Panic Attacks. What To Do?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Panic attack - an attack of intense anxiety, feelings of fear, which is accompanied by at least four or more bodily or cognitive symptoms (heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, feeling of unreality, etc.) and can last from several minutes to several hours … Panic attacks usually start suddenly, can peak within 10 to 20 minutes, but in some cases can last for several hours. Recurrent attacks are more common, leading to anticipation anxiety

Many who experience a panic attack, mainly for the first time, think that it is a heart attack or a nervous breakdown and interpret panic attacks as symptoms of some kind of medical illness.

Symptoms

During a panic attack, there is intense fear of death or heart attack, weakness or nausea, numbness throughout the body, heavy breathing, hyperventilation, or loss of body control. Some people also suffer from tunnel vision associated with draining of blood from the head. These feelings and sensations can provoke a strong urge to flee from the place where the attack started.

A panic attack is a reaction of the sympathetic nervous system. The most common symptoms are: tremors, shortness of breath (shortness of breath), heart palpitations, chest pain (or tightness in the chest), hot flashes or chills, burning (especially in the face or neck), sweating, nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, hyperventilation, tingling sensations, feelings of suffocation, difficulty walking, and derealization.

Due to the sudden appearance of anxiety, an adrenaline rush occurs, which provokes an increase in heart rate and breathing - there is a feeling of lack of air. Adrenaline also constricts blood vessels, as a result of which blood pressure rises. This condition further increases anxiety and fear. Thus, there is a vicious circle: the stronger the anxiety, the more pronounced the symptoms, which cause even more anxiety.

Panic attacks differ from other forms of anxiety in intensity, suddenness and episodic nature. Some mental illnesses can be accompanied by panic attacks, but the onset of the latter does not necessarily indicate the presence of mental disorders.

Diagnostics according to DSM-5 (American Manual of Diagnosis and Statistics of Mental Disorders).

Diagnostic criteria include a single episode of intense fear or discomfort, in which four (or more) of the following symptoms can be distinguished, abruptly onset and peaking within minutes:

- Palpitations and / or accelerated heart rate

- Sweating

- Tremors or tremors

- Feeling of shortness of breath, shortness of breath

- Feeling of suffocation

- Chest pain or discomfort

- Nausea or abdominal discomfort

- Dizziness, unsteadiness, or fainting

- Derealization (feeling of unreality) or depersonalization (one's own actions are perceived as if from the outside and are accompanied by a feeling of impossibility to control them)

- Fear of losing control or fear of going crazy

- Feeling of impending death

- Paresthesia (feeling of numbness, tingling, crawling creeps)

Chills or fever.

Causes of occurrence

Social reasons.

Chronic stress, anxiety at work and in important relationships, significant changes in life, loss of loved ones, prolonged tense, uncomfortable environment, inability to freely deal with aggression and anger in relationships, violation of boundaries, tight control from others, inadequate low self-esteem, traumatic experiences of the past, any unresolved conflicts that lead to chronic stress, insufficient sleep - all of this over time can cause panic attacks.

Mental illnesses and pathologies in which panic attacks can occur: depression, phobias, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and impaired adaptation, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc.

Somatic diseases.

The cause of panic attacks against the background of somatic diseases is a person's attitude to his illness, as well as stress associated with the onset / course of the disease or surgery. Panic attacks can occur when:

- heart disease, when pain provokes a strong fear of death and getting stuck on this fear can cause panic;

- pregnancy, childbirth, puberty;

- some endocrine diseases, in which the production of adrenaline is increased, which leads to an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, against which anxiety and fear may increase; also increased production of the hormone thyroxine, which has an exciting effect.

- taking some medications.

What to do during an attack:

- turn to the person who is nearby, tell about your condition, talk to him;

- smell something aromatic;

- pinch yourself;

- make a load on the mind: multiply two-digit numbers in the mind, pronounce words backwards, count objects of the same shape in a room, etc.;

- go about your usual business: make tea, call someone, turn on the radio, wash the dishes, etc.;

- begin to describe in detail the place, time, thoughts before the onset of the attack, the environment, your thoughts;

- do self-massage or ask someone to do it;

- breathe in a paper bag or palms in order to reduce the supply of oxygen (the oxygen level rises due to intense breathing) and to increase the volume of carbon dioxide;

- take a contrast shower;

- relaxation;

- to restore contact with reality in any way possible.

Also, in all cases of the occurrence and recurrence of panic attacks, it is very important to find out the cause, exclude or determine the presence of a somatic illness, seek advice from a psychiatrist or psychotherapist and begin regular psychotherapy. It is extremely important to study your own emotional state, experiences, habitual ways of dealing with discomfort and tension in relationships with others, the study of unconscious experiences and ways of behavior, experiences associated with past traumatic experiences so that over time there is an opportunity to react to what is happening in different ways, and panic attacks are no longer the only available form of stress response.