If you’ve suffered from a panic attack before or have witnessed someone you care about go through one, you know that it’s a rough thing to deal with.
There are a significant amount of people who suffer from panic disorder.
With panic disorder, people obviously have panic attacks. However, if you have experienced a panic attack before, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have panic disorder. It could just have been an isolated incident, not reoccurring for the rest of your life.
A panic attack is where you experience an incredible sense of fear.
When confronted with danger, your body goes into either fight, flight, or freeze responses. With panic attacks, you are just flying. Your body experiences the same feelings it would have if for example, someone was trying to mug you, except there is no one mugging you or chasing after you. There’s no discernible reason why you should be feeling this onset of crippling fear, but you’re experiencing it nonetheless. In other words, there is no tangible thing happening in that moment to cause you such fear.
Panic attack symptoms can last for up to an hour, leaving sufferers feeling drained. Some people may think they’re having a heart attack, which is quite scary to say the least.
If you have more than 4 of these symptoms, you may be having a panic attack:
- heart pounding
- shaking
- dizziness
- sweating
- choking
- nausea
- short breath
- chest pain
- numbness
- chills
- hot flashes
- feeling like you’re going crazy, about to die, etc.
If you’re having panic attacks on a regular basis, you may have panic disorder.
One theory why people may develop panic disorder is if they experienced a traumatic event in their lives that was never dealt with psychologically. Stored feelings that someone may have had at one point continually gets revisited.
Or, even worrying about your next panic attack can actually bring one on! There is a link to agoraphobia simply because of this fear of having a panic attack again. Just the fear of having one before can lead to more in the future. So, it is a cyclical problem.
If you do have a panic disorder, you may have a hard time getting your family or friends to understand it. They might under react to the severity of your issues. Saying, “it’s all in your head”, or “just calm down”. Whatever the case, it can make you feel as if you’re alone.
Just know that, you are never alone, even if you feel that way.
There’s always ways to receive help, talk to people who understand you, and surround yourself with others who are supportive of you.
Seeking a therapist to discuss things with is a great way to start the process of healing.
The silver lining in all of this is that panic attacks are treatable.
They can be helped through cognitive behavioral therapy. We can uncover the reasons behind your panic attacks, which is a huge step. When you want to overcome something, you need to understand it.