It’s not exactly clear as to what causes panic attack . Sure, a panic attack is the result of a very serious state of anxiety, but what makes anxiety levels peak? By understanding anxiety, one can learn to deal it, but it’s not life threatening. Though it often seem so! Some theories that might explain what leads to panic attack disorders are:

Biological reasons – Panic Attacks can be a result of a chemical imbalance in the brain and can run in families. If a member of a family suffers from panic attacks, chances are that other family members will develop it. It has been seen that panic attack sufferers are more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, undergo a depression or try to commit suicide, as compared to non-sufferers.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – A major life stress or change can lead to panic attacks. The stressor that triggers panic could be an illness, death of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, financial problems or a miscarriage. These events usually precede the first panic attack. Some women experience an increase in the frequency of panic attacks during pregnancy.

Behavioral theory – You can learn certain negative behaviors or thought patterns that ‘teach’ you to become terrified of panic attacks. This is the beginning of a vicious cycle – as the number and intensity of fears grow, they feed on each other and severely affect the quality of your life.

Flight or fight – Your body’s builted in response to danger is to increase your heart rate and breathing, tense your muscles and sweat, as it readies itself to face a dangerous situation. Similar reactions take place during a panic attack.

Though why the body’s self defense system gets triggered when there’s no evident threat or danger, is not clear. During the fight and flight response, hormones are released through the body to prepare you to either fight the danger or run from it!

Now, when you think in a certain way during a panic attack, your body responds to your thoughts and activates the ‘fight and flight’ response. You see, your body can’t tell the difference between your thoughts and reality. While panicking, you keep fearing the worst and wonder what if this were to happen, what if that were to happen, and this turns the fight and flight response on.

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Without a doubt, opening up has always been a toughie for me. Still can be. My issue has always been trust, trying my best to believe that those in whom I might confide will truly listen to all I have to say; and accept it, not necessarily in agreement, without passing judgment. God only knows I’ve always been willing to do the same.

Looking back over the years, I can only imagine the price I’ve paid in relationships and personal frustration because of this opening-up dilemma. But when you really think about it, I suppose it’s not too hard to figure out why any panic sufferer would turn out to be somewhat of a recluse. I mean, we all too often don’t go anywhere because of agoraphobia, social phobia, avoidance, assorted irrational fears, etc. Hence, we kind of get in the habit of, indeed, simply avoiding people and relationships, excluding from our lives any sort of environment in which we can open-up and be comfortable in simply being ourselves. And if you’re like I was, that probably suits you just fine. Right?

Why would we want to associate with anyone? What could we possibly have to offer? Shoot, the very last thing we’d want to do is expose anyone to all the misery in our lives, and the misery of us. It’s not like they’d want to hear our long litany of pain, much less be able to understand or do anything about it. We’d just feel like a whiner. And we sure as heck don’t want to have to be confronted with the successes of others. I mean, why would we want to subject ourselves to any form of self-comparison to someone, who in our minds, we could never match. I mean, what’s the point? Not to mention, because of our fear-ridden perception of the world, who could we trust anyway? And, of course, our very low self-regard bangs these falsehoods home day in and day out.

Well, I can tell you from experience that opening myself to others wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, and still isn’t. No doubt, there are just so many hidden agendas held deep within that keep us from really reaching out, taking the risk of being exposed. But I can also tell you that we must try as hard as we can to pull it off. There’s just too much to be missed. Now, I’m not saying we have to pour our heart and soul out to each and every person we come across. No, we just need to release ourselves from the chains of any mode of thinking that entirely excludes expressing ourselves at some decent level of depth. I mean, it’s so easy for us to be quite comfortable living the life of a recluse, but I promise it won’t be long before that lifestyle choice will turn into a highly littered dead-end street. Maybe it already has.

Trust me, there are people out there who either do, or would, really care about us and would be more than willing to accept us just the way we are, and help us leap to the next level. And the cool thing is we haven’t even met some of these people yet. We’ll miss out on so much valuable release, input, feedback, and companionship if we elect to live our lives alone, keeping all of our thoughts and feelings inside. I know it’s never been easy to trust anyone in the screwed-up and crazy world in which we live or have lived. But, that can all be a bad memory now. We really need to take a shot at being known and knowing someone else, baring a bit of our souls. Yes, it’s a risk; but we’re more than strong enough to handle it. And the potential rewards are more than fabulous.

