Understand Panic Attacks:
Their Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options. Panic attacks are very intense episodes of anxiety or uneasiness that start within minutes and then build to a maximum. The attacks are totally disabling and incapacitating which may affect their ability to continue his life such as the cognitive impairment. The better knowledge related to a panic attack will help the patient and the family. This article contains many causes, symptoms, treatments for the management, as well as techniques on how one can prevent having panic attacks.
It is an abrupt attack of anxiety and panic. That attack might sometimes give the feeling as if one was going to get a heart attack or even die. That becomes really scary to its severity thus provoking people into the avoidance of the things or situation they used to get involved which now have brought such an attack.
Diagnostic Criteria
At least four of the symptoms in DSM-5 would be classified to be in a panic attack:
Palpitations or tachycardia: Such describes the beating of the heart as racing inside the chest or thudding.
Sweating: Has cold chills but also experiences heat flashes. Trembling or Shaking: Some people experience their body to thud with an uncontrollable form of shaking and shuddering.
Shortness of Breathing: Feeling as though they cannot get a breath in, they are choking.
Chest Pain or Tightness: Feel they are having an attack.
Nausea or Stomach Upset: Nauseated or stomach cramps.
Dizziness or Lightheadedness: Dizzy or light-headed.
Chills or Hot Flashes: Feeling chills or suddenly hot.
Numbness or Pins-and-needles: Numb or tingling in the arms, legs, fingers, and toes.
Derealization or Depersonalization: Feeling that the world is unreal or distant, or that one is distant from the world or even from oneself.
Fear of Losing Control or Going “Crazy”: Fear of becoming insane or losing control.
Fear of dying: Fear of death and/or grave fear of dying.
For the symptoms to be classified as a panic attack, they must have reached a crescendo in less than 10 minutes and included four or more of the symptoms below.
Causes of Panic Attacks
There are many causes of panic attacks; however, the most common is the combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors.
Biological Factors
Genetic: The anxiety disorders in one’s family passed on from generation to generation through bloodlines make an individual vulnerable to suffering from panic attacks.
Chemical Imbalance in Neurotransmitters: Abnormal serotonin and norepinephrine chemicals in the brain cause states of anxiety as well as panic disorders.
Medical Conditions
This causes false attack or brings on the symptomatology of panic attack in the disease conditions of thyroid, cardiovascular and the system.
Psychological Factors
Anxiety Disorders
Generalized anxiety disorders, social phobias and specific anxieties culminates with eventual vulnerability to the condition of panic attack
Trauma: A person falls into the category to experience panic attack when the patient himself under undergoes PTSD.
Stress: Panic attacks occur from stress situations whether at work or in life problems and change of life.
Environmental Causes
Drug Abuse: Drugs use, whichever it is be stimulants, alcohol or illegal drugs
Change of Life: The shift of job, house, or the death of one loved one might leave a person reeling into panic attack.
Symptoms of a Panic Attack
Symptoms of anxiety attacks vary from one person to another. However, most have both physical and emotional symptoms.
Physical Symptoms
Racing or Irregular Heart: Racing heartbeat or irregularity in the rhythm.
Cannot Breathe or Choking: Cannot breathe or feels as though going to choke.
Heavy Sweating or Shivering: Sweating or shivering.
Nausea or Abdominal Disturbance: Sick feeling or queasy; nausea with possibly associated urge to vomit
Dizziness or Sinking Feel: Dizzy; almost passed out.
Psychological Symptoms
Mortal Terror: Fear that some doom-like catastrophe is pending.
Separation: Isolated and estranged from life, etc.
Fear of Losing Control: Frightened that one day soon “one is going to have” these attacks of panic, and finally going crackers.
Effect upon Normal Life Activity
Life with panic attacks is very distressful. Many start living in fear of when another attack would be, avoiding several situations altogether. Some of the consequences resultant effects include;
Agoraphobia: They fear public places and social areas because they feel that they may be locked in a particular area and cannot reach help in time.
Social Withdrawal: He stays away from his friends and family to avoid being judged or misjudged.
Reduced Performance at Work or School: He cannot concentrate due to fear and anxiety; therefore, the performance at work or school decreases.
Treatment for Panic Attacks
Panic attacks are really agonizing, but the good news is that there is an effective treatment for such cases. There are two kinds, pharmacological and non-pharmacological.
Pharmacological Treatments
Antidepressants: This is one kind of antidepressant, the difference lying in two categories – SSRIs or SNRIs, which maintain the chemical balance in the brain and, therefore, the level of anxiety reduces.
Benzodiazepines: These are drugs that could be used for reducing symptoms of panicking. However, this will also imply drug dependency; therefore, its use should not be for too long.
Beta-Blockers: They are mainly recommended to some somatic presentations. The beta-blockers will, however add on to some of the very somatic experiences of panic.
Non-Drug Interventions
CBT: It is goal-oriented and research-supported where, at the outset of a panic attack, there should be the substitution or change of inappropriate inappropriate perception and inappropriate behaviors.
Exposure Therapy: Gradual exposure to the dreaded situation will increase coping ability, reduce anxiety, and gradual habituation over time.
Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques: Such techniques may involve meditation, yoga, deep breathings that may reduce the frequency of attacks, and a patient may feel that he is relaxing.
Psychoeducation: Education regarding the nature of panic attacks and its etiology can help the patient become aware of his pathology.
Avenues for Coping and Prevention
Besides the treatment, there are so many ways a patient can look into in an effort to help them come out of the attacks and ensure they do not end up crippling them.
Lifestyle Changes
Exercise: Exercise ensures that someone has a good mood, excellent mental health, and therefore low chances of facing anxiety.
Healthy Diet: Good dieting leads to proper mood and allows one to release a lot of energy.
Good Sleep Hygiene: This also leads to good sleep hygiene that also acts as an effective tool to lower down the anxiety attacks and gradually helps in minimizing panic attacks also
Do not consume coffee or alcohol: Helps in cutting off the stimulants through not consuming such stuffs which is well known for reducing panic attack risks.
Techniques of Managing Stress
Deep Breathing Exercise: Deep breathing tends to cool an entire body if it is within the anxiety attacking
Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Muscle contractions and their relaxation can solve the body kinks
Writing: Writing out all thoughts and feelings can seem to make sense and lead toward emotional freedom
Building Support System
Communication: In the case where a person who is close and, in particular, a friend or any relative talks to helps keep one out of the realization that they do not have their panic attacks lonely.
Support Groups: A feel of belonging plus the experience is created with a support group
Conclusion
Panic attacks are too uncomfortable, yet if understood properly and managed also, there are chances that all the patients can be taught for living with such a condition. So, if you or someone close to you is experiencing a panic attack, then consult the experts. Then one becomes aware of the panic attacks. He has control over his state of mind and this allows a normal life to be lived. It is because hope is always in sight, and help is in hand even at the time of recovery.
