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Panic Attacks There are many opinions and theries concerning anxiety and panic attacks. Some believe panic attacks are caused by a person's inability to live the life they dream of, while others believe they are caused by deep rooted fear based memories that we don't want to deal with. There are as many opinions as there are "experts". I believe the true experts are the people who experience this dread called panic attacks. Everyone experiences some form of anxiety in their life, however, not everyone experiences this intense feeling of a life threating anxiety called panic attacks. In the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, panic attacks are described as a period during which there is a sudden onset of intense terror, fear, or apprehension, accompanied by signs and symptoms such as a feeling of impending doom, a fear of going insane, shortness of breath, a choking sensation, increased heart rate and palpitations, chest pain or discomfort, dizziness, trembling, sweating, and nauseas. This description is right on target because it includes most if not all the symptoms that people have described to their doctors over the years. I chose this topic because I have first hand experience of panic attacks which are for the most part under control. I have also had family and friends that have suffered with them for years, so I can vouch for the Oxford definition. Robert Gerzon, author of " Finding Serenity in the age of anxiety". claims that we all should be anxious because it is a good thing. Gerzon feels that the problem is not anxiety, but that we're just not anxious about the right things. For example, we are anxious about finding a parking space but not that anxious about finding solutions for social injustice. This is among the more radical viewpoints. A more mainstream viewpoint is that of Joseph LeDoux. In his book " The Emotional Brain" LeDoux calls anxiety a " brooding fear of what might happen", he also relates panic attacks to other disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which used to be called shell shock and veterans of war were stricken with this disorder now we have found out that woman who have been raped or anyone that has experienced something traumatic such as 9/11 can have a problem with this disorder. Like panic attacks anything can set off an attack like a loud noise. The experience of a panic attack is similar to the fear evoked when a person faces a life threating or dangerous situation in which personal security is jeopardized, except that there is no apparent external threat. Intense feelings arise during a panic attack, often along with the impulse to flee that characterizes the "fight or flight" response. There is no way of knowing for sure whether panic attacks and regular fear are connected but some evidence suggest that panic has unique features that distinguish it from ordinary fear, such as prominent respiratory symptoms, including sensations of smothering that are rarely experienced during fear in life- threating situations. Many researchers agree that panic attacks are maintained by a "fear of fear" concept. One such researcher is Walter Menninger M.D. author of " Coping with Anxiety" in which he is of the opinion that the original or first panic attack a person has is so confusing and intense that the fear of having another one is indeed what causes the next. So on and so on until the victim is caught up in a vicious cycle. I can tell you from experience that the "fear of fear" concept is very real. Over the years many famous people have commented on anxiety and opinions differ as to the benefits of anxiety and the drawbacks. Perception seems to play a major role in the forming of some of these opinions. Sigmund Freud had this to say about the problem of anxiety, "It's a nodal point, linking up all kinds of most important questions, a riddle, of which the solution must cast a flood of light upon our whole mental life". Ralph Waldo Emerson had a deeper reflection, " fear is an instructor of great saqacity." Even Jesus had something to say about anxiety, " let one who seeks not stop seeking until one finds. when one finds, one will become anxious. When one is anxious, one will be awe struck and will enter the kingdom. The exact cause of panic disorder is unknown. There is a clear influence of heredity. There may be a temporal lobe dysfunction, or the disorder may develop as a persistent pattern of maladaptive behavior acquired by learning. Stimulants. Cocaine, Caffeine, Nicotine, or alcohol may induce or worsen the symptoms. People with this disorder often undergo medical evaluations for symptoms related to or other medical conditions before the diagnosis of panic disorder is made. Attacks may last from minutes to hours. An affected person often lives in fear of another attack and may be reluctant to be alone or far from medical assistance.
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