There are many people today who suffer the debilitating effects of panic attacks. These are associated with several psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, but they also happen to people without one of the underlying conditions.
While we know many factors help to exacerbate the symptoms, we still have much to learn when it comes to determining what causes panic attacks in otherwise healthy people.
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For some people, these become so unbearable that they lead to an ever escalating pattern which can result in someone completely changing their life as they substitute other activities for the ones that trigger stress.
For example, those who suffer episodes while driving will naturally start to avoid driving as they being to fear the actual act of driving. Others who experience the agitation in crowds will naturally start to avoid places where there are a lot of people.
As you can imagine, this can lead to general or specific phobias that end up ruling the person’s life.
What Causes Panic Attacks?
Most of us have experienced anxiety at one time or another. It could be that jittery, nervous feeling when taking a test in school or the butterflies in the stomach the day of your wedding – these are all from anxiety. The problem for some is that anxiety can be severe and that is what causes panic attacks.
Anxiety is the body’s instinctive reaction to a real or perceived threat of danger.
This, of course, can be real physical danger but it can also be just from the worry of how something might affect us. As in the test taking example above, the stress that arises isn’t from the test itself but the fear or dread of what will happen if we fail it.
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Most worry arises from the anticipation of consequences rather than actual consequences. Our minds think about what negative results could happen and trigger the anxious feelings within us over what might be.
Believe it or not, anxiety is a necessary thing to human survival. It’s our bodies way of warning us when there is danger threatening and it helps to trigger instinctive reactions such as the fight or flight response.
This isn’t something we tend to think about on a daily basis in this modern age but hundreds of years ago, this instinct is what kept man alive in an age where there was constant danger.
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As the feelings escalate, they trigger a number of physiological processes in the body. When these physiological responses become hyper-focused or extreme, that is what causes panic attacks.
Let’s take a look at what the physical responses are to anxiety, from slight feelings to extreme.
Physiology of Anxiety
When suffering from high stress, the physical responses in our body are handled automatically by the nervous system – you don’t have to think about it, it just happens. There are two parts to this system, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system
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The sympathetic nervous system is what handles our body’s reactions to dangerous situations while the parasympathetic system is what takes over when the danger is gone. Without the parasympathetic system functioning, our bodies would stay in that high gear, flight or flight mode, which would obviously be unhealthy.
There are some theories that say an impaired reaction time of the parasympathetic nervous system could be responsible for hyper-agitation in certain people but this is not a proven theory. Even if true, it would only apply to a small portion of those who suffer from these fearsome events.
The first thing that happens in the body is that the brain signals the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline. Adrenaline is actually a hormone and when released into the system, kicks in a number of other reactions in the body. The heart rate increases, which sends oxygen rich blood throughout the body.
Respiratory rate, your breathing, increases with a deeper breathe intake as well as a more rapid breathing.
These physical reactions are actually rooted in a very scientific basis for the body’s instinctive defense mechanisms. Your body requires oxygen in order to carry out whatever may be needed to protect itself so the heart pumps faster in order to carry the oxygen through the bloodstream to all parts of the body.
Other physical responses to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system include widening of the pupils, a decrease in saliva, muscle tension and even a slowdown of the digestive system. The entire body is involved with this fight or flight instinct and produces a temporary hyper-drive for the metabolism.
Escalation of Anxiety into a Panic Attack
The sensations experienced from the initial reaction to stress include increased heart rate, increased respiratory rate, widening of the pupils and muscle tension as described above. However, these are just the initial physical reactions that your body goes through.
These reactions, as the anxiety escalates, trigger still more reactions which are a large part of what causes panic attacks.
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The rapid heart rate and respiratory rate lead to some interesting changes in the body. As the anxiety level elevates, the body automatically decides to protect itself and one way that it does this is to reduce the blood flow to the extremities.
This is so that one wouldn’t lose as much blood during an actual physical altercation.
Modern humans are not used to these sensations since it’s actually very rarely that this instinctive protection is needed. In fact, this is a large part of what causes panic attacks because these feelings are not familiar and so are quite scary to experience.
What happens is you start to feel tingling in your hands and feet and even numbness. As these are signs of a cardiovascular event, like a heart attack or stroke, people who suffer from these episodes often leap to the conclusion that they are having a heart attack.
This naturally increases the anxiety level even higher which in turn makes the physical sensations even worse.
As these physical symptoms escalate, people in a panic attack get even more anxious and it becomes a vicious spiral of ever-increasing sense of anxiousness and worsening symptoms. It’s very common for people experiencing a panic attack to feel as though they can’t breathe, feel pressure like someone is sitting on their chest and even to experience chest pain.
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During this time of rapid escalation, the blood flow to the head becomes decreased slightly due to the rapid respirations. The decrease is not in any way dangerous however it can add to the stress of the event because people begin to get weak, lightheaded, dizzy, confused and even get blurred vision.
As the sensation builds, the sufferer will experience worsening symptoms including headache, nausea and even heart palpitations.
Quite often, this is how a person with an underlying disorder gets a diagnosis as they go to the emergency room or call rescue thinking they are about to die of a heart attack or a stroke. As the doctors try to treat the person, they often diagnose them with other disorders.
These initial diagnoses are not always accurate but will at least begin getting the person the treatment needed.
Why Do Panic Attacks Happen
What causes panic attacks is often difficult to determine. With most people, it is clear that the first physical symptoms are enough to increase worry, which in turn exacerbates the physical sensations.
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This worry actually brings on ever-increasing symptoms as the sympathetic nervous system reacts to the spiraling level of stress. Those who have dealt with sudden panic attacks in the past tell that the fear of experiencing an event being enough to trigger one.
There are many contributing factors to what causes panic attacks, though, not just fear.
Not getting enough sleep or eating properly, overdoing caffeine or other stimulants, even too much sugar intake – these can all lead to the sympathetic nervous system response that brings on a full-blown attack.
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A simple technique taking America by storm
Stop panic attacks & end general anxiety in minutes
100% natural techniques
Over 54,000 people have ended their anxiety fast
As seen on TV in America
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