One of the most frequent manifestations of borderline mental disorders, which often occur among inhabitants of megacities, among actively living and working people who are dynamically moving to and from work, on business trips, on vacation, and on hobbies, like betting at 22Bet or sewing, is the phenomenon of panic attacks.
What Is Panic Attack
It’s a clinical symptom, perhaps it can even be called a syndrome, which may indicate the presence of any mental illness, or it may speak of a rather difficult, stressful period in a person’s life.
Only a doctor can figure out what it is, where it came from, whether it’s dangerous or not, whether it’s a disease or whether it’s still a psychological stressor.
Panic attack can’t help but be accompanied by fear of death, that’s why it’s called that. And the fear of death in such situations inevitably leads patients to those doctors who can fundamentally help with some life-threatening illness. These could be cardiologists, internists, surgeons, oncologists, immunologists, etc.
Therapists are comfortable with the fact that most of their colleagues, after conducting an extensive examination of such patients and finding no serious evidence of cardiological, therapeutic or other diseases, still continue to monitor them, prescribing them some mild sedatives.
If it’s really effective, gives a good result, why not? But in most cases, the work of other doctors with patients suffering from panic attacks is ineffective.
The Main Manifestations of Panic Attacks
It’s first of all a sudden disorder, which often occurs as a thunderbolt out of the blue. And this effect of surprise turns out to be traumatic and stressful in itself. In other words, nothing foreshadows the beginning of such an attack, such a paroxysm, an attack, and yet it occurs.
It can be an attack of heart palpitations, choking, headaches, dizziness, sudden sharp pains in the abdomen or in the back. Panic attack can be represented by absolutely any physical, somatic symptom, complaint. And the main component, by which we actually diagnose this symptom, is the component of fear.
Fear of death gets fixed, stays in the mind for a long time, even after the body has calmed down: there are no more complaints, but the fear continues to torment the patient’s psyche. And this fear, which has already turned into an independent mental phenomenon, by itself later begins to provoke more and more painful sensations in the body.
Thus, a panic attack triggers fear, and fear triggers subsequent panic attacks. And this chain reaction, this vicious circle is spinning out more and more, and the person who doesn’t receive appropriate psychiatric help in such a situation often finds himself in a severe, bad condition.
In most cases, panic attacks are eventually joined by a depressed mood, which can transform into depression. Other anxiety states, other disorders of the anxiety spectrum, new so-called somatoform or somatic symptoms may appear, which complicate the diagnostic process for therapists, surgeons and other doctors.
Treatment of Panic Attacks
To say that this is an incurable disorder is by no means a cure. Panic attacks are very well treated with modern medications and psychotherapy. It’s important from a diagnostic point of view to sort out what kind of panic attack it is.
In some cases antidepressants are shown, in others – neuroleptics and tranquilizers, in some cases the emphasis is on the therapeutic work of different profiles. But either way, no matter what method in the treatment of panic attacks we didn’t use, in 100% of cases we at least achieve a positive result. And at the most, we achieve complete disappearance of these disorders for a long period of time so that the patient simply forgets about them.
Can You Control a Panic Attack on Your Own?
We are often asked if it’s possible to do without the help of doctors when a panic attack occurs, to use some psychological techniques to calm yourself down, to stop the panic flow of thoughts in your head, to convince yourself that there is nothing to be afraid of.
The fact is that that fear, or rather the level of that fear that attends a person’s psyche during a panic attack, is so high that it actually suppresses any rationality.
Any rational approach or attempt to convince oneself that there is nothing to be afraid of is meaningless in the period of fear. It’s no coincidence that fear is an ancient biological reaction created by nature for all mammals that find themselves in a dangerous situation. One of the natural functions of fear in such a situation is to shut down reason, reasoning, and therefore a person in panic fear is incapable of its logical rationalization.
Speak to therapists – many therapists teach their patients techniques well known in psychotherapeutic world practice which, combined with medication therapy and other psychotherapeutic methods, may prove effective.
Almost no one can cope with panic attacks on their own. Panic attacks always pass, even if there is no treatment. It isn’t a fatal mental disorder, it always goes away. Another thing is how long it lasts and how it passes.
If we don’t treat it, it can exist for a long time and, unfortunately, it may not pass completely, i.e. some of its rudiments will remain, leaving their mark on the person’s character. The right therapeutic approach to patients with panic attacks can remove these disorders completely.
