The symptoms of a panic attack can begin without warning.  Its symptoms may be felt within the body as it reacts to an uncontrollable fear like pounding or racing heart, chest pains or difficulty breathing, stomach upset or nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, tingling or numbness in the hands, hot flashes or chills.  A lot of panic attack symptoms, however, are mental and may include intense fear, the need to escape, a dreamlike feeling and the belief that you are losing control.

The fear of more panic attacks often fuels the condition itself. Most people who have had one panic attack are likely to experience others.  The sufferers then normally try to avoid the situations, people and places that have been present when they had panic attacks in order to avoid having more.  They might develop a phobia about these situations.  Panic attacks are different from other types of anxiety because they can happen so suddenly and unexpectedly.  They can occur without being provoked and are often times disabling.  A panic disorder is this rhythm of avoidance and anxiety.  A Panic disorder can have a serious impact an individual’s daily life unless the person receives effective treatment.  Panic attacks have developed into a serious health concern in America since 1.7% or 3 million of adults will suffer them in their lifetime.  The peak age at which an individual to experience their first panic attack is between the ages of 15 and 19.

Panic attacks are one of the most distressing minutes of a person life.  People continue to misinterpret the symptoms of a panic attack as those of a heart attack.  Some people suffer panic attacks while they sleep.  But these night time panic attacks are less common.  Only 40%-70% of people who have daytime panic attacks will have night time attacks.  These attacks tend to cause sufferers to wake suddenly from sleep in a state of sudden anxiety through no apparent cause and can have all the other symptoms of a panic attack.  Night time panic attacks can last up to 10 minutes but it tae s a lot longer to calm down from them.

Irrational and uncontrollable fear is the root cause behind panic attacks but her symptoms almost seem to cut deeper then phobias.

Despite the number of treatment options available some people don't seek help. Therapy, medications and relaxation techniques can help individuals to be rehabilitated. Behavioral therapy allows the person to feel some of the symptoms of a panic attack but helps the person to see that the symptom itself is nothing to fear. This technique has been named interceptive exposure. An example would be encouraging someone to feel what an increased heart rate feels like in a controlled environment. Through this it is possible to learn and remove the sensation from the fear of a panic attack. Life exposure is another method of behavioral therapy. In life exposure techniques a person is put in front of things that usually scare them so that they can get used to them.

There are many different relaxation techniques that have shown themselves useful for panic attacks. First of all it is helpful to relax their shoulders when they feel a panic attack coming. It is important to remove the tension out of the neck. You can get complete body relaxation by relaxing the muscles. Overcoming a panic attack is difficult but most methods involve some kind of breathing pattern. Breathing can help get the heart rate under control in a panic attack. Breathing slowly and pretending to blow out candle sis one such method that can help manage the heart rate. Knowing you are not losing your mind, not dying and not having a heart attack alone can help panic attack victims overcome much of the severity of the attacks.

Anxiety and panic disorders, like panic attacks, affect people every day. But there are many kinds of panic disorders. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is often seen after an individual has gone through a traumatic memory like the death or separation of a loved one, physical attack or abuse, an accident or witnessing a traumatic event. A panic disorder also may express itself as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD. This type of anxiety disorder involves having unwanted thoughts or obsessions that can't be removed from the person's thinking. This is why many OCD victims perform repeated and ritualistic behaviors.