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Discovering The Cause of Panic Attacks

By: Wendy Jones

Panic attacks are actually brought on when experiencing high states of anxiety, but that only helps us when we understand why we suffer with anxiety, and how we can defeat it.

There are many myths out there about the way anxiety effects are health. One of those myths is the ever popular "Anxiety can lead to life threatening conditions."

What is Anxiety

Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or fear resulting from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event, or situation. It is one of the most common human emotions experienced by people at some point in their lives.

Unless you suffer from panic attacks then it is unlikely that you will understand the horrific nature of what extreme anxiety can do to you. Imagine feeling completely discombobulated from your surroundings, dizzy, blurred vision, tingling all over your body and feeling breathless and this is only the beginning.

When these sensations occur and people do not understand why, they feel they have contracted an illness, or a serious mental condition. The threat of losing complete control seems very real and naturally very terrifying.

Fight or Flight Response: One of the root causes of panic attacks?

You've no doubt heard of the "fight or flight" response - it's our inbuilt mechanism that determines whether we stand and fight on run away when confronted with a potentially dangerous situation. This response mechanism is also one of the root cause of panic attacks.

Anxiety, and the ensuing panic attack is a response to a real (or imagined) potentially dangerous situation - its main function is to protect us from danger. Quite ironic perhaps, seeing as the anxiety is actually making us feel very frightened.

If we go back several millennia, back to our ancient ancestors, their anxiety basically kept them alive - determining whether they fled or fought when faced with danger. It's an automatic response that took control and tried to keep them safe. It helps us respond to these dangerous situations literally within a split second - virtually instantaneously.

When confronted with danger, the brain sends signals to the nervous system. It is this system that is responsible for gearing the body up for action and also calms the body down and restores equilibrium. To carry out these two vital functions, the autonomic nervous system has two subsections, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic system stimulates our body to release adrenaline, which gives us the ability to take action and to keep taking that action (running away, fighting etc). Once the perceived danger has passed, the parasympathetic system takes over and starts to calm us down again, back into a calm and relaxed state.

Remaining Calm Comes Naturally

Whenever you use some form of "coping strategy" that you may have been taught for controlling your attacks, it's the parasympathetic system that you are calling into action. One thing worth remembering is that this system will always be brought into action at some point during your anxiety attacks whether you call it into action or not. It's a built in protection system we posses which helps us survive.

The next time you have a panic attack you need to remember that it is not possible physically for the anxiety that you are feeling to cause you any bodily harm. The mind might make the feelings go on longer then what your body wanted them to, but balance will return. The fact of the matter is that our bodies are constantly striving to attain balance or homeostasis.

A fascinating feature of the "fight or flight" mechanism is that blood (which is channeled from areas where it is currently not needed by a tightening of the blood vessels) is brought to areas where it is urgently needed.

If there is a threat of a physical attack what the body will do is constrict the vessels in the skin, fingers, and toes to decrease blood loss and move the blood to the thighs and biceps, areas that need the blood flow to act.

This exact natural bodily reaction is a lot of people feel tingling and even numbness sensations during a panic attack. The problem is that these symptoms are very easy to interpret as a serious health condition like a heart attack.

Panic Attacks Cause Fear of Suffocation

From my own personal experience, one of the symptoms that frightened me the most was that I was going to suffocate, simply because I just couldn't get enough air into my lungs. It felt like someone had a strangle hold on my lungs - preventing me from getting deep enough breaths. Fortunately I'm still here to tell the story. And I'm pretty sure no one has ever been reported has having suffocated during an attack. So the good news is that a panic attack won't make you suffocate - your parasympathetic system will always kick in to calm you down again.

During a panic attack the rate at which we take a breath increases and those breaths are not as deep as they usually are. The rapid shallow breathing serves an important function as it gets more oxygen into our tissues so that they are prepared to act. This type of breathing though is often accompanied by feelings of breathlessness, hyperventilation or the feeling of choking and can also lead to chest pain and tightness.

As that I have experience panic attacks first hand, I can tell you that there were times when I wasn't sure that my body would be able to slow my breathing down and I would concentrate on getting my breathing under control. Telling myself to take breath in and let it out. With my mingling in trying to gain control and disregard what my body needed, it sent my body into overdrive and intensify the feelings I was trying to overcome. It was not until I began using the technique that I will describe to you shortly that I was able to let my body do what it was designed to do.

The increased breathing can sometimes lead to other problems due to the lack of oxygen that is going to the head during the fight or flight response. These problems or side effects can include dizziness, blurred vision, hot flashes, confusion and a sense of altered reality.

Article Source: http://www.health-fitness-for-all.com

For free tips and advice about dealing with panic attacks visit Wendys site at Managing Anxiety Attack Symptoms and claim your free report 7 Steps To 7 Steps To Conquering Your Anxiety.

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