How do I know what a panic attack and its symptoms
Causes panic attacks
Four ways to get rid of panic attacks
Do you feel at times as if mad, losing control of himself? Or do you have a feeling that is about to begin a heart attack? And can you say someone from the family that you are likely to begin some serious mental illness? Relax and do not worry: chances are you just experiencing bouts of panic attacks. To understand his condition, let alone know how most of these you can get rid of panic attacks, we must first understand what it is all about and what are the symptoms of these attacks.
What are panic attacks
Panic attacks can be defined as a sudden episodes of intense fear, the most acute phase which lasts for one minute. And they themselves bouts of panic attacks can last from a few seconds to an hour. Sometimes there is a cyclic series of successive attacks that last for several hours. Fear often bordering on terror, usually accompanied by unpleasant bodily sensations, difficulty thinking and a sense of impending disaster that can be expressed in the words: "Something terrible is happening to me! "" I am in great danger. "
Most painful is itself waiting for the onset of attacks, if people have already experienced them before, and understands that the panic will come back to him. Some of the panic attacks are totally unexpected, as if they had come out of nowhere, and some occur regularly provoked it was their expectation. Experiencing panic attacks say that this is the most intense feeling, which was the most unpleasant experience, and in their lives, and getting rid of the attacks would be for them the most desirable event.
How do I know what a panic attack and its symptoms
People suffering from bouts of panic attacks, often complain of a very strong fear and feeling as if they are dying or going crazy, or have a heart attack. They feel a strong weakness or nausea, shortness of breath, lose control of himself. All these feelings can cause a strong desire to escape, to leave the place where the attack began, as if it could save them from danger.
Factors causing offensive attacks can be many, but every time they start suddenly; you can never tell in advance that a person starts to panic. Needless disorder can be of two types: spontaneous and situational attacks. Spontaneous panic attacks are usually not associated with any specific stimuli and can begin even during sleep or a quiet, relaxing holiday. Offensive situational attacks provoked, as you can tell from the name, certain things or situations in which a person has previously had a strong fear.
Here are the common symptoms, which in varying combinations person experiences upon the occurrence of panic attacks:
Strong and palpitations;
Sweating;
Shivers;
Hot flashes or chills;
Shortness of breath, or feeling short of breath;
Pain or discomfort in the chest;
The feeling of suffocation;
Vomiting;
Stomach upset;
Dizziness;
Tingling or numbness in the extremities;
Dry mouth;
Headache;
The feeling of unreality, a sense of separation from the man himself.
The symptoms that people experience during panic attacks, causing them related fears. They do not realize that the reason the actual panic attack; some of them fear that losing control, and who, it seems that going to faint, stop navigate in the real world, or die from a heart attack. How to deal with these fears?
The threat of losing control
During a panic attack, people often feel that they are out of their own control. They are afraid that they will lose control of their physiological functions of the body and it leads to all sorts of trouble, or that they will lose control over their actions. Most of all, they fear that this could happen to them in the presence of other people in any public place, making them much embarrass.
If you too possessed such fear, try to relax and not to panic attack symptoms go so far
. It's only your belief, which is born in the depths of your consciousness
. In fact, the effect of panic attacks may not apply to your ability to self-control
. On the part it may not even be noticeable that you are having such severe discomfort and panic if caught you in a public place, the people around you do not even notice
. Be sure - you will not shout or jump up when you are in a meeting and not to throw under the car, when you go down the street
. Even if there will any slight awkward situation, learn to say to yourself, "So what? Just think, what nonsense! "Be forgiving and kind to yourself
. The more you turn to face your fears, the less pressure you on render
. And the more the chances are high that you can get rid of panic attacks
.
The threat of loss of consciousness
Because of dizziness and feeling short of breath during a panic, you may experience the fear that lose consciousness. Are you afraid that you will be particularly vulnerable at this point, especially when next to you is unoccupied. Fear faint and never recover generates horrible feeling. In addition, if you are among strangers, for example, on the street or in public transport, you can still experience and due to the fact that you steal money or you will lose important documents.
You have to understand that usually fainting is caused by insufficient intake of blood to the brain, and with it the oxygen. But during a panic attack always starts palpitations, and this causes the blood pulsing faster. Therefore, the brain gets an ample amount of oxygen. A dizzy during panic attack is caused by rapid breathing, which in itself does not cause fainting. Realizing this, you will begin to get rid of the fear of losing consciousness.
The threat of a heart attack
This is another common fear that is characteristic of many people, even those who do not experience panic attacks. And those who suffer from this disorder, subject to the fear of a heart attack very often. These people are afraid that their heart is dependent on the said disorder, and in critical situations it will give a serious crash. To get rid of this fear, you need to understand what heart attacks are different from panic attacks.
Symptoms of a heart attack include shortness of breath and severe pain in the chest, sometimes accompanied by palpitations, and / or loss of consciousness. Such symptoms in humans with heart disease aggravated by physical effort. The higher the load, the more pronounced symptoms. A dormant discomfort in the heart region disappear. During the panic attack symptoms occur at rest, and they disappear only when a person ceases to feel fear. Moreover, heart disease cause some changes in the electrical impulses of the heart, which can be seen on an electrocardiogram, whereas during a panic attack cardiogram shows only an increase in heart rate.
People prone to panic attacks, all too often totally unreasonable worried about his heart. They become overly vigilant and begin to listen to the constant feeling in the chest, constantly checked at a pulse, make sure that the heart has not stopped beating. Minor arrhythmias perceived as ominous harbingers of a possible cardiac arrest, and thus they do not take into account the fact that the heart always beats differently, if we do something excited or frightened.
