Panic attacks and their effects are as real to us as anything else that we may fear.
Fear is frightening.
When we are frightened our body reacts in a way that increases the feelings of fear that we are experiencing.
If panic attacks are caused by an unrealistic fear, why is our body affected in such a real way? Read on.
One moment you are walking quietly down the street and the next you are gripped by a feeling of terror.
Your heart is beating so hard it feels that it may burst right through your chest.
Chest pains feel like your heart is cramping and is going to stop.
You think "heart attack" The brain receives this message and intensifies its response to the body in increasing adrenaline to combat this new emergency.
The brain can misinterpret the messages from the nerves especially if the nerves are overly stimulated or not stimulated enough.
This produces a physical reaction of intense anxiety.
Our body is covered in nerves.
These nerves detect any and all stimuli that we come into contact with.
The same as they perceive external stimuli, they send the message to the brain, who in return relays the message to the body internally for action.
This message is received by the amygdala, which is a little organ that controls our anxiety levels.
For some reason, probably because there is not a realistic reason for the anxiety, the amygdala gets stuck in the "on" position.
This causes an imbalance in the response to the emergency and it overcompensates in bringing the body out of the anxious state.
This is what causes the profound and real physical symptoms to occur.
Restriction of blood vessels can cause numbness of your head, face and extremities.
You need to tell yourself that the symptoms though they are real enough, do not have a real reason for being there.
There is not any present danger and the brain needs to be informed that this is a false alarm.
You can talk yourself out of a panic attack.
Each person who has them experiences different reasons for having them, and genetics is a factor too.
Sometimes problems have a way of throwing us into an attack, due to absently dwelling on an issue.
Or some silent fear comes to the surface for some unknown reason.
We need to send a new message to the brain to override the previous message sent by the nerves in error.
The body responds in minutes to a message received by the brain that there is an emergency.
Our adrenal glands rest on top of our kidneys.
That may be the reason that many who are in terror of something tend to urinate on themselves.
The adrenals, release massive doses of adrenaline into the bloodstream, increasing blood flow to the brain, for clearer thinking under distress, and to the extremities for added strength and exertion.
Why do panic attacks happen? Because we need to be more aware of our surroundings and of how our life is impacting us.
We need to reduce stress and relax more.
When problems arise, we need to confront them head on instead of allowing them to eat at us while we dwell on them.
Taking care of ourselves and investing in our happiness will sharply decrease the likelihood of having panic attacks.
Another great program for you to stop having panic attacks is called Panic Away.
It will teach you how to stop having panic attacks without drugs or expensive medications.
It has helped thousands of people stop having panic attacks and it is definitely worth a try for less than the cost of a visit to a therapist.