There are many ways to experience anxiety. One of the most disruptive and difficult forms of anxiety are panic attacks and panic disorder. Panic attacks are immensely powerful, physical events, where a person feels as though they are potentially dying or a disaster is happening. They have symptoms such as rapid heartrate, lightheadedness, chest pain, and even an encroaching feeling of doom that make them profoundly difficult.
Yet one of the challenges of treating panic attacks is that, by their very nature, they are cyclical events, and as a result it can become difficult to disrupt the cycle and eventually stop the attacks from occurring – especially without help.
What Makes Panic Attacks Cyclical?
The symptoms of panic attacks are very physical, and many of them resemble serious health conditions like heart attacks. This issue is so common that some people will end up calling an ambulance, thinking something is wrong with their heart or health. Symptoms include:
- Chest pain
- Pounding heart
- Feeling of faint
- Numbness and tingling
- Blurry vision
- Racing fearful thoughts
- Loss of reality
- Feeling of doom
People can also develop other symptoms over time as they become sensitive to these different feelings. The symptoms are not only powerful, but terrifying. Every time a person experiences a panic attack, they have to live with these frightening physical symptoms that dramatically impact their mental, emotional, and even physical health.
The first time a person has panic attacks, it can be triggered by periods of significant stress, poor dietary habits, poor breathing, or what seems like nothing at all. But once a person has experienced panic attacks, they become more prone to them any time they’re experiencing stress or anxiety unless they learn a way to cope with it.
This is where panic attacks can become cyclical. Because panic attacks are such significant, unforgiving events, people start to *fear panic attacks themselves*. They experience anxiety that another panic attack is coming, and their brain starts to what’s called “self monitor” (review the body for sensations or signs) looking for an upcoming attack.
Thus, the fear and stress caused by panic attacks becomes a trigger for panic attacks. This creates a cycle that can continue over and over again, potentially even increasing in frequency or severity.
How to Break the Cycle
Part of stopping panic attacks and panic disorder comes specifically from breaking this cycle. It is much harder to stop panic attacks if you cannot reduce the cycle of fear and panic first. That’s why it might help to see a psychiatrist.
At Aware Behavioral Health, we can determine if medication or another form of treatment might help to stop this cycle. We’ll try to understand your symptoms better, and then once we’ve been able to determine the best approach, we’ll provide recommendations and treatment options that will hopefully make it so that your panic attack recur less often and cause less fear.
Once that happens, it also becomes possible to integrate other treatment options as needed, allowing you to build resilience to help with this type of anxiety.
If this is something that you’ve been struggling with, please reach out to Aware Behavioral Health, today.