If you too are still worried, will not happen if you have a heart attack, you will help to calm down a little examination. Make an electrocardiogram, to get rid of doubts. And if you are having symptoms similar to a heart attack at any time, not just during exercise, and a doctor confirms that your cardiogram showed no abnormalities, then rest assured - a manifestation of panic attacks and not a violation of cardiac activity!
Threat to get crazy
Many mention the unpleasant conditions associated with a sense of unreality. They are afraid of this feeling because they believe that slowly begin to go crazy. People who experience panic attacks, begins in these moments to feel that they are disconnected from the real world. They fear that their brains have been damaged, which is why it creates such sensations.
We want to reassure you. The feeling of detachment from reality during a panic attack cause excessive stress. As soon as you relax and give yourself to relax your body, these unpleasant sensations just dissipate, and your brain will work as usual, and the mind is clear and not confused. Therefore, do not worry nothing and live a quiet life, that will only speed up getting rid of all the discomfort.
All the "attendant" panic attacks fear caused by the fact that people do not understand why is happening to them is something unusual. This is really very important - to understand your body and what it feels to free themselves from the senseless anxiety that gives rise to your imagination. Now that you know more about the differences between the state of the disease and panic attacks, and when you understand what is going on in your body during a panic attack, you will feel more confident and be able to relax more quickly during the attack.
Causes panic attacks
To continue to successfully deal with a state of panic, it is necessary to understand the causes of its occurrence. What, then, are they?
Long-term, predisposing causes - genetics. It was found that the panic disorder observed in families and this may mean that inheritance plays an important role in the predisposition to panic attacks. For example, studies conducted with twins, have shown that if one twin suffers from an anxiety disorder, some of the thirty-one to eighty-eight percent of the second twin also complain of the disorder. However, many of those who do not have "family" the history of this disease, it is still developing.
Biological causes - obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, Wilson's disease, mitral valve prolapse, pheochromocytoma, and inflammation of the inner ear (labyrinthitis): all diseases that can trigger the development of anxiety disorders. Also, "trigger" an alarm can serve as a vitamin deficiency due to an unbalanced diet.
Phobias - people often experience panic attacks as a result of exposure to the phobic object or situation.
Short reason - significant personal losses, including the gap emotional romantic attachment between the partners, major life changes, and the abuse of stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine.
Lack of self-confidence - the growing body of evidence confirms the assertion of experts that those people who suffer from panic attacks, often prefer a passive style of communication and interaction with others.
Medications - sometimes panic attacks may be a side effect of medication, such as Ritalin (methylphenidate) or even fluoroquinolone antibiotics. This may be a temporary side effect, which occurs when a patient is just starting treatment or this condition persists even when the patient is already accustomed to the drug. In this case, you must report your doctor increased anxiety, which will select the other drug.
Alcohol or withdrawal of certain drugs - various substances can cause panic attacks and withdrawal (in other words, a hangover), as a rule, is always accompanied by increased anxiety.
Hyperventilation syndrome - deep breathing deeply may cause hyperventilation when disturbed ratio of carbon and oxygen in human blood. Hyperventilation syndrome can cause respiratory alkalosis and hypocapnia - a condition which is characterized by heart palpitations and dizziness. Man takes these symptoms as a sign of an impending panic attack that actually provokes his next attack.
Situation-related panic attacks - linking certain situations to panic attacks. If a person once survived an attack under certain circumstances, then he can develop cognitive (behavioral) predisposition to to relive the attack in such circumstances. This is one of the classic causes of panic attacks.
Pharmacological factors - some chemicals (mainly stimulants, but here can be attributed to certain antidepressants) can either react with other medications, either alone provoke a panic attack, or even panic disorder. Some suffer from panic attacks also report phobias of specific drugs or chemicals; you can only talk about the psychosomatic effect.
Chronic and severe diseases. This is particularly true of certain diseases of the heart, which can lead to sudden death. The awareness of this threat can easily lead to a panic attack patient. Agree, it is very difficult to distinguish the symptoms of cardiac dysfunction and symptoms of anxiety disorder. Although such patients is inevitable and very often subjected to hospitalization, but not such a simple survey, which we have already discussed - without ECG - is virtually impossible to distinguish the symptoms of a panic attack the symptoms of heart disease in patients with these types of diagnosis. Mitigating the attack panic attack in such cases administration of appropriate drugs and / or cognitive behavioral therapy.
Physiological causes - we have already mentioned in passing them, but they deserve more detailed consideration.
Physiological causes
While some of the symptoms of panic attacks can create the feeling that the body no longer listen to you, in fact it is so protects itself from harm. First, quite often (though not always) the sudden fear causes small provoking stimuli in the body. There is a release of adrenaline, which causes the body to a state of readiness to escape from danger or when it is impossible to avoid, to combat it. Adrenaline Rush, in turn, causes an increase in heart rate (tachycardia), rapid breathing (hyperventilation), which may be perceived as shortness of breath, and sweating.
Such a reaction of the body needed to ancient man that during active movement (running or fighting) for the sake of his life muscles get adequate food. That is why it was necessary to shortness of breath, which ensures the supply of more oxygen and heart palpitations - to accelerate blood flow, carries oxygen. A sweating help avoid overheating during active movement.
But today, such a reaction of the body is almost never accompanied by increased human activity. Then hyperventilation leads to a drop in the level of carbon dioxide in the lungs and then into the blood. This causes a change in the chemical composition of blood and as a result, the occurrence of many other symptoms such as tingling or numbness in the limbs, dizziness, burning sensation in the body. Furthermore, adrenaline during a panic attack causes constriction of blood vessels, resulting in reduced blood flow to the brain, and it becomes cause dizziness.
As you can see, all the unpleasant sensations that occur during panic attacks, can be easily explained in terms of physiology. But if you do not know about it, you can very scared and decide that there is something really very serious, threatening your life.
