Panic Attacks Signs

Panic attacks do not come from nowhere, though the possibility of them coming out of the blue cannot be discounted. Nonetheless, there is always that something that triggers the occurrence of such attacks. Experts believe that the causes are multi-factorial and pre-disposing factors are many. Included are the following:

Genetics. Panic attacks run in the family. If you great grandfather had it, there is a relative possibility that you might develop the disorder as well. In typical cases, those people who have relatives with panic attacks are twice more likely to experience either acute or chronic but intermittent episodes of panic disorder than normal people. Nonetheless, there are people who have family history of panic attacks that do not develop the disorder.

Medical causes. There are several medical conditions that could allow for the development of panic disorder and panic attacks. Among them are mitral valve prolapse, hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, abrupt withdrawal from medication usage, and use of stimulants. Mitral valve prolapse, otherwise known as MVP, is a heart disease that affects the mitral valves, the part of the heart that prevents the backflow of blood. The symptoms of this disease are shortness of breath and chest pain along with others. Not only do these symptoms resemble those of panic attacks but research by the American Heart Association confirmed that there is a direct link between MVP and panic attacks.

Hypoglycemia, on the other hand, is a condition characterized by a lower level of blood glucose. Meanwhile, hyperthyroidism is also a condition that is somehow linked with panic attacks. This condition is marked by the overproduction of thyroid hormones namely T3 and T4 hormones. Abrupt withdrawal from certain medications is also believed to be a cause of panic attacks since this triggers sudden changes in the body.  Another factor that may lead to the development of panic attacks is the use of stimulant substances such as beverages with high caffeine content and marijuana.

Medications. The body’s reaction to foreign materials with medical properties is not always necessarily positive. There are cases when the substances found in the drugs produce the right conditions in the body conducive to the arousal of panic attacks. For example, methylphenidate which is more commonly known as Ritalin is used for patients of ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as well as narcolepsy could cause panic attacks for some people. 

Gender. This seems to be a predisposing factor towards the development of panic disorder. According to studies females are 50% more likely than their counterparts to develop the disorder. 

Major life events. Substantial events in life that lead to extreme changes can create the right environments for the occurrence of panic attacks. This may be because such drastic changes create tensions in the homeostasis of a person’s life, thus upsetting the previous order of things and forcing the person to confront the changes. If the person fails to respond accordingly, the tension may persist and he might be overcome by it. Thus, producing a number of symptoms that could be characterized under psychological disorders, panic attacks included.

Phobias. Although the statistics are not established yet, it seems clear that people who have severe cases of phobias are more susceptible to developing panic disorders. This could be due to the fact that phobias cause elevated levels of fear to start with.

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Bipolar Depression Treatment

Bipolar disorder is one that is being diagnosed onto people more and more as time goes on.
Bipolar disorder is considered as being a major affective disorder in which an individual alternates between states of deep depression and extreme elation.

It can be very confusing for people with bipolar disorder, because they are either feeling really great or really upset, and there is really no in between for them. Therefore it is very important that people with this condition get the right bipolar depression treatment, and fortunately there are a few different options that are available here.

When it comes to bipolar depression treatment, the first thing that a doctor will usually recommend is bipolar depression medication. Antidepressant medications are most commonly chosen for bipolar depression treatment here, and doctors have been using anticonvulsants lately for bipolar disorder as well.

Your doctor will need to assess your condition, take some personal factors into consideration, and use all of this to determine which bipolar depression treatment is going to work best for you.

One of the biggest mistakes that people on bipolar medication do is stop taking their medication abruptly. This may be because the pills are making you feel strange or sick, or because you just don’t want to take medication anymore. Regardless, this is going to do you more harm than good, and you always need to make sure that you speak to your doctor before getting off any type of medication.

You will also need to be monitored for the first couple of days when you start on any medication, so that your doctor can watch and see how you react to it.

You need to be aware that while medication may help you to feel better, you may experience unfavorable side effects to begin with and it can take up to six weeks to get rid of these sorts of feelings. You also may find that one medication is not working out for you, and need to have your doctor switch you to another.

Make sure that you stick to a bipolar depression treatment, otherwise your condition can get out of control and this can have very dangerous results.

The most important thing to know is that if you have bipolar disorder, there is effective treatment available and so you do not have to suffer, you really don’t. Just make sure that you work closely with your doctor and keep them abreast of your condition and how you are feeling.

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Self Help For Panic Attacks

Consulting a psychologist, or a behavioral therapist for that matter, regarding panic attacks may be the best course of action you could do for yourself. That is, if you are not convinced that you can actually help your self out of your condition. But you cannot forever rely on drugs and medical practitioners to give you help. Somehow you have to take action; you have to learn to cope. Here are some ideas that could help you psyche yourself into coping with panic attacks.

