For some individuals the first panic attack appears "out of the blue," but usually the first panic attack occurs during an extended period of stress. This is stress that extends over several months and may be major events in a person's life, such as a marriage or the birth of a child.
These events have a two-fold effect. First the person has the event itself to deal with and second the person may begin to doubt his personal stability to meet the future demands of the event. Therefore, the person becomes more concerned with the possibility of failure that continually undermines his confidence and gradually those concerns translate into fear and panic.
However, recent studies have also linked high levels of anxiety and spontaneous panic attacks with a "day after effect" of drug and alcohol use. Furthermore, there is a significant number of people, especially teens and young adults are now showing signs of chronic and persistent anxiety with spontaneous panics after the use of Ecstasy.
What most people, including some doctors, don't realize is that people often have panic attacks in their sleep. These are either caused by panic disorder or are identified as "Night Terrors". Most nighttime panics take place during non-REM sleep, which means they do not occur in response to dreams or nightmares. It is important to note that these nocturnal panic attacks not Night Terrors. They do have similarities however in that they produce sudden awakening and extreme reactions from the body. Furthermore, a person who experiences a Night Terror tends to have amnesia for it and returns to sleep without trouble. He also can become physically active during the terror - tossing and turning, fighting, sometimes screaming loudly or jumping out of bed. In contrast nocturnal panic attacks tend to cause insomnia and the person has a vivid memory of the panic attack.
What is a panic attack?
Anxiety and panic are normal body functions. Anxiety is the way the body heightens the senses when someone is in potentially dangerous situation and panic is part of the "fight or flight" response to immediate danger. The problem arises when these body responses occur spontaneously and without no apparent reason.
What are the symptoms of a spontaneous panic attack?
Some of the most common early signs of a panic attack is breathing rapidly, the presence of the feeling of pins and needles in the extremities, repeated yawning and sighing, constant feelings of being tired or sleepy and muscle cramps. Most of these symptoms last about 10 minutes then pass and return in 20 minute intervals.
Chills or hot flashes: Typically experienced as a feeling of intense heat with sweating and rapid heartbeat, and may typically last from two to thirty minutes for each occurrence.
Difficulty breathing: Appears as it would under normal heavy exertion.
Dizziness or feeling faint: an impairment in spatial perception and stability. Sometimes described by a patient as the feeling of being giddy or light headed.
Intense feeling of terror: An acute sense of inescapable danger.
Nausea. a sensation of discomfort in the upper stomach with a sensation of an involuntary urge to vomit.
Pounding heart or chest pain: an abnormality of heartbeat that causes a conscious awareness of its beating or an aching or sharp pain in the chest.
Sensation of choking or smothering: An inadequate flow of air into the lungs sometimes accompanied by coughing.
Sense of Impending Doom: A fear that you are losing control, are about to die, or a feeling of being acutely ill.
Sweating: abnormally increased perspiration, in excess of that required for regulation of body temperature. Sweating can either be generalized or localized to specific parts of the body. Like the hands, feet, armpits, and the groin.
Trembling or shaking: can affect the hands, arms, eyes, face, head, vocal cords, trunk, legs and even teeth, (as in chattering of teeth).
What are some of the treatment options?
One of the most difficult problems for individuals with panic disorder is getting the right diagnosis. Panic disorder is regarded as one of the great impostors of medicine because its symptoms are similar to those found in a number of physical ailments, including heart attacks, some respiratory illnesses and thyroid diseases. Once diagnosed and proper treatment begun, recovery may occur in a matter of months, but can take longer depending on individual circumstances.
Up until recently the most successful treatment regimens include a combination of behavior therapy and drug therapy. Support groups have also shown to be extremely useful, because it is reassuring to know that a panic attack sufferer is not alone
There are a number of anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications that can be effective in controlling panic disorder. The medication regimen may last just a few weeks, but in many cases this therapy may be required for years. Medication is usually accompanied by other therapy, however, because the majority of patients treated only with drugs relapse once the medication is discontinued.
What's the most effective treatment available?
More recently a new trend in treatment has shown to be extremely affective against panic attacks and all sorts of anxiety disorders and phobias. While other treatments focus on "dealing" with the panic attacks. This new type of self-help treatment focuses on stopping the panic attack before it occurs. A simple and inexpensive, all natural cure that reportedly works extremely well.
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