What Are Panic Attacks? How Can They Be Avoided and Treated?

Anxiety often starts small and snowballs into an all out panic attack. Whether the situation really is that grave or not doesn't really matter. It is all a matter of the mind.

Anxiety usually begins over a small matter. Worry about a job, performance, physical health or a relationship are all very real causes of anxiety. When one continues to fixate on this worry and allow it to begin to control their life, this is where panic attacks are most likely to occur.

For example, many teenage and college aged women have a fear of being overweight. While this may start out as a small fear, it can snowball into an all out disorder. The women become obsessed with not only controlling their weight and size, but controlling the amount of food they allow themselves to consume daily and even weekly or monthly. The one small fear may be planted by a negative comment coming from a friend or boyfriend, however once that seed is planted it often is showered by taunts of society, as well as one's own mind. Women who suffer from an eating disorder are often victims of unnecessary anxiety. Anxiety that may have started with one comment, one word even, and when it wasn't properly dealt with, it grew into an ugly weed of a disorder.

Anxiety is actually quite similar to a weed in the way that it grows. It starts as a small seed and grows quickly. It may block out the good aspects of life much like weeds can block out the beautiful plants of a garden. Weeds also do not need much to keep growing, much like anxiety will basically spread itself throughout one's mind so that there is little time or effort spent on anything but worry.

Indeed, there are plenty of things to worry about. However, it gets us absolutely nowhere. Most people will readily admit that worry, anxiety and panic are often unnecessary and unproductive. So why do we do it?
Often because it is what we ourselves have seen, but also because we refuse to change our perspective and seek for the good of every situation.

Panic attacks are indeed caused by terror, however, it is important to know that they are very treatable and more common than you might expect.

Some symptoms of panic attacks are similar to that of a heart attack; including, shortness of breath, sweating, racing heart, feeling dizzy or like you are choking, and the worst symptom is typically that of losing one's mind or "going crazy."
To have a panic disorder usually means you suffer from frequent or common panic attacks, beginning in the teenage years. While no definite cause for this disorder has been found, many researchers connect the likelihood of panic attacks and disorders to a combination of genetic history and family history. Life events also closely relate to panic disorders such as drug abuse, physical abuse, and thought patterns.

While most causes of panic attacks are easy to pinpoint, most people are unaware of how powerful their mind really is. Once a seed of intense anxiety is planted, one tends to roll the thought over and over in their mind and just like a snowball it attracts other negative thoughts until it does seem to feel like things are out of control.

The response to stress is natural. Almost everyone gets nervous at the thought of a big exam or work-related problems. The difference with panic disorders is usually the reaction and the expected results from the additional stress. In other words, people who tend to expect the worst are the ones who will most likely suffer from panic disorders. The feeling may begin as a simple feeling of dread, spiraling into fear, terror, panic and eventually an attack. The attack includes adrenaline-pumping with a flight or fight response. The response to the threat of stress is often an over reaction. It would be like responding to a neighborhood cat as if it were a mountain lion. Even though in your head you know logically that the cat will not really be able to do anything, you expect the worst. The fear surmounts and even though there is no real danger, the mind convinces you that you are in grave danger and you must somehow escape or fight.

So how do we keep our minds from expecting the worst and ending up with panic disorders? It is not easy of course, especially if you have already been a victim of panic attacks and are accustomed to over reacting to stress. Indeed, panic can be habit forming.

One way to deal with this issue is to keep track of what causes the most stress. Make a list of the worst possible outcomes and the best possible outcomes. Force your mind to focus on the best outcomes. At the end of the situation, write down the actual outcome and see which side it matched more closely with. Avoid the feelings of dread and fear, because the logical truth is that you have no idea how the situation may turn out. Perhaps your worst fears will come true, but more likely than not we will realize our fears were silly. Life is not always a horror film. In fact, it rarely is. There are certainly times when our worst fears do come true, but even then, you must focus on the positive to make it through.

Also, as Christians we are to fix our eyes on Jesus. If anyone had a reason to panic, He did. No one could anticipate a worse ending to a situation and yet, Jesus not only made it through the turmoil, He rose from the grave and saved us. Keeping a proper and logical perspective can often help to steer our hearts and minds away from panic.