You are what you think. If you think that you are fearful of something, you would actually become fearful of that thing, regardless of how irrational that fear could be. If you expect that you would have panic attacks any time soon, you might actually enter into one. The mind is so powerful that it could trigger experiences that are frightening enough to cause you extreme levels of panic sensations. With this similar capacity at your disposal, you could reverse the power of your mind and use it to your advantage.

Based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a psychotherapeutic approach, a person has the capacity to manipulate dysfunctional reactions, emotions, cognitions and behaviors in order to arrive at a more cohesive and healthier well-being. Given that your panic attacks are triggered by your brain, you could help your brain tone down certain symptoms by just trying to fix its dysfunctions. While simple positive thoughts can help you direct your experience of panic attacks, more intensive and systematic Cognitive Behavioral Therapies can provide you an atmosphere of peace that is free from panic attacks.

Run towards the object of your fear. People have the natural tendency to get away from things, places and events that caused them bad experiences. But the thing is, running away from something would not help release you from your fear, it may actually aggravate your condition. This is because you are somehow reinforcing your fear by feeding in more dosages of fear to your current condition which is the last thing you should really want to do.

No matter how difficult the idea of facing your fear may seem, it is actually among the most effective ways to help you cope and overcome panic attacks. Once you confront the object of your fear or the cause of your panic attacks, you can gain more courage to subdue the symptoms without having to resort to pills and medications.

Win over yourself. Sometimes, it is much easier to accept your lack of sense of control after undergoing panic attack symptoms. One thing will lead to another until you find yourself completely powerless against your condition. Unfortunately, many people have become victimized of their own disorders only because they did not try anything to save themselves from panic-triggering episodes.

If you could try to gain power over yourself and over your symptoms little by little, you can possibly cope well with the disorder until you either have learned to effectively live with it or entirely remove it from your system.

It sometimes the self that causes people with panic attacks the most serious problems. It is also sometimes the mitigating factor to the progression of the condition and its symptoms. If you can gain some control over your own predicaments, half of the trouble is already resolved.

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Bipolar Depression Medication

There is a lot of discussion surrounding the issue of bipolar depression medication, and whether it is the right thing to do. If you are one of the millions of people out there who are presently suffering from bipolar disorder, then this is a topic that is going to be of great importance to you.

If you are bipolar, once you have determined the causes of bipolar depression, what your doctor will probably first suggest is that you start on bipolar depression medication. Now most of the bipolar patients who start taking medication find that the medicine helps them to feel better, and at least gives them a more balanced tone and helps them from feeling so high or low all the time.

However there are certain questions about bipolar depression medication as well that you may be interested in, because some medications offer more unfavorable symptoms and side effects as a result of a person taking them, than benefits.

This is why it is so important that a person weigh out the risks and benefits of a medication before starting on it, and your doctor will work through this with you. If you do decide to start on a bipolar depression medication, there are a few things that you will want to keep in mind.

The Selection

The first step will be to learn about the different types of medication that are available for treating bipolar disorder, and working with your doctor to find the one that seems as though it would work best for you. This will depend on a few different factors including your age, the state of health you are in, and whether you have any existing health problems.

Give it Time

When you are taking any sort of bipolar depression medication, you need to give it time. At first you may experience some side effects that are not at all fun, but these are only temporary and should go away over time. Most medications take up to six weeks to offer full results, so give it time to work and do its job.

Don’t Stop Taking it

One of the biggest mistakes that bipolar patients make is they stop taking their medication abruptly. It is important that you never do this, because it will do you much more harm than good, and can be permanently damaging. Especially if you have been taking the medication for an extended period of time, this means that your body will have become accustomed to it and so you will go through withdrawal if you stop suddenly.

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Panic Attacks Myths

Misinformation does not only create vague pictures of a condition but will also likely cause people to believe things that do not actually exist. Among those conditions that typically receive serious amounts of myths are psychological and behavioral disorders, partly because psychological conditions are often hard to understand and seem mysterious. In this article, we would try to debug the myths of one of the more common behavioral conditions—panic attacks.

People with panic attacks are crazy. Crazy is never a good term for people with psychological conditions and people with panic attacks are hardly crazy. They may seem deranged and a bit psychotic for some people when they experience attacks of panic and terror but this does not suggest that they are.

As if to add to the insult, people with panic attacks are sometimes perceived to have schizophrenia, the most advanced form of psychosis which is marked by severe auditory and visual hallucination as well as aggravated delusions and dysfunctional thoughts. Clearly, there is no relationship between people who feel like they are “going crazy” when undergoing attacks and people who have advanced (and even minor) psychological conditions. 

