Panic Attack – Page 3 – Weight Loss Diet Solutions

Mistaken Beliefs About Panic Symptoms

When an individual has a panic attack, i.e. intense fear symptoms without a plausible explanation, they wonder if they’re going crazy. They also wonder if the intense physical symptoms they feel mean something entirely different, like an underlying medical cause.

Heart Attack
Many people think their panic symptoms are really a heart attack. There are differences between the two in symptoms as well as diagnosis. Panic attacks can happen at any time, very often during rest, and include the feeling of impending doom, terror, and loss of control whereas heart attacks may be more related to effort and exercise and any chest pain may diminish with less exercise. A heart attack leaves a physical footprint on EKGs and panic attacks don’t, other than perhaps a fast heart rate.

A panic attack may cause an increased heart rate, but not to a dangerous level. In fact, the rate during the episode is actually less than with vigorous physical exercise.

Fainting
It is not hard to see why fear of fainting may be foremost in the mind of a panic sufferer, but rarely does that actually happen. This fear comes about because of the similar symptoms someone would feel right before fainting – dizziness and lightheadedness. But really, what the body is feeling during an attack; that increased fight or flight adrenaline rush, is the opposite of fainting. The response is aptly called fight or flight, not fight, flight, or faint.

Going Crazy
During a panic attack the sufferer has irrational feelings and physical responses and it’s those irrational feelings and thoughts that make them feel like maybe they’re “going crazy.” The differences are someone who is “crazy” or schizophrenic has delusions (they’re King of the United States) or hallucinations (hearing voices) while the individual who is having an attack is having momentary feelings of irrational fear.

Additionally, a panic attack does not cause schizophrenia unless they were on their way there already with that issue and have strong family genetics that predispose them.

Loss of Control
Many sufferers feel they will lose control when they panic. They fear their body will do things of it’s own volition and their mind will not have any control over it. They picture themselves getting up and running around the room saying crazy stuff while people stare at them. Having thoughts like that lead to feelings of panic! Rest assured there is no loss of control. You may exercise the “flight” part of fight or flight and leave the situation, but you will not fall over paralyzed or become wild.

Other mistaken things people think could happen when they have a panic attack is that it could be a result of, or cause, epilepsy or an aneurysm. These have not been proven true and should allow some peace of mind. In fact, dispelling all the above mistaken beliefs should help the sufferer to feel a little better.

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Feeling anxious from time to time is a natural part of our lives. However, feeling anxious constantly or letting that anxiety get in the way of living a normal life is not natural. If you feel you may have more anxiety or your anxiety is more intense than is proper, you may have an anxiety disorder.

Is your level of anxiety appropriate for each situation? If you see a man walking your way with a gun, your level of anxiety should appropriately be high. On the other hand, if you’re feeling incredibly anxious about driving two miles to the mall, your anxiety is probably out of proportion.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Constantly worrying about everything. It can keep you up at night, make you chronically tired, and cause nausea. Your levels of anxiety are higher than the average person’s and you invent and worry about situations that will most likely never happen to you or your loved ones. Example: Worrying that your daughter will get in a bike accident when she rides to school, worrying that you will be in a car accident as you drive to the grocery store, playing out the funeral scene in your mind should your husband die unexpectedly tomorrow.

Social Anxiety
This is beyond shyness; it’s a high level of anxiety about being out in public or in a group situation. It’s an excessive fear about social places and situations, and it can be incapacitating. You may have low self-esteem or worry too much about what others think of you. You may practice avoidance rather than deal with the anxiety. Example: Severe anxiousness when attending a church service or intense fear of going to a crowded movie.

Panic Disorder
Anticipated or random attacks of panic brought on by excessive adrenaline and incorrectly assessing a situation with intense anxiety. You spend a lot of time worrying you will have another panic attack and go to great lengths to avoid situations that might bring on an attack. Example: Having a panic attack with symptoms of not being able to breathe, racing heart, and clamminess while on an airplane.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive thoughts and anxieties that are tempered by performing rituals. These rituals are done over and over again the same way each time or great anxiety is the result. Example: Unlocking and locking your car door 6 times before you can leave it, or washing your hands with 3 squirts of soap and washing the back of the hands 4 times each.

PTSD
Varying anxiety symptoms as a result of a traumatic event. You have very real feelings of anxiety that a similar event will happen again. Example: The traumatic event of rape can lead to fear of men, flashbacks, not being able to sleep alone, and the new occurrence of panic attacks, etc.

Phobia
Phobias are persistent, irrational fears and are associated with anxiety. If you are presented with the object of your fears, you immediately experience high levels of anxiety. Example: Fear of airplanes or fear of snakes.

Having some anxiety in our lives is a normal occurrence, but when it is out of proportion to the event or seems to be taking over, then it could be that you are suffering from one of the above anxiety disorders.