Can you Define panic attack

Can you define a panic attack for me..?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090723142545AA8pBCs

Panic attacks are very sudden, discrete periods of intense anxiety, mounting physiological arousal, fear, stomach problems and discomfort that are associated with a variety of somatic and cognitive symptoms. The onset of these episodes is t…

How Do We Define Panic Attacks ?

http://www.dircsa.org.au/tag/pada/

A panic attack is a short period of intense fear or discomfort which is accompanied by a sudden rush of physical sensations and distressing thoughts about the meaning of the physical sensations. For example, the person may think that they a…

What is the definition of a panic attack

http://www.bu.edu/teenpanic/about_panic/what_is_panic.html

A panic attack is defined as an episode of intense fear and unease and includes both physical symptoms and fearful thoughts

Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

Can you define a panic attack for me..?

Q: is there a specific definition of one? what is a panic attack to you?

A: Panic attacks are very sudden, discrete periods of intense anxiety, mounting physiological arousal, fear, stomach problems and discomfort that are associated with a variety of somatic and cognitive symptoms. The onset of these episodes is typically abrupt, and may have no obvious triggers.That definition is from Wikipedia.I’ve been having them regularly; the cause has been spiders.Some symptoms of a panic attack:SweatingAcceleration of heartbeatTremblingStomach acheThere are more, but those are the ones I experience.

Does anyone know how the British government define “Unfit to work”?

Q: I know they changed the rules as I was a civil servant when they did and worked with the Incap depBut would an alcoholic who suffers from vitamin b deficiency(with all the side effects), anxiety, panic attacks and depression, fall into this category?

A: My ex husband is receiving benefits so is ‘unfit for work’ – he has severe anxiety, panic attacks, depression, paranoia, phobias and more. So I would imagine the answer to your question would be ‘yes’!

Could I have Panic Disorder?

Q: For 2 years now i have been having Panic attacks at very often. It started out rarely, then got worse, until i was having them 3 times a week. I suspected it was something i ate or being over worked from the heat because i didn’t know what the symptoms of a panic attack were. Once i got so dizzy and had such an extreme hot flash I blacked-out for 3 minutes! I was always feeling detached from reality, hot, cold, sweaty, dizzy, an scared. But no one around me noticed, i was afraid i was crazy. Then it became less frequent it went down to a few times a month or only once a month. But a a few moths ago I woke up having severe hot and cold flashes, i was sweating severely and I thought i was dying or going insane, i couldn’t breathe, i though someone was smothering me, I began to think of this instant almost constantly, i was scared, “what if it happened again, people already think i’m crazy.” it was always there, that thought. From then on the attacks weren’t that bad, maybe it was hard to breath, heart palpitations, sweating, hot flashes. this didn’t bother me though, not that much, that fear was what scared me, I was so afraid i was losing my mind, or my life. i tried to convince myself i was being dramatic, but i couldn’t shake that thought. A week or two ago i had my worst attack yet. I was working on homework for my online psychology class (ironically, it was the panic disorder section) when my heart felt as if it were about to burst, next i was choking, and then hyperventilating, soon my fingers were tingling, and I was so scared. I told my self i was just tired that these things happen, but i couldn’t shake the feeling that i was dying, that they (i couldn’t even define who “they” were) would institutionalize me. “They” were after me. Soon i was convinced that I would kill myself. my friend, who i was talking to on chat, told me to “stop working on homework and get some good rest”. but I tried to tell her (my typing was illegible due to my shakiness) that I couldn’t leave the room, that if i got up I would keel over. But suddenly the urge to get up hit me, I had to leave the room before i did die. I just hit the power button without saving my homework or saying “GTG” I shakily ran to my room, but if i went to bed i knew i would die. then i was sobbing, absolutely bawling. The next few days all (and i mean all) i thought about was this event, and the more i thought about it the more i realized that this had been going on for longer then a few months. I know that was long but i just don’t think i could say i have even panic attacks without input.

A: That sounds like panic disorder to me. However, if you have not been to a doctor to rule out other physical causes of what appear to be panic attacks, that is the first step. Many physical disorders can mimic the symptoms of panic attacks, like heart defects, thyroid conditions, and low levels of prolactin, just to name a few. Your doctor will probably give you a physical exam, take a few vials of blood and run a variety of tests on them to make sure everything is normal. If everything comes back fine, they will likely give you a referral to a psychiatrist, a doctor who specializes in mental health. You will explain your symptoms to the psychiatrist, who may diagnose you with panic disorder. The treatments for panic disorder vary. Benzodiazepines like Xanax give instant relief for panic symptoms, but they are habit forming and they also lose their effectiveness over time. They can also make you extremely drowsy. SSRIs are often prescribed for panic disorder because they reduce overall anxiety and can prevent you from having a panic attack. I have had panic disorder for years, and I tried a variety of different kinds of drugs and natural supplements to deal with it. Nothing really worked – I built up a tolerance to the only drug that helped me (Xanax) and was really at the end of my rope. That’s when I started seeing a new psychiatrist who suggested I try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).CBT is a type of therapy that addresses your anxious thoughts, and then the resulting behaviors (the panic attacks). What happens with panic disorder is that you have the initial panic attack, and it’s really scary. Then you start becoming anxious about having an attack in the future, and sometimes that anxiety can become so bad that it actually CAUSES you to have another attack, called an anticipatory panic attack. You actually cause yourself to have one by worrying so much about having one. This starts a vicious cycle of anxiety where you have irrational thoughts, the thoughts turn into panic attacks, and the attacks reinforce your original anxious thoughts (you interpret your attack and the behavior you exhibit during the attack as saying, “Yep, that initial fear I had was right, look what happened.”) It keeps going and going and you feel like it’s out of control and you just can’t stop it.CBT allows you to get control of that cycle of anxiety and stop it. It sounds too good to be true, but it really works. The therapist helps you restructure your thoughts and change your behaviors, and by changing your thoughts and behaviors you break the anxiety cycle and you stop having panic attacks. I am living proof that this therapy works, and trust me if it could work for me then it can definitely work for you. My panic disorder went on for so long that I developed agoraphobia and was terrified to leave my home. I quit my job, I almost dropped out of college, I became suicidal (statistically speaking, most anxiety patients also develop depression, and 1 in 5 patients who have both panic disorder and depression attempt suicide… so it was only a matter of time). Therapy has changed all of that for me, and it can make your life so much better if you give it a shot.CBT is not easy, it takes a lot of effort and commitment from you (12-16 weeks usually, once or twice weekly sessions, plus exposures and “homework” assignments throughout the week) but if you commit to the therapy, it can change your life. You put in 100%, you get your life back. It’s that simple.