Are Panic Attacks So Scary?

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

The disease, which doctors call panic disorder, usually begins in young, healthy, active people. It is not rare at all, about 2-3% of the population (more often women) suffers from panic attacks.

First, let's see the definition:

Panic disorder Is an anxiety disorder that manifests itself as episodes of acute pathological anxiety (panic attacks) and secondary symptoms (anxiety of expectation, avoidant behavior, phobias and often secondary depression)

How do you know if you have a panic attack?

It usually manifests itself as a complex of bodily and mental symptoms:

- shortness of breath, choking

- heartbeat, a feeling of fluttering in the chest - "heart is pounding"

- pain in the region of the heart

chills, shivering

hot flashes, sweating

-nausea, vomiting

-dizziness

- a feeling of unreality of the surrounding world or oneself

-the fear of dying

-the fear of going crazy or losing control

Not all of these symptoms occur at the same time in one patient. Sometimes there are even panic attacks that are not accompanied by a feeling of fear.

The attack usually occurs acutely and lasts from 5 to 30 minutes. Basically, their frequency is 1-4 times a week, although some patients suffer seizures several times a day.

This picture shows the symptoms clearly

Usually the attacks go away on their own, even without assistance, but patients mistakenly believe that they are having a heart attack, often call an ambulance, and subsequently undergo numerous examinations by doctors of various specialties. However, even with the most careful examination, they do not have any physical reasons that could explain the disease.

Such patients receive vaguely vague diagnoses of "vegetative dystonia", "diencephalic crises", "neurocirculatory dystonia", after which they undergo repeated expensive examinations and ineffective therapy.

What is very important to know: despite the really frightening and very unpleasant symptoms, a panic attack itself is not dangerous for a person's life, his physical health (there will be no fainting, no stroke, no heart attack) and mental state (such patients will never " go crazy ")

But, despite the fact that panic attacks themselves are not dangerous, the disease "panic disorder" is not at all harmless, and leads to more than tangible negative consequences for the patient and his loved ones.

It is quite possible to understand that in most patients, after several suffered panic attacks (just imagine the state of a person and fear immediately, to die right here), the so-called agoraphobia appears: a strong fear of a repetition of the attack. They begin to avoid places where it will be difficult to get out quickly or get help - metro, shops, noisy streets. Often they refuse to leave the house unaccompanied by loved ones or do not leave the house at all, which, of course, makes life very difficult and reduces its quality. It happens that the very thought that you have to go out into the street causes a severe panic attack. Sometimes it comes down to getting a disability.

Therefore, it is necessary to consult a specialist in time and start treatment. The main specialists dealing with these problems are a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist. After the start of drug therapy, the panic attacks will go away within 1-3 weeks, and supportive treatment will need to be taken for several more months to prevent the disease from returning.

You can try to do without drugs (this issue can be solved only with the attending physician), but in this case, you need to be patient, you will have to get and practice relaxation skills, as well as undergo a sufficiently long course of psychotherapy to work out the internal problems that caused the disease. Perhaps (and in my opinion it is optimal) a combination of drug and psychotherapeutic treatment.