What Is A Panic Attack And How To Cure It
What is a panic attack and what are the symptoms? You will know you have it when you feel a sudden overwhelming feeling of worry and fear even if there’s no enough reason to feel that way. Some people seldom experience this while some suffer regularly.
Recurring attacks are usually triggered when the person has repeatedly experienced situations that create fear and panic. Although panic attacks are mistakenly considered innocuous, they have a huge impact on the psychological, emotional and physical well-being of a person.
Who are prone to panic attacks? Truth is, panic disorder has affected about 10% of the people, and that’s a significant number, considering that there are more cases not reported. Statistics show that young people and females are twice at risk to panic attacks, compared to adult males. This can also be traced as a hereditary disorder.
How will I know whether I am having a panic attack? Some clear symptoms will alert you when you experience an attack. The heart will beat at a faster or uneven rate, chest pain, tensed muscles, profuse sweating, upset or turbulent stomach, shivering, dizzy spells, breathlessness, body feeling suddenly cold or hot, feeling of indifference and detachment and making an effort to get a grip on reality.
Symptoms of panic attacks are similar to the symptoms before a heart attack occurs. Hence, it is best to seek medical attention right away, and not presume it as minor, particularly if you haven’t experienced these signals before.
The Cause of a panic attack, most of the time, there is no clear reason for the attack. However, the cause can sometimes be traced to traumatic past experiences. Some of experiences that can trigger panic attacks are, death of a loved one, major conflict in the family, relationship failure, divorce of parents and public humiliation. If these situations keep on repeating, a panic attack is likely to occur.
Demise of someone you love, bitter dispute in the family, a relationship gone bad, parents who have divorced, humiliation in public, all these can have a role to play in the causes of panic attacks. A recurrence of similar events and situations can act as a trigger for the attack. Panic attacks and stress go hand in hand, and a person who is stressed at work and home is more prone to panic disorder. Genes also play a role in bringing on panic attacks.
What would be the best course of action, when in the grip of an attack? The height of a panic attack lasts approximately 10 minutes, and in very rare cases goes beyond thirty minutes. During the attack you will display the symptoms mentioned above, and if you observe all of them are connected to the rate of your heart beat.
So if you manage to control your breathing during an attack you can get your heart rate down and the other symptoms also will diminish. It is advised to take deep slow breaths, keeping a count. You can breathe in, counting slowly to three, and then hold the breath for the same time and then exhale slowly keeping to the same count.
Continue to do this until you are calm, then you can slowly move around. You can try breathing and exhaling into a bag, to increase the flow of carbon dioxide in the blood. This can help regulate the level of acid in the blood, which was messed up when you experienced fast breathing.
When you are breathing deeply keeping the count, make an effort to focus your mind on some happy events, so that you do not dwell on the situation which brought about the panic attack. You can also concentrate the mind into figuring out a puzzle or play any other game where the mind gets involved.
Now, find the best way on how to cure panic attacks for good. There are many resources out there, but you should look into natural ways before taking prescription medications. Stopping panic attacks should be your only priority, nobody should live their life with this illness.