Panic attacks: a response to our ancestral instincts?

Panic attacks are one of the most frightening experiences anyone can have. They usually come on without warning, and symptoms can include breathlessness, a pounding heartbeat, dizziness and nausea, and chest and stomach pains. Even worse, there is often an overwhelming terror, and even a fear of imminent death.

The attacks typically last for several minutes. Most people who experience one attack are very likely to go on to have others, in which case they are said to have panic disorder.

Panic attacks can happen at any time of day and night, even during sleep, and can lead to irrational fears or even phobias. Panic attacks are a serious problem, are quite common throughout the population and can be very disabling.

No one knows for certain why they happen, although it is thought they might be symptoms of an anxiety disorder. However, they differ from other forms of anxiety in that they come on without warning, are often unprovoked and can be so disabling. Some medical experts suspect they might be part of our ancestral ‘fight or flight’ response to danger, except that the symptoms are triggered unnecessarily. It’s not known why this happens, or why it happens to some people and not others. However, it is thought there might be a genetic content to it, since it tends to run in families.  Other suspected triggers are physical illness, stress, and certain medications. It may be that some women who suffer severe menopausal flushes, especially those who experience them well past the normal age of such symptoms, are really suffering panic attacks, since the symptoms are often strikingly similar.

Treatment
Panic disorder is usually treated either by conventional drugs or psychotherapy. However, as with most drugs, these can carry the risk of side effects, some of them serious and even life-threatening, and their use needs close monitoring. Treatment with psychotherapy is considered equally effective. In Hypnotherapy, the patient is encouraged to recognise and understand the irrational fears that cause the attacks and learn gradually to control them through a variety of techniques which may include analysis to find the initial cause of the attacks, or more simple techniques such as relaxation and learning strategies to cope with them at onset.

In common with many stress-induced conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a combination of medication and psychotherapy is almost always the most effective method of dealing with panic attacks over a relatively short period of time, and appropriate treatment has been shown to bring significant improvement in the vast majority of cases.

Copyright: Adrian Walker 2008