It happens suddenly. You feel your heart beating at full speed. All the alarm bells go off. – Oh, oh, what’s happening to me? Am I dying? – Panic washes over you and you start breathing faster and faster. You feel like you’re short of breath. – Am I going to drown? I can’t stop shaking! That’s what panic attacks make you feel like.
The tightness in your chest is getting worse and you feel like what is happening is not real. But the fear of dying is still there. You think you are going crazy. You feel like you are going to faint. In just 10 minutes your body is completely out of control. What has happened to you? You have had a panic attack. But what are its consequences?
“Your hands shake and tremble. Somewhere a dam has broken and cold sweat pours down on you, soaking your body. You want to scream. You would if you could. But to scream you need to breathe. Panic.”
-Khaled Hosseini-
How and why does a panic attack start?
A panic attack is a crisis that begins suddenly. The first thing a person notices is the appearance of a series of bodily sensations. These usually include: palpitations or increased heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking, a feeling of suffocation and/or choking, chest tightness, nausea or abdominal discomfort, instability or dizziness, a feeling of numbness or tingling, and chills or sensations.
The problem increases in size thanks to the thoughts that the person reproduces in his mind around these physical symptoms. A panic attack occurs because the person associates his bodily sensations with some kind of threat. In addition, the person generally perceives that this induced threat puts his life in danger. Thus, he develops a whole cycle of thoughts -in this sense- that will make the initial bodily sensations even more intense.
These are the fear of death, of losing control and/or going crazy, and the feeling of unreality or of being separated from oneself. The fact is that people catastrophically interpret these physical symptoms. That is, they believe that these bodily sensations are occurring because something serious is happening to them. It is essential to emphasize that, in reality, there is no real danger of death, but rather everything happens because of what we are thinking.
“It was in this feeling that madness began. During the brief moments when I managed to push aside panic and think clearly, I tried to hold on to everything that, however, seemed to have something to do with reality.”
-Henning Mankell-
What are the consequences of panic attacks?
Panic attacks have negative consequences for those who suffer from them, but they do not cause their death, at least not directly. If not, think about this: has something serious happened to you physically when you have had a panic attack of this nature? No, right? If they had the consequences we fear, you would not be reading this article!
“He wanted to scream, but the panic-stricken rodents tore at his tongue with their teeth. He wanted to run, but the thin flying snakes tied his legs.”
-Luis Sepulveda-
Luis Sepúlveda’s words contain a dose of black humor, but they do provide us with an accurate description of the feelings of the “victims of panic”. What is more, these panic attacks do cause great emotional and psychological distress. Fear takes over the daily lives of these people.
The fear of having another attack appears since it is not at all pleasant. In many cases, the stimuli that generate the attack are generalized – for example, from a specific bus stop to all bus stops – and in many other cases, the anticipation of the attack itself triggers the attack (we anticipate that we are going to pass a bus stop).
The fear is that attacks will occur in public places where it is difficult to escape, in social situations where it would be embarrassing to get into such a situation, or in times when it would be difficult to get help. So what does a person usually start to do in these cases? What they usually do is start to avoid these situations.
The person stops going to these places so that the anxiety generated by the possibility of another attack will decrease. Then he or she avoids more and more places. In this way, everyday tasks become a real exercise in planning and effort. It becomes extremely difficult to go to places that the person used to frequent. Thus, the range of activities that are done is very limited.
In this case, we have come to suffer from agoraphobia. We fear or avoid situations such as the following: crowds, public places, traveling alone, or leaving home. This is highly incapacitating for the person, who sees their quality of life reduced in all areas. Since it can be very limiting on a personal, professional, and social level, it is important to go to a psychologist to learn to regulate anxiety and reduce panic attacks.