Learning More About Panic Attacks

One of the best ways to help you in alleviating the pains suffered from a panic attack is to learn more about it. Let my tell you 4 “Whats” and a “How” to help you out.

What is a panic attack?

Panic attack is an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety about something real or imaginative. It makes you feel likes dying or unable to breathe as normal. Many people suffer from panic attacks without any apparent reason. Panic attack may either happen only once or it recurs whenever you come to a situation or circumstance that will cause it to exploit instantly. Places likes subway, air plane, bus and places where there is no easy mean of escape or help is not readily available are the common places to trigger a panic attack. If the situation persists, you may develop into agoraphobia and panic disorder. You shouldn’t avoid panic attack but learn how to deal with it instead.

Who gets panic attacks?

About one out of ten persons suffers from panic attack. Nevertheless, most of them are either undiagnosed or under diagnosed. If you are living under pressure for prolong period then you prone to have panic attack. Anyone may suffer from panic attack or panic disorder and children may also be the victim too. Female has twice the chances to have panic attack as opposed to male. You may also be biological inherited with panic attack.

How do I know if I am having an attack?

Fear of dying, strange wrapping reality, racing heartbeat, sweating, choking sensation, stomach cramp, going insane, cool flashes are the common symptoms of panic attack which is similar to anxiety. The physical symptoms suffered by each person may be slightly different and also much more depending on the situation.

Some symptoms of panic attacks are similar to a heart attack. As such knowing your real problem is very critical as panic attack is harmless but the heart attack can be deadly. You should seek help from medical doctor as soon as after you had panic attack for the first time.

What cause an attack?

Most of the panic attacks crop up without any warning and they just happen out of the blue. However, past traumatic experiences likes death of a loved one, family conflicts, bad relationships, parents get divorced, road accident and etc have been linked to the causes of having the attacks. You may have the attack whenever you are exposed to a circumstances or events almost similar to the past that caused you to have an attack. Besides, stress is another contributing factor for panic attack.

What should I do during an attack?

Although panic attacks normally last from 5 to 10 minutes but they may rule your entire life. You are basically going through signs and symptoms as described above and the attack makes you feel very miserable. It is very important to control your breathing during an attack as speeding heartbeat is the root cause for other symptoms. You should do diaphragmatic breathing and institute a pause in between inhaling and exhaling at a constant rhythm. In the nutshell, place one hand on your upper chest whilst the another hand on your stomach, count one to three when you breathe in, pause, and count one to three when you breathe out.

Continue to repeat this step several times until you can calm down. You may want to walk around slowly if you are able to stand up. Another useful tip is, you may want to breathe into a plastic or paper bag. Doing this would help you to re-breathe your carbon dioxide to correct your blood acid level.

The key objective of doing above is to help you to focus on your breathing whilst preventing your mind to think about the causes of the panic which would worsen your situation. Some of the proven techniques that could help you to divert your attention are, thinking more about happy memories, playing some word games or solving puzzle.