Panic Attacks
Many people develop panic disorder following a major life stress or a build up of stress. A panic attack is best described as a sudden and acute onset of extreme fear that seems to come ‘out of the blue’. Intense and uncomfortable physical symptoms include increased heart rate, nausea, numbness, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pain, inability to concentrate, and confusion.
The intensity of the attack can be extremely severe and can in some instances feel as though you are having a heart attack or are about to lose consciousness or lose control of your mind.
The physical and mental reactions to a panic attack are the same as the real situation of fear, only in reality there is rarely a danger and thoughts and feelings are irrational.
A Panic Disorder develops when you feel that you are constantly on the alert for the next spontaneous attack and that there is a pattern of continuous fear and tension. Having panic attacks does not necessarily mean that you have a panic disorder. If all your panic attacks occur in social situations, you may have Social Anxiety.
Panic attacks mean that nerve endings within the body have become sensitised and it may take the body some time to be de-sensitised, for the nerve endings to recover and for the adrenalin increase to slow down.
If you have panic disorder, the chances are very high that you have altered your life in some significant way in an effort to prevent or avoid additional panic attacks. It is common, for instance, for people to limit their travel; to restrict their driving - avoiding motorways or longer journeys from home, to avoid large crowds of people and in general, to attempt to avoid any activity from which "escape" may be difficult.
Or maybe you don't avoid anything, but you do things differently than before. You might take your partner or a friend to go to places you would previously visit alone. You may sit at the end of an aisle of seats to make a swift exit in case it’s necessary. Maybe you do everything the same way you used to, but you go through a lot of nervous anticipation ahead of time.
If you avoid a lot of ordinary activities and circumstances in case you have a panic attack, you may be diagnosed as ‘agorophobic’. The vast majority of people with agoraphobia are not housebound. Though this can happen in very severe cases.
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