Cause of Panic Attacks

The short and obvious answer: panic attacks are caused by high
anxiety. But, what exactly is anxiety? Understanding how anxiety
crops up will help you defeat panic attacks.
One of the biggest myths surrounding anxiety is that it is
harmful and can lead to a number of various life-threatening
conditions.
Definition of Anxiety
Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or fear resulting
from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event, or
situation. It is one of the most common human emotions
experienced by people at some point in their lives.
However, most people who have never experienced a panic attack,
or extreme anxiety, fail to realize the terrifying nature of the
experience. Extreme dizziness, blurred vision, tingling and
feelings of breathlessness—and that’s just the tip of the
iceberg!
When these sensations occur and people do not understand why,
they feel they have contracted an illness, or a serious mental
condition. The threat of losing complete control seems very real
and naturally very terrifying.
Fight/Flight Response: One of the root causes of panic attacks?
I am sure most of you have heard of the fight/flight response as
an explanation for one of the root causes of panic attacks. Have
you made the connection between this response and the unusual
sensations you experience during and after a panic attack
episode?
Anxiety is a response to a danger or threat. It is so named
because all of its effects are aimed toward either fighting or
fleeing from the danger. Thus, the sole purpose of anxiety is to
protect the individual from harm. This may seem ironic given
that you no doubt feel your anxiety is actually causing you
great harm...perhaps the most significant of all the causes of
panic attacks.
However, the anxiety that the fight/flight response created was
vital in the daily survival of our ancient ancestors—when faced
with some danger, an automatic response would take over that
propelled them to take immediate action such as attack or run.
Even in today's hectic world, this is still a necessary
mechanism. It comes in useful when you must respond to a real
threat within a split second.
Anxiety is a built-in mechanism to protect us from danger.
Interestingly, it is a mechanism that protects but does not harm
—an important point that will be elaborated upon later.
The Physical Manifestations of a Panic Attack: Other pieces of
the puzzle to understand the causes of panic attacks.
Nervousness and Chemical Effects...
When confronted with danger, the brain sends signals to a
section of the nervous system. It is this system that is
responsible for gearing the body up for action and also calms
the body down and restores equilibrium. To carry out these two
vital functions, the autonomic nervous system has two
subsections, the sympathetic nervous system and the
parasympathetic nervous system.
Although I don't want to become too "scientific," having a basic
understanding of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous
system will help you understand the causes of panic attacks.
The sympathetic nervous system is the one we tend to know all
too much about because it primes our body for action, readies us
for the “fight or flight” response, while the parasympathetic
nervous system is the one we love dearly as it serves as our
restoring system, which returns the body to its normal state.
When either of these systems is activated, they stimulate the
whole body, which has an “all or nothing” effect. This explains
why when a panic attack occurs, the individual often feels a
number of different sensations throughout the body.
The sympathetic system is responsible for releasing the
adrenaline from the adrenal glands on the kidneys. These are
small glands located just above the kidneys. Less known,
however, is that the adrenal glands also release adrenaline,
which functions as the body’s chemical messengers to keep the
activity going. When a panic attack begins, it does not switch
off as easily as it is turned on. There is always a period of
what would seem increased or continued anxiety, as these
messengers travel throughout the body. Think of them as one of
the physiological causes of panic attacks, if you will.
After a period of time, the parasympathetic nervous system gets
called into action. Its role is to return the body to normal
functioning once the perceived danger is gone. The
parasympathetic system is the system we all know and love,
because it returns us to a calm relaxed state.
When we engage in a coping strategy that we have learned, for
example, a relaxation technique, we are in fact willing the
parasympathetic nervous system into action. A good thing to
remember is that this system will be brought into action at some
stage whether we will it or not. The body cannot continue in an
ever-increasing spiral of anxiety. It reaches a point where it
simply must kick in, relaxing the body. This is one of the many
built-in protection systems our bodies have for survival.
You can do your best with worrying thoughts, keeping the
sympathetic nervous system going, but eventually it stops. In
time, it becomes a little smarter than us, and realizes that
there really is no danger. Our bodies are incredibly intelligent
—modern science is always discovering amazing patterns of
intelligence that run throughout the cells of our body. Our body
seems to have infinite ways of dealing with the most complicated
array of functions we take for granted. Rest assured that your
body’s primary goal is to keep you alive and well.
Not so convinced?
Try holding your breath for as long as you can. No matter how
strong your mental will is, it can never override the will of
the body. This is good news—no matter how hard you try to
convince yourself that you are gong to die from a panic attack,
you won’t. Your body will override that fear and search for a
state of balance. There has never been a reported incident of
someone dying from a panic attack.
Remember this next time you have a panic attack; he causes of
panic attacks cannot do you any physical harm. Your mind may
make the sensations continue longer than the body intended, but
eventually everything will return to a state of balance. In
fact, balance (homeostasis) is what our body continually strives
for.
The interference for your body is nothing more than the
sensations of doing rigorous exercise. Our body is not alarmed
by these symptoms. Why should it be? It knows its own
capability. It’s our thinking minds that panic, which overreact
and scream in sheer terror! We tend to fear the worst and
exaggerate our own sensations. A quickened heart beat becomes a
heart attack. An overactive mind seems like a close shave with
schizophrenia. Is it our fault? Not really—we are simply
diagnosing from poor information.
Cardiovascular Effects Activity in the sympathetic nervous
system increases our heartbeat rate, speeds up the blood flow
throughout the body, ensures all areas are well supplied with
oxygen and that waste products are removed. This happens in
order to prime the body for action.
A fascinating feature of the “fight or flight” mechanism is that
blood (which is channelled from areas where it is currently not
needed by a tightening of the blood vessels) is brought to areas
where it is urgently needed.