People with panic attacks lose control. Wrong. Panic attacks do not rob a person his sense of control. While a person’s thoughts may seem distorted for a while during attacks due to physical symptoms that lend themselves towards this possibility such as shortness of breath and heart attack-like symptoms, this does not mean that the person is losing grip of the reality. Anxiety which normally accompanies panic attacks is a body’s way to tell you that something is going wrong. Since this is a defense mechanism, it is not dangerous to anyone, not even the person undergoing the panic attack.

It is good to remember that panic attack happens only in the mind, it may, in fact, be unnoticeable for people surrounding the person during the attack. What exacerbates the attack is the person’s conscious thought that it could cause embarrassment or harm to other people. It is the sense of losing control of one’s self that makes the condition worse, a thought that is manufactured in the brain, never the total lack of sense of control.

People with panic attacks have chronic heart disorders. While this may be partly true due to the link between mitral valve prolapse and panic attacks, this does not make the assertion entirely valid. People have good reasons to believe that they are having heart attacks or heart failures when they experience episodes of panic attacks since some of the symptoms of both conditions are similar. But such symptoms are perfectly rational when seen from the viewpoint of elevated fear.

For example, people subjected under conditions that stimulate fear experience tightening of the chest, faster heart beat, profuse perspiration, shortness of breath and increased respiration. All these signs are also symptoms of heart attacks which make it easy for most people to believe that instead of having a disorder of the mind, they are having dysfunctional hearts. But then again, similarity in symptoms does not make two completely different conditions alike.

Myths often offer a semblance of the reality that is not hard to believe in. But do not be fooled. Knowing what is the exact truth and not the half lies may serve you well when dealing with conditions that root from and are aggravated by thoughts.

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Signs, Symptoms, Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia

A panic attack is a sudden surge of overwhelming fear and anxiety, usually without any clear reason and without warning. It can happen to anyone regardless of age, health and status. Many attacks are a one-time occurrence, but some people experience recurring episodes. Recurring episodes are often caused by a “trigger” – like speaking in front of a crowd or doing a presentation at work. Panic attacks may be a part of another disorder such as depression, panic disorder, or social phobia. These, however, are generally harmless, but sufferers still feel that their life is in danger. Either way, panic attacks are treatable.

Signs and Symptoms

A panic attack can happen anytime, but it usually happens when you are away from home. You may be at a store shopping, at work preparing for a presentation, in a class, driving, walking down the street or even during asleep.

The signs and symptoms develop quickly and usually arrive at its peak in 10 minutes. The majority of panic attacks do not last for more than 30 minutes and it rarely lasts for more than an hour.

A person during an attack shows these signs and symptoms:

  • Increased heartbeat or palpitation
  • Chest pain
  • Hyperventilation or shortness of breath
  • Stomach churning, upset stomach
  • Trembling and shaking
  • Muscle tension
  • Sweating
  • Dizziness and light-headedness
  • Hot or cold flashes
  • Tingling sensation or numbness
  • Fear of dying, going crazy or losing control
  • Feeling detached from the surroundings

Panic Disorder

A panic attack may happen just once without any problem or complication. And there is almost no reason to be concerned if you have one or two episodes. But those who have experienced several episodes usually develop panic disorder.

Recurring panic attacks along with persistent anxiety for future attacks and major changes in behavior can be considered as panic disorder. There are two symptoms of panic disorder: (1) phobic avoidance and (2) anticipatory anxiety.

Phobic avoidance - When you begin to avoid certain things or situations based on the belief that it would trigger another attack. It can also be avoiding situations that have caused the previous attack. You may also avoid places or situations where escape is difficult and help is unavailable, like riding an elevator or an airplane. Extreme case of phobic avoidance may lead to agoraphobia.

Anticipatory anxiety – The “fear of fear” or the fear of having future panic attacks. The person manifesting this symptom is usually tensed and anxious. When ignored, the condition can be disabling.

Panic disorder with agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is traditionally believed as fear of open places or public places, thus, it literally means “fear of the marketplace.” However, now it is believed that agoraphobia is fear of experiencing panic attack in a place where help is difficult or where escape would be difficult.

People with agoraphobia tend to avoid the following situations or activities:

  • Being away from home
  • Driving
  • Confined places where there is a possibility of being trapped (elevator, theaters, public transportation, stores)
  • Going out with “unsafe” person or someone he or she is not comfortable being with.
  • Places where it would be embarrassing to have a panic attack like parties and other social gatherings.

In severe cases, people with agoraphobia see their home as the only safe place.

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