Panic attacks can deprive a person of his freedom and make him virtually a prisoner of his fears.
It is one of the most striking examples of how much power the brain holds over the rest of the body as manifested in every part of the body, from the heart to the stomach and limbs.
The symptoms include: rapid heartbeat, sweating, feeling of suffocation, numbness, trembling, nausea, chest pain, dizziness or fainting, fear of going crazy and fear of death.
The symptoms of the attacks often mimic other serious life threatening diseases.
It's very important to differentiate panic attacks from other diseases such as cardiac arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, epilepsy, stroke, and hyperthyroidism.
A clinical examination will allow the correct diagnosis.
According to the statistics about 2% of adults suffer from this condition and women are twice as likely to have this disorder compared to men.
The problem typically starts in adolescence.
More than 50% of patients had their first anxiety attack before the age of 24.
Sometimes the attacks appear suddenly without any apparent cause and sometimes they are triggered under specific conditions (when a person visit a certain place).
Studies suggest that this disorder often coexists with other disorders, especially depression and substance abuse.
About 30% of people who suffer from panic attacks drink too much alcohol and 17% take drugs, like cocaine and marijuana.
The use of these substances seems to be an attempt to reduce the discomfort caused by this disorder.
Although the exact causes of the condition remain largely unknown, heredity and stressful life events may play an important role.
When a person is experiencing acute stress or worry about a change in his life (like a divorce or the death of a loved one), an anxiety attack could be triggered.
Sometimes the family environment is to blame.
A person that was raised into an overly protective family will find it difficult to survive outside the environment they are familiar with.
How to cure this condition? Unfortunately, there is no magic pill.
The drugs probably will not solve your problem.
Many times doctors prescribe some kind of antidepressants, but the disadvantage is that initially the patients gets worse because some properties of the antidepressants cause panic attacks in the first week, instead of actually curing them.
The "magic pill" is within you, you just don't know where to find it.
You need to gain control over your mind and start monitoring your own thoughts.
There is a very simple method that can help you eliminate anxiety without taking any drugs.