For example, should there be a physical attack, blood drains
from the skin, fingers, and toes so that less blood is lost, and
is moved to “active areas” such as the thighs and biceps to help
the body prepare for action.
This is why many feel numbness and tingling during a panic
attack-often misinterpreted as some serious health risk-such as
the precursor to a heart attack. Interestingly, most people who
suffer from anxiety often feel they have heart problems. If you
are really worried that such is the case with your situation,
visit your doctor and have it checked out. At least then you can
put your mind at rest.
Respiratory Effects
One of the scariest effects of a panic attack is the fear of
suffocating or smothering. It is very common during a panic
attack to feel tightness in the chest and throat. I’m sure
everyone can relate to some fear of losing control of your
breathing. From personal experience, anxiety grows from the fear
that your breathing itself would cease and you would be unable
to recover. Can a panic attack stop our breathing? No.
A panic attack is associated with an increase in the speed and
depth of breathing. This has obvious importance for the defense
of the body since the tissues need to get more oxygen to prepare
for action. The feelings produced by this increase in breathing,
however, can include breathlessness, hyperventilation,
sensations of choking or smothering, and even pains or tightness
in the chest. The real problem is that these sensations are
alien to us, and they feel unnatural.
Having experienced extreme panic attacks myself, I remember that
on many occasions, I would have this feeling that I couldn’t
trust my body to do the breathing for me, so I would have to
manually take over and tell myself when to breathe in and when
to breathe out. Of course, this didn’t suit my body’s
requirement of oxygen and so the sensations would intensify—
along with the anxiety. It was only when I employed the
technique I will describe for you later, did I let the body
continue doing what it does best—running the whole show.
Importantly, a side-effect of increased breathing, (especially
if no actual activity occurs) is that the blood supply to the
head is actually decreased. While such a decrease is only a
small amount and is not at all dangerous, it produces a variety
of unpleasant but harmless symptoms that include dizziness,
blurred vision, confusion, sense of unreality, and hot flushes.
Other Physical Effects of Panic Attacks:
Now that we've discussed some of the primary physiological
causes of panic attacks, there are a number of other effects
that are produced by the activation of the sympathetic nervous
system, none of which are in any way harmful.
For example, the pupils widen to let in more light, which may
result in blurred vision, or “seeing” stars, etc. There is a
decrease in salivation, resulting in dry mouth. There is
decreased activity in the digestive system, which often produces
nausea, a heavy feeling in the stomach, and even constipation.
Finally, many of the muscle groups tense up in preparation for “
fight or flight” and this results in subjective feelings of
tension, sometimes extending to actual aches and pains, as well
as trembling and shaking.
Overall, the fight/flight response results in a general
activation of the whole bodily metabolism. Thus, one often feels
hot and flushed and, because this process takes a lot of energy,
the person generally feels tired and drained.
Mental Manifestations: Are the causes of panic attacks all in my
head? is a question many people wonder to themselves.
The goal of the fight/flight response is making the individual
aware of the potential danger that may be present. Therefore,
when activated, the mental priority is placed upon searching the
surroundings for potential threats. In this state one is highly
-strung, so to speak. It is very difficult to concentrate on any
one activity, as the mind has been trained to seek all potential
threats and not to give up until the threat has been identified.
As soon as the panic hits, many people look for the quick and
easiest exit from their current surroundings, such as by simply
leaving the bank queue and walking outside. Sometimes the
anxiety can heighten, if we perceive that leaving will cause
some sort of social embarrassment.
If you have a panic attack while at the workplace but feel you
must press on with whatever task it is you are doing, it is
quite understandable that you would find it very hard to
concentrate. It is quite common to become agitated and generally
restless in such a situation. Many individuals I have worked
with who have suffered from panic attacks over the years
indicated that artificial light—such as that which comes from
computer monitors and televisions screens—can can be one of the
causes of panic attacks by triggering them or worsen a panic
attack, particularly if the person is feeling tired or run down.
This is worth bearing in mind if you work for long periods of
time on a computer. Regular break reminders should be set up on
your computer to remind you to get up from the desk and get some
fresh air when possible.
In other situations, when during a panic attack an outside
threat cannot normally be found, the mind turns inwards and
begins to contemplate the possible illness the body or mind
could be suffering from. This ranges from thinking it might have
been something you ate at lunch, to the possibility of an
oncoming cardiac arrest.
The burning question is: Why is the fight/flight response
activated during a panic attack even when there is apparently
nothing to be frightened of?
Upon closer examination of the causes of panic attacks, it would
appear that what we are afraid of are the sensations themselves—
we are afraid of the body losing control. These unexpected
physical symptoms create the fear or panic that something is
terribly wrong. Why do you experience the physical symptoms of
the fight/flight response if you are not frightened to begin
with? There are many ways these symptoms can manifest
themselves, not just through fear.
For example, it may be that you have become generally stressed
for some reason in your life, and this stress results in an
increase in the production of adrenaline and other chemicals,
which from time to time, would produce symptoms....and which you
perceive as the causes of panic attacks.
This increased adrenaline can be maintained chemically in the
body, even after the stress has long gone. Another possibility
is diet, which directly affects our level of stress. Excess
caffeine, alcohol, or sugar is known for causing stress in the
body, and is believed to be one of the contributing factors of
the causes of panic attacks (Chapter 5 gives a full discussion
on diet and its importance).
Unresolved emotions are often pointed to as possible trigger of
panic attacks, but it is important to point out that eliminating
panic attacks from your life does not necessarily mean analyzing
your psyche and digging into your subconscious. The “One Move”
technique will teach you to deal with the present moment and
defuse the attack along with removing the underlying anxiety
that sparks the initial anxiety.

Joe Barry is an international panic disorder coach. His
informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety
attacks can be found here: VISIT HERE NOW!!!
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