No one voluntarily chooses to have a panic attack, no one invents those genuine fears that annoy us, suffocate and leave us breathless until we believe that we will die, yet the social misunderstanding woven around these disorders further intensifies the feeling of anguish and, consequently, loneliness on the part of those who suffer them.
Will anyone who knows this topic will no doubt remember his first baptism?With panic attacks. When you leave work, you get on the subway and suddenly you hear two people screaming in the middle of a conversation, you start to feel dizzy, confused and your heart beats hard, out of control, as if you were falling into a deep abyss.
- It is estimated that about 10% of the world’s population has already suffered a panic attack.
- But the real problem is when this terrifying and.
- Worse.
- Unpredictable experience happens again.
- Problems today.
- Is one of the most unknown.
Those who suffer a panic attack are neither weak nor psychotic, let alone need our compassion, what this person deserves is to understand and, above all, to see these situations of anguish as something that we can all experience at some point in our lives.
Sweats, dizziness, dry mouth, palpitations, nausea, shortness of breath?The panic attack occurs suddenly, as if someone has pressed the red button, which, in very bad faith, triggers horror in its most authentic sense. that in addition to physical symptoms, these duties are added up when the person believes that he has really lost control and that his life is in danger.
But what are we really afraid of when this happens, sometimes it’s the fear of getting on a plane, it can be the big masses of people, the small spaces or even some distorted perceptions of what’s going on in the body. Fears, even unwarranted, become true devourers of calm, balance and self-control.
It’s almost comforting to know that all of this has a very clear origin in our brains, scientists call it the “fear network” and explain that people who usually suffer from what DSM-V defines as “anxiety attacks or panic disorders” have parts of their brain with an unusual type of activity.
According to a study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, in the cingular-frontal cortex there is a type of network that controls our perception of fear, it is in this area that dimensions such as interoception or self-perception of the physiological state of our body are managed.
What does that mean? Basically, in this disorder, our fear mechanisms are “deregulated. “To the point of generating genuine panic reactions, even in the absence of real risk, which we must take into account in order to better understand this reality, which is far from fulfilling. the desires of those who suffer from and suffer from this disorder.
Many patients with panic disorder prefer, if possible, to suffer from their problem in silence. Even what is dormant, but latent, only needs a one-time trigger for the crisis to recur, and it certainly seems. The demons of fear seem to mix with the perplexity and misunderstanding of those around us and, as a result, the problem intensifies further.
We need to step forward, seek support, we need to understand that panic disorders may be associated with diseases such as hyperthyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, phenochromocytopa, vestibular dysfunction or seizures.
However, in these cases where there is no underlying disease, it is possible to combine drug treatment with psychotherapy, while medications restore our Serotonin levels in the brain, approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (TCC), for example, can help us in both. panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorders.
The key in these cases is to allow the person to observe, understand and control their physical sensations, while offering them tools to become aware of these thoughts present in episodes of intense distress.
But we know that this whole process is far from easy or short, and while techniques such as interoceptive exposure or progressive relaxation training remain central to these disorders, support from family and friends is also critical.
Because believe it or not, panic attacks remain a subject full of false beliefs, no one ends up freaking out when they suffer more anxiety attacks, nor is it a problem exclusively associated with the female sex, nor is it a disease that can only be cured with medication.
It is necessary to change certain patterns and be closer and more sensitive to these types of dimensions, because at the end of the day mental illness is treated, but many social prejudices still have no cure.