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Is Panic Attack a Mental Illness?
By: Chris Crawley
There is a common conception that categorizes a panic attack as a mental illness. In order to properly understand whether or not this is true we need to take a look at what a panic attack really is. Also, we have to analyze what is the cause behind such manifestations and see how that has an impact on one's body.
Panic Attack?
Panic attacks are usually defined as being a discrete, sudden feeling of very intense fear, anxiety and feeling of discomfort. Usually it is also linked with several different cognitive and somatic symptoms. It is a condition that normally shows an abrupt onset and usually no obvious reason can be observed.
Panic attacks are considered to be a fight or flight that appears due to a context, thus flooding the body with different hormones (usually adrenalin) in order to aid it in a sensed need to defend from harm.
Usually most panic attack symptoms last about 10 minutes. However, there are smaller panic attacks that can be only up to 5 minutes and sometimes severe anxiety attacks and can last even several hours.
Sometimes when a person suffer from panic attacks, he/she can also experience anticipatory anxiety, which can happen between panic attacks.
Panic attacks can have different affecting levels for each person. There are some who have had several panic attacks before who might be able to even eliminate the anxiety attack without anyone noticing it might have appeared.
On the other hand, individuals that suffer from panic attacks for the first time will usually call for emergency services as they might be thinking they are having a nervous breakdown or even a heart attack.
Panic Attacks - What Causes Them?
There are different possible causes for developing panic attacks. Once we get to learn about them we will see whether or not panic attacks are mental illnesses or not.
First we need to analyze the reason in order to understand the effect with other medical condition out there, including this one. First there are long term, predisposing causes, mainly based on heredity.
There are some panic disorders that might run in families and inheritance genes can play an important role when determining who might suffer from panic attacks in the future. Of course one must understand that a person can suffer from panic attacks even if you did not have any previous cases in your family.
Panic attacks are also caused by different possible biological causes. This includes obsessive compulsive disorder, hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, post traumatic stress disorder, Wilson's Syndrome, Vitamin B deficiency, mitral valve prolapse and inner ear disturbances and a whole lot more. Phobias can also generate panic attacks when the individual is met with a phobic situation or object.
Some situations might also cause short term triggers for panic attacks. This includes personal loss, a significant life change, different stimulants like nicotine and caffeine, drugs like marijuana or psilocybin and so on.
Panic attacks can also be caused by some drugs. One example is Ritalin, but it's definitely not the only one. This situation has two possible outcomes.
We will either notice panic attacks appearing only when the patient gets the first medication or it might continue even after the individual will get used to the drug. In such a situation it is highly recommended that an alternative medication routine is researched as panic attacks caused by drugs are hard to live with. Most SSRIs will cause increased anxiety at the beginning of use.
Those who are suffering from Hyperventilation Syndrome are also prone to develop panic attacks. Chest breathing is known to be a cause for over breathing as excess in exhalation of carbon dioxide when compared to the oxygen in your blood will cause this over breathing.
Also, people that suffered a panic attack in the past will be more likely to get a new one when a certain situation that is similar to that which was seen at the first attack takes place.
This can mean that a person can get a cognitive or behavioral predisposition towards getting a panic attack in different situations. Pharmacological triggers can also have a direct impact.
There are several different stimulants, depressants, chemical substances that have the power of pharmacologically contributing to a list of possible triggers. The most usual examples are alcohol, amphetamine or caffeine but there are several others that also can be mentioned.
In this case, people that suffer from panic attacks might even develop a phobia for one drug or different chemicals.
So, Are Panic Attacks Mental Illnesses?
As everybody can see from the list of causes attached to panic attacks we can sum everything up with a simple: No, panic attack is not a mental illness.
Having said that, we can also conclude that there are similarities but the best we can do is to consider them coincidences and the medical condition at hand is simply a cognitive or somatic behavioral situation that has a damaging impact on the human body.
In order to treat it, some practices have been developed and a giant step towards curing the person stands in getting him to confront the external elements that are causing the anxiety episodes.
Treatment options will vary exactly based on the cause and the trigger, combined with an analysis to the gravity of the panic attack exhibited. In most cases treating the problem is quite easy but there is also the possibility that it might require months of treatment and strong medication in order to end up with completely removing the situation of suffering from a new panic attack.
Also, although panic attacks are not a mental illness, they can be cured in some circumstances with the help of mental processes based on the power of the human mind. Relaxation techniques for instance can have a huge success in dealing with patients suffering from the condition.
Article Source: http://www.ezarticles.info
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