In the worldly sense, panic is fear, confusion, suddenly engulfing a person or at once many people and making uncontrollably strive to avoid danger. In the international classification of diseases, a panic attack (episode, anxiety paroxysm) is a separate, unexpected causeless episode of severe discomfort, severe anxiety or fear, which is accompanied by at least four of the following symptoms:
• marked palpitation (heart leaps out of the chest);
Sweating;
• trembling;
• a feeling of stuffiness or lack of air;
• sensation of suffocation;
• chest pain;
• unpleasant sensations in the abdomen;
• dizziness;
• sensations of numbness or tingling;
• chills or flushing of blood to the face;
• a sense of unreality of surrounding objects or isolation from oneself ("hands became like strangers");
• fear of losing self control or losing one's mind;
• fear of death.
These symptoms develop quickly, unexpectedly and reach a peak in about 10 minutes, gradually fading within an hour. One such panic attack is not a disease. Very many in their lives experience at least one panic attack against the background of general health. But if the number of panic attacks reaches four per month, you can talk about the disease and make a diagnosis of "panic disorder".
For the first time such a diagnosis in our country began talking psychiatrists and psychotherapists in 1993-1994, when they began to take into account their own and foreign experience. With a progressive course of panic disorder, you can conditionally identify the successive stages.
The 1st stage is symptomatically poor, when the episode of fear is accompanied by less than four symptoms from the above.
At the second stage, symptoms appear, called agoraphobia (from the Greek agora - a large market area). Agoraphobia is a fear of those places or situations in which there have already been panic attacks (in a movie theater, in a full bus, driving a car, in an empty open space, even in your own apartment). It's the fear of being back in an extremely difficult situation, in which it is impossible to get help from someone.
3rd stage - hypochondria. The person is afraid that the panic attack will repeat again (the so-called anticipatory anxiety), he starts to search for the reason of panic attacks and first of all gets to the therapist. A long and often ineffectual examination begins with different specialists: cardiologists, neurologists, otolaryngologists. Various diagnoses are established: vegetovascular or neuro-circular dystonia, paroxysmal tachycardia, mitral valve prolapse, irritable bowel syndrome, premenstrual syndrome, etc. The examination can last for years, prescribed treatment is ineffective, and bodily disease is never found. The man is exhausted, medicine and doctors disappoint him. He begins to think that he is sick with some rare and very serious disease.
4th stage - limited phobic avoidance. As practice shows, the first few attacks for a person are the most terrible. The power with which panic embraces the patient makes him seek salvation, call an ambulance, go to the reception rooms of the nearest hospitals.
When seizures recur, anxiety develops, when only the expectation of a new attack makes it very difficult to live and engage in daily activities. A person connects the occurrence of panic with certain situations (staying in a crowd when visiting a store, traveling in the subway, in an elevator, waiting in a traffic jam) and tries to avoid them (walks on foot, is wasted by a taxi, rarely goes to the store).
The 5th stage is a vast phobic avoidance. If the patient still has not got to the therapist and has not received the necessary help, he gets worse, his behavior already looks like a voluntary home arrest. It is impossible to go to the store on your own, get to work, walk a dog, you need constant support of family members. Strongest fear breaks down the whole life way, a person becomes helpless, oppressed, depressed.
This is the 6th stage - secondary depression.
The prevalence of panic disorder, according to various estimates, reaches 3.5% of the adult population. The disease begins, usually up to 30 years, often in adolescence, although some develop in later life. Women suffer 2-3 times more often than men. There is evidence that in families of patients with panic disorder this disease occurs in 3-6 times more often. If the mother suffers, then her child later has a better chance of getting sick.
As a cause of panic disorder, genetic factors, and acquired anxious response skills, and a combination of both are considered. There are a number of conditions and diseases that can cause something similar to panic attacks, but this is not a panic disorder. Taking a lot of coffee, psychostimulants (amphetamine, cocaine), drugs and alcohol often causes panic symptoms.
Now you know a lot about the panic attack, symptoms, manifestation - how to treat, however, the specialist should decide. You clearly need to understand how important the general awareness of the population is so that the suffering person does not suffer for years, while besieging polyclinic cabinets, and without fear and embarrassment turned to a doctor-psychotherapist for advice.
A psychotherapist, trained in an interventional approach to the diagnosis of panic disorder, is able to establish a valid diagnosis on time, prescribe effective treatment, shorten the time of illness, and reduce the severity of the symptoms.
You can also designate a philosophical and psychological view of panic disorder: this disease is a kind of result of a certain image or lifestyle of a person. This is a signal that he is living wrong, something is not doing so.
Conditionally, the life of any of us can be divided into several spheres. About the body component is said and written a lot, you can only recall that our body needs proper nutrition, in metered physical exertion, in a caring attitude, in rest and care. Psychological (or personal) component includes the family, the atmosphere in it, the characteristics of relationships with loved ones.
People experiencing panic attacks, it is useful to know several rules of conduct during an attack:
• stay where you are; the attack does not threaten life and in any case will pass by itself for 10-20 minutes, excessive vanity and throwing only worsen the state of health;
• Breathe as slowly as possible, with pauses (up to 10 breaths per minute); rapid breathing increases anxiety;
• the surrounding people should avoid fuss, calmly allow a person to establish a slow rhythm of breathing;
• Although panic disorder is a disease, during the inter-criminal period a person is not relieved of responsibility for the success of his own life, work, from the performance of daily duties.