The Basics to Understanding Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Panic attacks come in many different forms but anxiety and panic attacks seem to be intrinsically linked.  For those who have never experience a panic attack, it is hard to catch your breath, your heart races and you start to sweat.  This combination of symptoms can also induce dizziness and the body can start to quiver.

The feeling of a panic attack
The stress caused by a panic attack is extreme, the feeling of being out of control can lead to you believe that you are loosing your marbles.  Equally scary is the feeling that whatever is happening to your body is fatal.  These feelings are typical of extreme anxiety and panic attacks. 

Living with a high level of anxiety and panic attacks is miserable, but it is not all bad news.Firstly, panic attacks are not fatal and they're more common that you'd imagine, so don’t be embarrassed and suffer on your own.  There are some statistics which suggest that as many as seventy five percent of people suffer from anxiety and panic attacks at some stage during their life.

One of the major difficulties of panic attacks is the fear of a repeat performance.  Having suffered a panic attack many people will go on to suffer more, especially if they do not take action to change or prevent the situation which lead to the attack.This fear of additional attacks can trigger a panic attack which would otherwise never have happened.It is key to understand what has happened and to try to keep it in perspective.

Anxiety is not a bad feeling.  Like most emotions it has its place.  Anxiety is like a warning system, it is your brain communicating to your body that there is something threatening.  Anxiety and panic attacks combined is when the problem arises and the warnings get out of control and the rational, useful side of anxiety is overwritten.

If you are interested in learning further about anxiety and panic attacks then there are other types to consider, which although they have other names, are all forms of the same thing: phobias, post traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

To try to reduce the chances of your anxiety and panic attack reoccurring it is important to analyse what sparked off your attack.  Being proactive about the condition will help you to prevent further attacks, also and importantly not being scared of an attack will help.  To live in fear of further attacks will only increase your stress levels and hence this must be avoided.  Remember that however these feel at the time, they are not life threatening and you will survive.