Before dealing with a panic attack, it's worth understanding better what it is. A panic attack is a condition when a person experiences strong and unreasonable fear. At the same time, such emotions are almost beyond control. This state can last only a few minutes, or maybe whole hour
Breathing practices, clear actions, and a favorite notebook at hand. This is a simple guideline to help you survive a panic attack. The article uses a statistical analysis of data obtained from a mental health survey conducted by oxavi.org.
Panic attacks significantly reduce the quality of life and in some cases lead to quite serious consequences, for example, agoraphobia. Also, panic attacks often cause various addictions - nicotine, alcoholic, narcotic. With their help, a person tries to relieve accumulated stress, but over time, such "drugs" are less effective, but panic attacks intensify. That is why it is so important to see a specialist on time. If you have experienced panic attacks several times in a year, then you should see a professional - a psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist (depending on the severity of the situation).
Panic attack symptomsOften times, panic attacks have no relationship to real danger. In this case, the disease takes a sudden start, the symptoms intensify rapidly, and then decline, leaving the patient alone with the state of recovery after an attack. As a rule, panic attacks last about 15 minutes. In rare cases, there are non-prolonged attacks (about 10 minutes) and prolonged attacks (about 1 hour).
The most common complaints are a feeling of suffocation, pain in the heart, heart sinking or excessive heart activity, breathing problems, lack of air, etc. Frequent symptoms are paraesthesia, dizziness, chills, sweating. Often, patients report cognitive impairments: de-personalization, fuzzy sound, blurry objects, light-headedness, and so on. More rare symptoms are vomiting, belching, nausea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms.
The first panic attack is usually expressed by a specific fear of death. When repeated, it takes on a clear form: a person is overcome by the fear of death from any disease or accident. There is a feeling of anxiety, which is difficult to explain with anything, internal tension. Often, patients reach a state of passion. Some patients are most susceptible to emotional disorders: feelings of pity, worthlessness, hopelessness.
Panic attacks can be accompanied by certain functional disorders: twisting of the arms, chills, mutism, visual impairment, numbness of the limbs, change in gait, etc.
Who is prone to panic attacks?A panic attack can happen to anyone. However, there are also special "risk groups". Residents of large cities where daily stress overloads the nervous system get it more than other people. It is believed that about 5% of the inhabitants of megacities are susceptible to panic attacks. Also, the "risk group" includes people with so-called catastrophic thinking. People with this type of thinking are prone to drama and exaggeration - even a minor problem in their eyes grows to the size of the apocalypse. Often, people with anxiety disorders, social phobia, or heightened emotional sensitivity are susceptible to panic attacks.
The trigger for these attacks can be serious exhaustion or anticipation of an important event. We must not forget that such a state arises as a result of various psychological traumas. It is not at all necessary that the traumatic event happened recently - the psyche does not always "promptly" react to what has happened, so a panic attack may be the result of some kind of severe and not well-developed childhood trauma.
What are morning and night panic attacks?Panic attacks can happen not only on the street, in unfamiliar and crowded places, but even at home. This usually happens at night or during the day. This type of panic attack is typical for people with a high level of self-control and discipline. During the daytime, a lot of energy is spent on maintaining external calmness and goodness, but at night, when self-control weakens, stress seems to "catch up" the body and falls on it. The result is not only insomnia but also real panic, when your own walls, familiar pieces of furniture, and even a partner lying next to you cause horror. The same goes for morning panic attacks.
How to stop a panic attack? 5 useful tipsAlas, medicine does not know exactly why panic attacks occur, therefore, methods of struggle are rather general recommendations, which, however, will help you avoid attacks in the future:
The main approach to the treatment of panic attack is the interaction of a psychologist and a neurologist who jointly try to convince the patient that a panic attack is not a disease, it does not pose a risk to life and health, and can also be controlled. Changing your outlook on different life situations is one of the most important moments of recovery.
Antidepressants (tricyclic and tetracyclic) occupy a special place in drug treatment. However, they start working in a few weeks, and the symptoms of panic attacks during this period may become more pronounced. The stage of maximum effectiveness of the drugs begins after about two months.
Various benzodiazepines can be prescribed to the patient. They do not aggravate the symptoms of a panic attack and are more effective from the moment of use, however, these drugs are not recommended for use for more than 4 weeks due to the risk of addiction. Besides, they are ineffective for depressive disorders. As a rule, these drugs are used to relieve paroxysms.
The choice of a drug treatment method is always individual. As a rule, the course of drug use is at least 6 months. A complete refusal to use medications is relevant only in cases where the panic attack has not recurred within 40 days.
Respiratory control is the simplest and most effective non-drug therapy. You need to take the deepest possible breath and hold your breath for as long as possible. After that, you need to make a slow exhalation. In this case, you need to try to relax your body and close your eyes. This exercise should be repeated about 15-20 times. You can make a short pause in several standard breaths and exhalations.