Panic attacks: recognize and defuse

Absolutely everyone is familiar with attacks of fear and confusion, but during panic attacks these conditions are exaggerated and repeatedly aggravated, they are impossible to contain and control. Almost everyone's confidence in the world around them and in themselves decreases sharply.

How does a panic attack develop?

The main recommendation when panic attacks occur is to stay put. First of all, this is due to the fact that in a state of panic, many patients may experience derealization (loss of orientation and misunderstanding of what happened to them). The stronger the anxiety, the more intense the psychosomatics. The thing is that during anxiety, the hormone adrenaline is produced, causing contraction of the smooth muscles of the vascular walls.

When blood vessels narrow, blood pressure increases, tachycardia occurs. Shortness of breath appears, breathing becomes difficult (the person begins to feel like he is about to die).

This condition is so frightening that the level of anxiety and fear increases even more.

• There is often a feeling that everything around ceases to be reality.
• Auditory and visual perception undergo significant changes - a person can hear distorted sounds, see distorted objects.
• Obsessive thoughts appear about the fact that those around and the whole world in general are dangerous. Everything that becomes unfamiliar carries a threat.
• Strong fear and anxiety can cause so-called psychological stupor. The person falls into a stupor, cannot move, it seems that his whole body is paralyzed.

Silent horror

However, there are also panic attacks that do not cause any emotional manifestations or experiences. This is "alexithymic panic" or "masked anxiety." That is, the person does not experience any fear or anxiety, but at the same time, anxiety is masked by other somatic symptoms. For example, the voice may disappear, visual acuity may sharply decrease, up to complete blindness, despite the fact that functional disorders of the organs of hearing or vision are not detected - at the time of diagnosis they are absolutely healthy.

Most often, such patients seek help from neurologists, cardiologists, therapists, but almost never from psychoanalysts, psychotherapists.

The development of panic attacks begins with the manifestation of so-called minor attacks, followed by an expanded stage. As a rule, after this, hypochondria often occurs (fixation on the state of one's health occurs, constant anxiety is observed), followed by the development of phobias. One of the most common is agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). A person refuses to leave the house, isolates himself from society, begins to lead a reclusive lifestyle. As a result, this leads to depression. The most dangerous thing in such a situation is when the panic attack is repeated, but already against the background of depression. A possible tragic complication is a suicidal outcome.

Causes of panic attacks

As already mentioned above, the trigger for attacks is anxiety, and until we manage to find out what unconscious conflicts lead to its occurrence, it will be very difficult to get rid of panic attacks. Unconsciously, one's own desires are suppressed, as a result of which the discharge of excess emotions is blocked, which leads to the emergence of tension. As this tension increases, so does the anxiety itself, which provokes the development of panic attacks.

• People with an excessive sense of responsibility, prone to overcontrol, ready to resort to any means to achieve a set task (at work, at home, fulfilling a promise given to another person), often hide negative emotions, and sometimes do not even realize them.
• Such individuals, as a rule, are constantly in an excited state, which has a cumulative property.
• If the discharge designed to reduce the level of excitement, and along with anxiety, does not occur, then this inevitably leads to the appearance of panic attacks.

Psychoanalytic therapy is perhaps one of the few effective methods of combating panic attacks. A comprehensive approach, that is, a combination of drug and psychoanalytic therapy, has proven particularly effective in treatment. Psychoanalysis helps patients not only cope with the most severe emotional state that occurs during a panic attack, but also eliminate the cause that provokes this condition. It helps improve control over one's emotions, feelings, and desires.