Why Do People Suffer From Anxiety Attacks?
Monday, August 17th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Many people at some time in their life have suffered an anxiety attack. It may be a concern that there is a chance of personal harm or the fear of failing a given task. The mind and body go into synch and actual physical symptoms tend to manifest themselves. For some people unfortunately, normal fear becomes paralyzing and persistent and anxiety attacks become a way of life.
Understanding what anxiety attacks are, how they present and what can be done about them, can help people around an anxiety sufferer better grasp what they are going through. It is important for the person suffering to seek out effective treatments before anxiety takes over their life. Therefore knowing the anxiety symptoms and treatments on both sides helps everybody.
Anxiety attacks are very similar to the mental and physical reactions that happen in the fight or flight phenomena. The mind perceives there is an impending threat and the body immediately reacts. The difference between a normal attack and an abnormal situation is usually how the perceived threat is viewed. In anxiety disorder cases, the danger can be quite ordinary, but not always. What does happen here is that threats are perceived when they are not really present, or the reaction is out of proportion to the situation. For example, a person who has an extreme fear of public speaking isn’t really in danger, but his or her mind might think so; therefore, the body reacts.
Panic and anxiety attacks may occur on a repetitative basis or may appear only the once. In the case of the latter, therapy is almost always advised as repetition is generally a sign of a more serious anxiety disorder.
In most instances anxiety attacks have very fast and intense onsets. They are often displayed by the following symptoms:
- Intense feelings of danger and fear
- Heart palpitations, chest pains, sweating, trembling and other physical symptoms
- A feeling of a surreal atmosphere or depersonalization
- A strong sense of doom and fear of death
- Problem with breathing
- Chills or hot flashes
The unfortunate thing about anxiety attacks is that their symptoms often copy other serious health conditions. This can lead to false diagnosis and even fuel the fears that death is imminent. When anxiety attacks are properly diagnosed, people generally are treated with a combination of medications and therapy to help them regain control of their lives.
Anxiety attacks are very real manifestations of fear. They might present out of irrational fear or they can actually be quite normal reactions to a serious situation. If they are repetitive, help generally is required to overcome them and the cause. Alleviating anxiety and stress is important for overall mental health and physical wellbeing.
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