Panic Disorder
Understanding Panic Disorder
If you are sitting at home, suddenly feeling your heart racing, sweating, and having difficulty breathing. You think that something really bad is happening or about to happen. People with panic disorder have extreme feelings and attacks of fear and anxiety. These are the feelings of fear without any particular cause.
What are the Symptoms of Panic Disorder?
Understanding the signs is crucial to recognize panic disorder. There are a few mentioned below.
Sudden Fear That Hits Hard: A person faces sudden fear or feeling coming downfall. A fight or flight response can occur in this situation, a person either wants to escape from the situation or seek help.
Physical Signs to Notice: Physical signs can be a rapid heartbeat, chest pain, dizziness, trembling, shortness of breath, sweating, stomach discomfort, and suffocation.
Cognitive Signs to Notice: People with panic disorder can have cognitive level signs including losing control over situations, fear of dying, being disconnected from reality or oneself, excessive worry, and anticipatory anxiety, e.g., feeling that something bad is about to happen.
Ways Your Behavior Might Shift: Behavioral changes can occur, such as avoidance behavior, and avoiding specific situations, and places. This avoidance behavior can have a deep impact on a person's various aspects of life, such as work, personal, and social life.
Worrying About What Might Happen: The person constantly stays worried about what is going to happen. Future anxiety and fear of losing control in the future can emerge as a sign of panic disorder.
These symptoms do not guarantee the development of panic disorder, but a person with panic disorder may face these types of signs. For the management, it is essential to seek professional help.
What Might Increase Your Chance of Panic Disorder?
Here are the common factors that may play a role in increasing the risk of developing panic disorder.
Inherited Factors that Play a Role: Genetics play a crucial role in developing panic disorder. A person with a family history of panic disorder is at a higher risk of developing it.
How Environment Play a Role: Traumatic experiences, such as the loss of a loved one, can play a role in increasing the risk of developing panic disorder. Furthermore, major changes in surroundings, such as life transitions, chronic stress, and regular life stressors, can also contribute to enhancing the risk of the development of panic disorder.
Personality Traits that Matter: Your personality has a very important impact on how you cope with the conditions. People with neuroticism and emotional instability, anxiety sensitivity, and a higher level of self-consciousness have characteristics that can play a role in enhancing the risk of developing panic attacks and panic disorder.
Struggles During Childhood: Some negative childhood experiences, such as neglect, abuse, childhood traumas, and family environment, can have life-long effects on mental health. The childhood phase is a vital phase of development and mental nourishment.
Related Mental Health Challenges: Panic disorder can happen with other mental health conditions such as depression, specific phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The occurrence of panic disorder with these conditions can make management challenging.
Ways and Tips for Managing Panic Disorder
There are ways and tips to manage panic disorder effectively, aiming to reduce its intensity. Mental health professionals can help in managing through effective techniques such as psychotherapies.
How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Helps
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a very effective and very helpful approach to managing panic disorder. It helps in the identification of negative thoughts and beliefs, which can be triggering factors in provoking panic disorder. Modifying them into positive ones is an effective method of coping with panic-convincing situations.
Gradual Exposure Technique
The gradual exposure technique can help reduce the avoidance behavior in the situations. Gradual exposure is gradually confronting feared situations that are associated with panic attacks. People's avoidance behavior can be reduced, and motivation to learn to face challenging situations can be enhanced.
Getting Emotional Support through Therapy
Joining supportive therapy such as support groups can provide an opportunity for emotional support and encouragement. People can share their experiences, and learn from others having similar conditions in a very safe space, which increases their motivation to manage more effectively.
Simple Tips for Managing Stress
Stress management is necessary to reduce the severity of panic disorder symptoms. Lifestyle modifications such as exercise, adequate sleep, meditation, and mindfulness can have very positive results in the management of panic disorder. Stress management techniques can help reduce the risk of panic attacks triggered by stressors.
Staying on Track and Monitoring
Regular follow-up with mental health professionals is necessary to monitor and deal with challenges. Mental health professionals can help in keeping on track and monitor the progress for effective management.
In Summary
Panic disorder is a type of anxiety disorder that causes attacks of intense fear and anxiety. Mental health professionals can help in the management through various therapeutic approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy and gradual exposure. Gradual exposure is effective in improving the ability to confront fear-inducing situations and decreasing avoidance behavior. Stress management techniques and regularly staying on track can be effective in decreasing the severity of symptoms, and improving overall well-being.