After a winning bout with panic disorder, a career in the business world, and a part-time job working with socially challenged adolescents, Bill found his life’s passion and work. So he earned his master’s degree and counseling credentials, and is doing all he can to lend a hand to those having a tough time.

Bill has some powerful BE CALM mentoring and service packages available for panic attack sufferers on his website, which include his panic attack education and recovery eWorkbook, “Panic! …and Poetic Justice.” The eWorkbook is delivered via an immediate download. You’ll also find a link on the website to Bill’s Panic Attack Freedom! blog. Lots of good stuff going on and much more to come.

In addition to doing psychiatric emergency work, Bill continues to do a lot of writing and speaking. He’s conducted numerous mental health workshops and is available for future engagements. Bill is a national and local member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (N.A.M.I.). He resides in the far western suburbs of Chicago where he enjoys time with his two wonderful teenage children.
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Anyone who has to deal with constant anxiety or panic attacks knows that it is not a fun time. And it’s not like there is a good time for you to feel like a heart attack is coming on, there is never a good time for that. Anxiety is an interesting thing because everyone has to deal with it, depending on what happens to be going on in your life, but for many people it rarely goes away, that awful feeling is with you at all times. It starts when you wake up and gives you all sorts of problems getting to sleep, but there is help out there and there are ways for you to cope and even limit it.

There are a lot of medications, both herbal and from the pharmacy which can help you deal with anxiety and panic attacks. Things like kava, lavender, passion flower oil and lemon balm have been shown to help ease some of the symptoms of anxiety and are great if you are averse to taking medication. From your doctor you can get something like Zoloft which should not be taken lightly but for those who suffer worst, it can solve the problem.

Since much of the problems with anxiety and panic attacks are really psychological, then in many cases there are a few basic steps you can take to either ease the problem or get rid of it altogether.  Learning to relax is a good start and you can look into things like massage, acupuncture and even aroma therapy can help ease the stress of life. You should also look into meditation which has been shown to be very helpful for a lot of people.

You can also look at changing some aspects of your daily life, things that have been shown to cause anxiety and nervous disorders. If you are a smoker, that is a great and obvious place to start but other stimulants like coffee, soda and other caffeine based products should be cut out and you will probably see some good results from that.

And finally you should look at the most basic parts of good living, namely getting a good nights sleep and some regular exercise. In many cases, those who suffer from anxiety and panic attacks are not the picture of good living and if you spend some quality time looking hard at your life, maybe you can find some small changes you can make to help you relax and live a happier life. More help for anxiety and panic attacks.

Gary P is a writer for RX Direct Health

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/living-with-anxiety-and-panic-attacks-1303707.html

by Edward M.

So, first thing is first, is overcoming panic attacks really as simple as speaking Spanish? Well as all us non-Spanish speaking people know, it’s quite difficult to learn Spanish, or any new language. Similarly, Overcoming panic attacks involves much work in order to see an improvement in the occurrences of the attacks. For those that aren’t quite as informed as the others reading this, the brain causes panic attacks as it is considered a neurological problem. As with most neurological problems, it can be controlled and managed; it can even be cured depending on the circumstance.

The number one step in overcoming panic attacks is for you to overcome it and not let it be the ruler of your life and the deciding factor in how you perform daily tasks. One has to be gentle when dealing with panic attacks, as it is such a sensitive disorder. As most of you are aware, when a panic attack occurs, you feel as if you are having a heart attack and you almost feel as though your are going to die.

Overcoming panic attacks aren’t that difficult to overcome if you have the proper tools and know how to use those tools effectively. One of the little tricks you can try is to always carry a bottle of water or juice and just sip on it when you have an attack because its difficult to swallow, but the fluids are definitely helpful. You can also try the good old inhaling and exhaling into a paper bag. What this does is force you to inhale the carbon dioxide, which increases your carbon dioxide level in your blood and restores calcium levels. So in plain English, it regulates your breathing, and slows it down.

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by Mitch Jordan

About the Author
Mitch Jordan is an expert on anxiety disorders. She writes for popular blog TheAnxietyBlog.Com on a variety of topics. Learn more about anxiety disorder panic attack and more when you visit the site today!