Do you want to take our Anxiety / Panic Test?

Types of Anxiety Disorder

What Are the Different Kinds of Anxiety Disorders?

Panic Disorder

Repeated episodes of intense fear that strike often and without warning. Physical symptoms include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, abdominal distress, feelings of unreality, and fear of dying.

Panic disorder is very hard for someone to understand that hasn't been there. Most just think all you have to do is face your fears and they will go away. In reality that is a lot easier said than done. it can leave you totally paralyzed by its effect. Making it so hard to even do every day normal things. I hope the information we have included will shed some light on this often devastating illness and maybe help you understand it a little better.

Fear, heart palpitations, terror, a sense of impending doom, dizziness, fear of fear. The words used to describe panic disorder are often frightening. But there is great hope: Treatment can benefit virtually everyone who has this condition. It is extremely important for the person who has panic disorder to learn about the problem and the availability of effective treatments and to seek help.

In panic disorder, brief episodes of intense fear are accompanied by multiple physical symptoms (such as heart palpitations and dizziness) that occur repeatedly and unexpectedly in the absence of any external threat. These "panic attacks," which are the hallmark of panic disorder, are believed to occur when the brain's normal mechanism for reacting to a threat, the so-called "fight or flight" response, becomes inappropriately aroused. Most people with panic disorder also feel anxious about the possibility of having another panic attack and avoid situations in which they believe these attacks are likely to occur. Anxiety about another attack, and the avoidance it causes, can lead to disability in panic disorder

In the United States, between 3 and 6 million will have panic disorder at some time in their lives. The disorder typically begins in young adulthood, butolder people and children can be affected. Women are affected twice as frequently as men. While people of all races and social classes can have panic disorder, there appear to be cultural differences in how individual symptoms are expressed.

When Panic Recurs

Panic disorder is often a chronic, relapsing illness. For many people, it gets better at some times and worse at others. If a person gets treatment, and appears to have largely overcome the problem, it can still worsen later for no apparent reason. These recurrences should not cause a person to despair or consider himself or herself a "treatment failure." Recurrences can be treated effectively, just like an initial episode.

In fact, the skills that a person learns in dealing with the initial episode can be helpful in coping with any setbacks. Many people who have overcome panic disorder once or a few times find that, although they still have an occasional panic attack, they are now much better able to deal with the problem. Even though it is not fully cured, it no longer dominates their lives, or the lives of those around them.

BACK TO THE LIST