Anxiety And Panic Attacks – What Causes Them, Symptoms and Treatments

Posted by admin

July 9, 2009

Panic And Anxiety Attacks can be a very scary thing for anyone to experience. Not only do they occur when least anticipated, they tend to mimic heart attacks and other serious health conditions, which leaves the individual to wonder if they will even survive it.

This article will cover what causes panic and anxiety attacks, the most common symptoms associated with them, as well as the most successful treatments available.

Within healthcare, panic and anxiety attacks are actually classified as a psychological problem, with the terms panic attack, anxiety attack being interchangeable. But this is actually not 100% true, because this problem is actually more of a problem with the nervous system than it is mental.

Stress is the most common trigger, but panic and anxiety attacks actually occur due to how the individual’s nervous system responds to that stress.

Basically, a person who lives with panic and anxiety attacks experiences a much more intense reaction to what would make most of us nervous. In order for this to make sense, we need to first have an understanding of the parts of the nervous system that are involved when we experience stress.

They are called the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). Instead of making this boring like a text book, let me tell you a story to explain how this works.

Let’s say that a bear walks in the room as you’re reading this article. Your brain will perceive the bear as stress, because it threatens your life (and I don’t know about you, but I’m a little on the chunky side, so I’d make a pretty good meal for that bear).

Your brain is hard-wired for survival, so at this instant, it has to make a decision – do you run from the bear or fight it? Either way, the body needs to be ready for this additional activity, so your brain will turn on the Sympathetic Nervous System.

This part of your nervous system prepares your body to either fight or flee – so your blood pressure raises (you need plenty of oxygen to the muscles so they can help you run fast or fight), your heart beats faster, you breathe more deeply, and many other things.

Once the bear is gone, the brain turns on the other part of the nervous system that I mentioned (the Parasympathetic Nervous System), which does the opposite – it calms you down.

When an individual experiences panic and anxiety attacks, this response is intensified – so, there might only be 1 bear in the room, but your brain thinks there’s actually 5 bears. This is where the problem exists.

So, with that said, what are the signs and symptoms of panic and anxiety attacks? Well, the symptoms of a panic attack are different for each person, and they can be experienced to different degrees.

Some individuals will have very minor panic and anxiety attacks, so may not even realize what is happening. Others have full-blown, very intense attacks that make them believe they may be dying.

Click here (panic and anxiety attacks) to continue reading this article, where you’ll learn the most common symptoms associated with panic and anxiety attacks, as well as the most successful treatments available for relief from this health problem.

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