panic+attacks


 * Panic Attacks & Panic Disorder**

A panic attack is a sudden rush of overwhelming fear, anxiety or terror. It is much more extreme than the common feelings of being stressed out, worried or frightened and is accompanied with many physical symptoms. According to the American Psychological Association website, the physical symptoms that one experiences during a panic attack are: • Racing heartbeat • Difficulty breathing • Paralyzing terror • Dizziness, lightheadedness or nausea • Trembling, sweating, shaking • Choking, chest pains • Hot flashes, or sudden chills • Tingling in fingers or sudden chills • Fear that you’re going crazy or about to die

Panic attacks usually happen in seemingly harmless situations. The level of fear or anxiety one experiences during a panic attack is often highly intensified to the actual situation, and even sometimes unrelated. A panic attack lasts for only a couple of minutes, but people who suffer from reoccurring panic attacks may be diagnosed with panic disorder. Neither a panic attack nor panic disorder is harmful itself, but can lead to other problems such as: • Depression • Substance Abuse • Phobias • Suicide (in most extreme cases)

The textbook “The World of Psychology” states “Panic disorder sufferers must cope both with repeated panic attacks and with anxiety about the occurrence and consequences of further attacks. This anxiety can lead people to avoid situations that have been associated with previous panic attacks” (Wood, Wood & Boyd 716). The fear of encountering a certain object or situation that might trigger another panic attack can be classified as a phobia. This phobia is not like others, when people fear actual objects or events, but it is a fear of having another panic attack.

The following information is taken directly from the American Psychological Association website, and explains possible causes of panic disorder:


 * Body:** There may be a genetic predisposition to anxiety disorders; some sufferers report that a family member has or had a panic disorder or some other emotional disorder such as depression. Studies with twins have confirmed the possibility of 'genetic inheritance' of the disorder.

Panic Disorder could also be due to a biological malfunction, although a specific biological marker has yet to be identified.

All ethnic groups are vulnerable to panic disorder. For unknown reasons, women are twice as likely to get the disorder as men.


 * Mind:** Stressful life events can trigger panic disorders. One association that has been noted is that of a recent loss or separation. Some researchers liken the 'life stressor' to a thermostat; that is, when stresses lower your resistance, the underlying physical predisposition kicks in and triggers an attack.


 * Both:** Physical and psychological causes of panic disorder work together. Although initially attacks may come out of the blue, eventually the sufferer may actually help bring them on by responding to physical symptoms of an attack.

Panic disorder can be diagnosed and treated by professional therapists. Proper treatment of panic disorder requires extensive cognitive and behavioral therapies and sometimes medication. During cognitive therapy, the goal is to change one's way of thinking and help the panic attack sufferer replace the thoughts of "going crazy" or death with a more realistic and positive way of viewing the attack. During behavioral therapy, the patient is exposed to the physical sensations that he or she feels during a panic attack, and hopefully with enough exposure, the patient will no longer be fearful of having another panic attack. This process is similar to "desensitization," a process used to treat people with intense phobias. Also forms of treatment include: With a proper diagnosis and utilization of treatments and therapies, panic disorder is highly curable in sometimes just a year.
 * Medication (antidepressants, anti-anxiety, or heart medicine to control the irregular heartbeat)
 * Group Therapy/Support Groups
 * Relaxation Techniques
 * "Vivo Exposure" - breaking a fearful situation down into small manageable steps


 * Panic Attacks in Alice Sebold's //Lucky//**

Throughout her memoir //Lucky//, Alice Sebold recalls moments from her mother's panic attacks and how they affected her and her sister, Mary. Alice Sebold's first accounts of her mother's panic attacks were in 1977. Her mother had been sober for ten years, and this is when the panic attacks began.

"Flaps were our name for when Mommy went crazy...Her anxiety and panic was infectious, making every moment twice as long and twice as hard when she was under their sway. Unlike normal families, we could not trust that, having left to get food at the local supermarket, we would actually achieve our goal. Two steps into the store, she might begin to have a flap" (39-40).

When their mother had her panic attacks, the roles were reversed, making Alice and her sister the parental figures for the moment.

"'Grab a cantaloupe or something,' she would say as I got older, and thrust a bill into my hand. 'I'll meet you in the car.' She would hunch over during a flap and rapidly rub her breastbone to soothe what she described as her exploding heart...Sometimes, Mary and I functioned as a caretaking unit. Mary would husband her to the car and I would grab the cantaloupe. But I watched my sister develop from a child who thought the world would fall apart to a young adult who resented how the flaps made us different" (41).

Throughout the novel, Alice's mother's panic attacks continue to affect her family in different ways. They have caused embarrassment, by "exciting stares and comments in public" (41), intensified family arguments, ruined Alice's birthday trip to New York, and were even part of the reason why Alice did not attend her daughter's rape trial. The next passage from the memoir is when Mrs. Sebold took Alice to New York for her birthday.

"On the Amtrak train up from Philadelphia she begun to have a version of her panic. The dreaded flap. It grew worse and worse as we sped toward New York. I was so excited to be going but as she rocked back and forth in her seat and her hands trembled- one on her right temple and one rubbing the space between her breasts- I decided we should go home" (47).

Her mother tried to control her panic attack during the trip to New York, and please alice, but she was unable to and they were forced to go home. Mrs. Sebold's panic attacks were sometimes severe enough that they interfered with the tasks and expectations of daily life.

Page done by Emily Groh

__Works Cited__**__:__** "Answers to Your Questions About Panic Disorder." __APA Online__. American Psychological Association. 25 Feb. 2008 .

Sebold, Alice. __Lucky__. New York: Back Bay Books, 1999. 39-47.

Wood, Samuel E., Ellen G. Wood, and Denise Boyd. __The World of Psychology__. Pearson Education Inc., 2007. 716.