Panic Attacks - When Are They Natural, and When Are They A Disorder?

Panic attacks are something everyone feels at least once in their life. But the fact that they’re a natural occurrence once doesn’t make them healthy in the long run, for many panic attacks to come. Panic attacks ( or undgå angstanfald as we say in Denmark) are perfectly capable of creating a lot of trouble for people who are afraid of feeling desperate and out of options to deal with their problems.
Let’s start with a description of a typical panic attack. Panic attacks occur at a point when an even that’s out of your control has occurred. You feel like everything is going out of hand , a sensation extreme fear is physically going through your body – your heart starts beating faster, your pulse skyrockets, sometimes accompanied by sweating. Hyperventilation isn’t rare at all, combined with chest pain and muscle tightness, even in your throat. Panic attacks are a natural defense mechanism left from our caveman ancestry , when in times of danger, the body adapts to react better – to either flee or enter combat. Nowadays, almost none of our problems are solved this way and panic attacks are predominantly useless in that line of thought. But since it’s in our bodies to react like that, there’s nothing we can do about it, but try to prevent it from occurring.
A single panic attack is not problematic. However if you start experiencing panic attacks regularly, that means you’re suffering from panic disorder , a condition that is perfectly capable of altering your lifestyle in such a way that you won’t be able to behave normally. Episodes of extreme fear, followed by fear of those episodes themselves – that’s what panic disorder is.
Preventing and dealing with panic disorder can be done in a variety of ways, some of which include pills, some don’t, and some include therapy while others don’t . The way to go , as with everything lies in balance – between treating the somatic or physiological implications of panic disorder and the mental predispositions that make a person susceptible to panic disorder.
If you decide to treat that somatic symptoms first and only , this may lead to an addiction to the medication. And we all know how easily addictions can bring more problems than they solved in the first place. That’s why , when you go to a specialist they will try to talk you out of taking pills at first – if the problems with your mindset can be treated first, there’s no need to go through popping pills every morning.
Being careful about panic disorder means that at some point , however, you may need to take the pills in order to predispose yourself to a positive mindset. If you’re in constant fear, you’ll need pills to give you the first moments of security, so that you can think through your situation and consult with your therapist on a sober mind.
Keep in mind – nothing is untreatable when it comes to panic disorder – you just need to go earlier in order to save yourself from most problems.