In life, everyone encounters challenges and difficult times. These challenges can be stressful and unpleasant, but most people are able to endure and overcome them as a matter of due course. Some people, however, experience more difficulty in the form of panic attacks. A panic attack is an intense and sudden feeling of anxiety that many people mistake for a heart attack. Symptoms can include a racing pulse, trembling, and an overwhelming desire to flee from the cause of the stress. During a panic attack, one may feel as if they are losing their mind.
Generally the age in which one tends to start having panic attacks is in the mid teens to mid twenties. It is seen that that those who are prone to such attacks have a different type of mental make up which makes them very vulnerable to negative influences.
When combined with a stressful or intense experience, this sensitivity to stress can cause a panic attack, and once a person has experienced a panic attack, they are more likely to have future panic attacks and to develop panic disorder.
Panic attacks are often the result of your belief systems and the way you think. Your thinking patterns are influenced not only by your genetic make-up but also the environment in which you grew up. If you always saw your parents reacting to stressful situations with lots of anxiety, chances are that you too have the same tendency.
Stress disorders can frequently be caused by genetic factors. If a person has experienced panic disorders, it is likely that their children will experience them as well. Simultaneously, a person’s family situation contributes greatly to the environment in which they are brought up, which in turn can affect their propensity to experience panic attacks. This is because much of a person’s mindset is influenced by the people they spend time with throughout their life.
If any of your close relatives had panic attack, the likelihood for you to have the same disorder is greater. Compared to men, women are twice more prone to suffer from panic attacks. The reason could be the presence of estrogen, a female hormone, in women. The amount of hormones in women changes from time to time and this variance in hormone levels might make them more susceptible to stress disorders.
Under the throes of stress, you may believe that your situation is totally unique and that there is no cure for your problem. No matter how long you have been suffering from this problem, you can come out of it if you wish. Treating panic disorder becomes easy once we know what actually triggers an attack. Whether you or any member of your family is suffering from panic disorder, help is at hand and there is absolutely nothing to worry.
Only a doctor can diagnose whether a person is actually experiencing panic disorder or if the symptoms are caused by something else. Once diagnosed, you can move forward with exploring your treatment options. There is hope and you do not have to suffer in silence. Panic disorder can be overcome, and when it is, a person’s health and happiness will improve dramatically.
If you’d like to learn more about panic disorders, then you’ve got to check out The Panic Away Book as well as Cure For Panic Attacks.