse and panic disorder.

PTSD is diagnosed only if the symptoms last for more than a month. For those who develop PTSD, symptoms usually begin within three months of the event, and the course of illness varies from individual to individual. Occasionally, this condition doesn’t show up until years after the event.

PTSD can be successfully treated.

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH ANXIETY DISORDERS:

There is much left to discover about the many causes of anxiety disorder. It’s thought that any individual, given the right circumstances, can develop it. The following represents what is presently known.

Genetics
Research has shown that there is a genetic link to anxiety disorder. If someone in your family experiences anxiety disorder, there is a 25% chance that someone else in the family already does or will experience it as well.

This doesn’t mean that you should expect it to be the case. However, if there are two or more people in the family experiencing anxiety disorder, this is common.

Another consideration is that many people either don’t know that anxiety disorder is causing their symptoms, or that they won’t admit that it is a condition that THEY have.

Typically, women are more forthcoming about their condition, whereas men are more reluctant. If you are trying to determine if someone in your family has had or has anxiety disorder, you may have to do some investigative work to truly find out.

Environment/Upbringing
The environment you grew up in, or presently live in, play a role in anxiety disorders. If you grew up with a parent or live with a spouse that worries a lot, chances are you may pick up that habit as well. I call it a habit because worrying or being anxious about situations can become a learned approach to how you look at everyday life and the future.

Another factor is whether you grew up in, or are presently in a stressful environment or situation. Since stress can increase your anxiety level, being in a stressful circumstance for an extended period of time can lead to an anxiety disorder. Examples include being in a family where one or both parents are often threatening or abusive, if you have been sexually assaulted or violated, if you’ve been held captive, live or work in a threatening or unusually noisy environment, have a high stress job, and so on.

If the body is continually under stress without the opportunity to properly rest, the effects of sustained stress can bring on anxiety disorder.

Early trauma has also been shown to bring on anxiety disorder later in life. Research has found that those who experienced a traumatic event early in life were more prone to develop anxiety disorder as they grow older. Some believe that once the brain’s “panic circuitry” is opened, it is accessed more easily. Others believe that it’s the brain’s ability to remember an earlier traumatic event that leads the individual to respond in a hypervigilant manner.

Biochemistry
Ongoing research continues to bring forward new theories on how the various body systems and chemistries work together, and how their individual and combined actions can impact the health of the body’s biological and psychological make up.

Studies have shown that certain behavioral traits and symptoms are related to a ‘chemical imbalance’ in the body. For example, hormonal swings can cause heightened feelings of anxiety. Many women notice an increase in their anxiety and the frequency of panic attacks in sync with their menstrual cycle.

Stress also plays a key role in the onset and aggravation of anxiety disorder. Stress causes certain hormone levels to increase in the body. It’s been shown that heightened levels of stress hormones cause increased feelings of anxiety and even panic.

Diet can also impact anxiety disorder. Since the body constantly monitors and adjusts its internal chemical balance automatically, radical blood sugar or stimulant levels can also produce anxiety and even panic attacks. For example, when the body senses it has unusually low blood sugar the brain sounds a warning that it needs to produce more blood sugar and does so by stimulating (among others) a hormone called adrenaline. Adrenaline stimulates the body to produce blood sugar. Unfortunately, adrenaline is also a stress hormone and an increase in this hormone causes anxiety and even panic as a side affect. Similarly, stimulants like caffeine can also produce the same affect.

Sleep also plays a role. Lack of sleep has been shown to increase the body’s stress hormone levels. Did you know that a person will die quicker from a lack of sleep than from a lack of food? Good sleep habits are vital for good health.

Underlying health conditions such as Pituitary Dysfunction, Thyroid disorders, Multiple Sclerosis and heart disease (to name a few) can also produce anxiety and anxiety-like symptoms. That’s why it’s vital to have a complete medical evaluation done in order to rule out other ‘causes’ of anxiety conditions.

Part One of this web site provides in-depth information about the body’s biological and psychological make up and the role they play in anxiety disorder.

While there is a lot known about anxiety disorder, there is much more to learn. Fortunately, ongoing research continues with new strides being made everyday.

Personality characteristics
Research indicates that there is an identifiable ‘anxiety disorder’ personality. People with this personality type are more prone to develop anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorder personality traits include:
• A perfectionist approach to life – things must be done to the best of their ability.
• Often things have to be done THEIR way.
• They want things done NOW.
• Everything has to be in place or done BEFORE they can rest.
• Relaxation is very low on their priority list.
• They almost always have too much to do and not enough time to do it.
• They like to be in control and have all the angles figured out.
• They have many interests.
• They have high expectations and expect others to meet THEIR expectations as well.
• They are analytical thinkers, and often worry about the ‘what ifs’.
• They like to be liked and accepted by others.
• They have a martyr complex – do as much as they can to please others and often overload their plate with “Sure I can do that for you. No problem.”
• Tend to be more animated and have a tendency to over-react.

For more information about the ‘anxiety personality’, there is a full section on it in the Member's Area. Click here to become a member of Anxietycentre.com to read this, and a wealth of other information about anxiety including a natural recovery strategy.

While the characteristics in themselves aren’t harmful, it’s the effect they have on the lifestyle and nervous system of the individual that can cause anxiety disorder to appear.

Medication and drug abuse
Another consideration includes the effects of medication (both prescription and over-the-counter). Since each body is unique, medications will affect everyone differently. What is effective for one person may be ineffective for another. As well, what is harmless for one may be harmful to another.

Similarly, a common or popular medication may produce no lingering side effects for one person, yet may be very problematic for another.

It’s known that adverse side affects can sometimes increase anxiety and even produce panic attacks, with the anxious condition persisting beyond the use of the medication.
Also, prescription and over-the-counter medications, even though tested before market release, have the potential to negatively affect the body especially when taken in combination, or in multiples (two or more prescription medications combined with one or more over-the-counter medications). It’s important to discuss EVERY medication with your doctor AND your pharmacist before taking them (including herbal remedies).

Recreational drugs can also lead to anxiety disorder. It’s common for those using recreational drugs to experience heightened levels of euphoria, excitement, paranoia and fear. These heightened feelings and emotions can sometimes produce panic attacks which can lead to sustained anxiety disorder and even more attacks long after the recreational drug has left the body.

Unfortunately, this factor is becoming more common and is associated with both recreational drugs and alcohol. Because many of the recreational drugs affect the same parts of the brain and body chemistry that anxiety disorder does, there exists a fine line between remaining healthy and inviting illness whenever they are induced.

Lastly, prescription anti-anxiety, anti-depressant and mood altering medications hold the potential for lasting problems. This is because these medications directly affect the brain and body to degrees that aren’t yet fully understood. While these types of medications can help reduce anxiety disorder symptoms, they also have the potential to pose a long-term health risk. I hope more will become known about this as research continues. In my experience, the majority of people I have talked with over the last ten years have had their condition complicated and extended solely because of the medication they were prescribed.

I experienced the same type of complication. I was prescribed a number of medications only to later discover severe difficulty in dealing with their long term negative affects. Only after being off of medication and fully away from their residual affects was I able to see the significant difference.

Unfortunately, many front line medical professionals often recommend these medications as their “first and only line of treatment” rather than providing a more comprehensive approach. I recommend seeking the help of a professional anxiety disorder specialist even though your doctor believes he or she knows how to manage an anxiety disorder condition. The help of a professional anxiety disorder specialist is your best bet for a full and lasting treatment.

With today’s proliferation and promotion of new ‘designer’ and ‘social’ drugs, it’s vital that you be fully engaged in managing your personal health. Seek the best professional help, then, work closely with them.

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