Panic Attacks - What is it?

Sure this wasn't easy. I remember after having the first one I was always on the lookout for another one! And boy, that's a terrible feeling. Coz all you do throughout or most of the day is 'Anticipate' another attack. To let you know what 'attack' I'm talking about - let's go back into the days of cavemen and wild animals lurking around. If a lion were to appear in front of them, what would they do? The body is built to provide flight, fight or freeze response. Which is a NATURAL harmless reaction to DANGER. Which means at any point in your life you have experienced this at least once if your body is functioning normally if faced with danger that could threaten your life - it is as simple as laughing when you find something funny or crying when you find something sad! To not do either would mean something is very wrong.
So why do I call it a disorder? If its natural and harmless? Coz its cool as long as there is real danger...what usually happens is this. If there is perceived danger - say you feel a chest pain and think you are about to get a heart attack - you might panic - if you start then to focus on the sensations of panic - you could believe 2 things. 1) That your heart beat increasing is actually a normal sensation of panic OR you really are having a heart attack. If its the former, what happens is this. You get scared now of the sensations which you believe to mean something actually is wrong with your heart and you panic more. Now the sensations of the flight or fight response is either one or more of an increased heart rate, choking or breathlessness sensation, numbing of hands, nausea, dizziness, pins and needles feeling, hyperventilation, blurring and a sense of impending doom and feeling you are about to die. There could be more or less to this list and as each one is different , at any point 2 or more sensations would be heightened. Not very nice especially when you believe one of them means something is wrong with you - you panic more and this leads into a full blown panic attack. End result you might go to emergency coz your so freaked out , you might start praying, you might take a sedative, you might run around getting more tensed - whatever it might be - finally you WILL calm down. Thats how your body is designed to work. When I realized this it made the whole thing less scary. Though there are still some more parts to look into. In the beginning I would avoid going anywhere alone coz I was afraid this would happen at any point and if I was alone what would I do? For anyone who's experienced it - even the toughest people will tell you it makes them whimpering puppies - it is by large the MOST horrifying feeling anyone could ever go through and that's why its so popular in becoming a disorder in most people. And hence makes you agoraphobic- confined to safe places and not leaving home or not going anywhere you think you cant escape from or might be embarrassed. This itself is the most crippling part to this disorder. I will list my own recovery steps I took and you can see which would benefit you for yours.

In the next article...Ciao till then.