Understanding Anxiety

•  The Body's fear reaction and how it becomes over insensitive

The symptoms of Panic Attacks are in fact an exaggeration of your normal bodily reaction to fearful situations. Imagine what would happen if you were up a ladder and you feel it slipping from under you, your heart would pound, breathing would be altered, turn pale and you would break out in a sweat. However, as soon as you manage to get down the ladder and recognised that you were now safe, but could have had an accident, your anxiety would die down. You would know that the symptoms were just natural and not worry. BUT, if you experienced exactly those same symptoms pushing a trolley or sitting at work, your mind would try to make sense of the situation and it would come up with a number of frightening thoughts.
The problem with panic attacks is that your fear reaction has become oversensitive and is being triggered in a variety of apparently normal situations. The oversensitivity of the fear reaction is more likely if you are tired or under a lot of stress. Sometimes this stress can be caused by worrying about having another panic attack. If you have had one bad attack you can become over-vigilant, an expert at detecting the normal changes in your body which you would usually ignore. You are constantly on the look-out for slight changes that may indicate that something is amiss. Once you begin to imagine something is wrong, you become slightly frightened, triggering the body's reaction and the vicious circle of panic takes off. Other factors which can trigger panics include, physical exertion, hunger, hormonal changes, caffeine and alcohol.

• Can panic feelings harm me?

No, No one can die of fright. Though panic feelings are unpleasant they cannot in any way harm you. The feelings themselves are happening in and ordinary situation, rather than in an obviously dangerous or frightening one. You are not going mad or having a heart attack, although these are common fears. It is almost impossible to faint while you are having a panic attack, because your blood pressure is higher and not lower than normal as your heart is racing. People usually only faint when their blood pressure drops. The one exception to this is a blood or injury phobia.

• Summary of main points about panic attacks

1.   A panic attack is the same as the body's natural fear reaction, but it is happening in an ordinary situation.

2.   Your body's normal fear reaction has become oversensitive and has become easily triggered. This happens particularly if you are tired or under stress, but this reaction can be triggered by exertion, hormonal changes, caffeine or alcohol.

3.   The feelings themselves are not harmful and do not indicate that there is anything seriously wrong with you.

4.   The feelings can be caused and maintained by a combination of worrying thoughts, hyperventilation or overbreathing, and avoidance of situations that create anxiety.

5.   Once you understand what is going on, half the battle is won.