Discovering The Cause Of Panic Attacks
June 8, 2010 5:12 am anxiety and panic attacksPanic attacks are actually brought on when experiencing high states of anxiety, but that only helps us when we understand why we suffer with anxiety, and how we can defeat it.
One of the biggest myths surrounding anxiety is that it is harmful and can lead to a number of various life-threatening conditions.
What is Anxiety
Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or fear resulting from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event, or situation. It is one of the most common human emotions experienced by people at some point in their lives.
Unless you suffer from panic attacks then it is unlikely that you will understand the horrific nature of what extreme anxiety can do to you. Imagine feeling completely discombobulated from your surroundings, dizzy, blurred vision, tingling all over your body and feeling breathless and this is only the beginning.
When you go through these experiences, it’s very easy to feel like you’re losing control, which is a very scary feeling in itself. To make matters worse, you can’t really understand why this happening to you, and whether or not you’re actually experiencing a more serious medical condition like a heart attack.
Fight or Flight Response: One of the root causes of panic attacks?
I am sure most people have heard of the fight or flight response as an explanation for one of the root causes of panic attacks. Have you made the connection between this response and the unusual sensations you experience during and after a panic attack episode?
The first response most of us experience to an imposing threat or danger is anxiety. The reason for it being called anxiety is because its goal is to make us either stand up and fight the danger or run from it. Thereby the sole purpose of anxiety is really to protect us. The irony here is that for those that have panic attacks feel that the anxiety is actually the threat and this is perhaps is the most significant of causes of panic attacks.
However, the anxiety that the fight or flight response created was vital in the daily survival of our ancient ancestors – when faced with some danger, an automatic response would take over that propelled them to take immediate action such as attack or run. Even in today’s hectic world, this is still a necessary mechanism. It comes in useful when you must respond to a real threat within a split second.
The brain will send a signal to the nervous system when danger presents itself. The nervous system then gets the body ready to act as well as helps the body to restore to a homeostatic state. In order to make sure that these necessary functions are carried out our autonomic nervous system is made up of two subsections called the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems.
The main duty of the sympathetic system is to release adrenaline, this is the messenger in our body that keeps us going. The parasympathetic system then is called into action after a period of time to restore balance to the body once danger is gone. The parasympathetic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that gets us to calm down and relax.
Your Body Will Always Strive To Remain Calm
When we engage in a coping strategy that we have learned, for example, a relaxation technique, we are in fact willing the parasympathetic nervous system into action. A good thing to remember is that this system will be brought into action at some stage whether we will it or not. The body cannot continue in an ever-increasing spiral of anxiety. It reaches a point where it simply must kick in, relaxing the body. This is one of the many built-in protection systems our bodies have for survival.
So next time you have a panic attack, try to remember that they cannot do you any physical harm. Your mind will undoubtedly make the sensations last much longer than your body would ever have intended, but sooner or later, everything will start to calm down again. I appreciate that’s little comfort when experiencing an attack, having been there myself, but use it to reassure yourself.
A fascinating feature of the “fight or flight” mechanism is that blood (which is channeled from areas where it is currently not needed by a tightening of the blood vessels) is brought to areas where it is urgently needed.
A prime example is when we are anticipating some form of physical attack – whether it’s a response to an attacker coming at us with a knife, or being confronted by a sabre toothed tiger. Blood will be “pulled” from extremities like fingers, toes and the skin, and pumped into the major muscle groups like the legs and arms, to help your body prepare for action – whatever that action may be.
The moving of the blood from the fingers and toes is one of the reason that many people experience feelings of numbness during a panic attack. This can then be misinterpreted as a serious health problem that could lead to a heart attack. Talking to your doctor if you are concerned about this is the best advice so that they can check you out. This will help give you peace of mind.
Panic Attacks Cause Fear of Suffocation
Probably one of the most frightening feelings that a person experiences during a panic attack is the fear of smothering or suffocating. Tightness in the chest and throat are very common. While most people can understand the fear of loosing control of the ability to breath, speaking from personal experience the anxiety is fueled because what you are really afraid of is your breathing stopping and that you will not be able to recover. The truth is that a panic attack will not stop our breathing.
When you experience a panic attack, you body naturally increases your speed and depth of breathing – your body is gearing up for a fight or flight response, and needs a lot of oxygen to prepare itself. So effectively, you start to hyperventilate, which can lead to feelings of breathlessness, and sensations of suffocating and choking – and even chest pains.
Having experienced extreme panic attacks myself, I remember that on many occasions, I would have this feeling that I couldn’t trust my body to do the breathing for me, so I would have to manually take over and tell myself when to breathe in and when to breathe out. Of course, this didn’t suit my body’s requirement of oxygen and so the sensations would intensify – along with the anxiety. It was only when I employed the technique I will describe for you later, did I let my body continue doing what it does best – running the whole show.
The increased breathing can sometimes lead to other problems due to the lack of oxygen that is going to the head during the fight or flight response. These problems or side effects can include dizziness, blurred vision, hot flashes, confusion and a sense of altered reality.
For free tips and advice about dealing with anxiety and panic attacks visit Wendys site at Anxiety Attacks and claim your free report 7 Steps To Conquer Your Anxiety.
