Knowing What Causes Panic Attacks Could Provide a Cue to Its Treatment

If 60 million adult Americans have experienced panic attacks at least once in their lifetime, it is perfectly possible that you too could have felt these extreme feelings of panic and fear a couple of times. The intensity of such episodes is such that you would like to avoid any repetition at any cost. You wish you knew what causes panic attacks, so that you could prevent them from happening in the first place.

What causes panic attacks?

Perhaps the worst part about panic attacks is that they come completely unannounced taking the victim by total surprise. You may feel apprehensive about an impending situation like appearing for a job interview for the first time or just before going up on the dais to make that important presentation, but you are hardly prepared to face a situation where you are completely engulfed by fear!

You feel numbed by a choking sensation in the chest, your hands start to tremble and your head feels light. You are immediately transported to another world by this sudden grip of fear and anxiety and feel that you could die any moment. You desperately want to escape but cannot find any way to do so. You are under a panic attack.

But what are the factors that could have pushed you into such a situation? Obviously, you are an anxious person by nature. Perhaps you tend to worry too much. But are these enough reasons behind what causes panic attacks ? Though the precise reasons why a person feels this way at times is not known, some of the common contributing factors include:

• Hereditary factors
• Childhood association with trauma and abuse
• Chemical imbalances in the brain
• Inability to cope with stressful situations, however temporary they may be. These include job interviews, fear of closed places, and personal problems like divorce, separation, death of spouse or child and so on.

What causes panic attacks: medical reasons?

There could be other factors that cause panic attacks over and above the emotional and environmental causes. Panic attacks could be a fall out of medications or due to some disease conditions. For example:

• Panic attacks could be caused by a cardiac condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse.
• Hyperthyroidism or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels)
• Use of narcotics and some hallucinogenic drugs
• Side effect of or withdrawal of some medications

Treatment for panic attacks

Whatever the intensity and frequency of panic attacks, treatment for panic attacks is available. But its efficacy would largely depend on the cause, as diagnosed by your doctor or a psychotherapist. The options for treatment for panic attacks could either be by deploying self-help strategies or if the situation so demands, you could go for psychiatric help.

Treatment for panic attacks: self-help

Learning relaxation techniques, deep breathing and yoga exercises could help you get relief from stress and anxiety, two prominent pre-cursors for panic attacks.

Treatment for panic attacks: psychiatric help

Your condition may demand professional intervention. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) including Exposure Therapy is one of the most recognized treatment options to cure panic attacks. This kind of therapy aims to rationalize your mind and put many of the hidden phobias to rest, by making you come face to face with the fears that haunt your mind.