Overcoming Anxiety Attack Symptoms

Do you understand panic attacks and why they happen to you? If you’re a regular reader of this blog, I hope that you now understand a little better what a panic attack is, and that you are reassured by the knowledge that panic attacks are a protective measure which your body is taking, and that although they are extremely unpleasant, you will come to no harm.

Knowing this is a relief, but it does not answer the question of why they started in the first place. You have probably asked yourself ‘Why me?’ at one stage or another. You may have asked your doctor why one person should experience panic attack symptoms and not another; you may well have received an unsatisfactory answer.

To be fair, the reason is probably because there has, as yet, been no single cause identified which explains why panic attacks begin. However, there is a lot of research suggesting many possibilities.

In very general terms, researchers appear to fall into one of two camps. There are those who believe that panic attacks begin because of psychological reasons, and then there are those who believe that there is a biological cause for their onset. Below is a review of the recent discoveries in both fields.

Psychological

Perhaps the interest in panic attacks from the psychological angle developed from Freud and the psychoanalyses’ interest in ‘neurasthenia’. Although having a different name, this was probably the same as panic disorder. Modern-day researchers continue to look into the underlying causes and panic attack treatments from the psychological point of view, and through various therapeutic treatments, results have been obtained without medication.

Since people have responded to this sort of panic attack treatment, psychological factors must have at least some bearing on why attacks begin in the first place.

Here are some of the factors which have been considered.

Personality

It is conceivable that there could be a panic attack personality ‘type’. If there were, it could explain why some people have them and not others. Researchers in Italy studying anxious and panic attack type personalities appear to confirm this. They suggest that those people’s feelings of anxiety could lead to the eventual development of panic attacks at some later stage.

Others have observed that people who already experience panic attacks tend to have certain shared characteristics. Being over-critical and disapproving of themselves is common, as is a tendency to have too high expectations of themselves. There are lots of ’shoulds’ and ‘musts’ in their life, spurring them to drive themselves on and on.

This stems from early childhood, when you learned to believe from over-strict parents that if you didn’t do all the ’shoulds’ and ‘musts’ you would have that all-important love taken away from you. This is a terrifying thought to children. Although this is obviously an inappropriate way to think as an adult, the lesson was probably learned so well that you are now quite unaware of it and the effect it is continuing to have on your life, as you continually strive to conform and to serve the ’shoulds’ and ‘musts’ in your life.

Attributing successes to other people, while highlighting only their own part in failures, also apparently tends to be a characteristic of people who suffer with panic attack symptoms, as is blaming themselves when things go wrong.

However, although introspective, they will also too easily immerse themselves in others problems and readily respond to their needs and wants. In comparison, expressing their own needs is difficult. So they become worried and concerned about someone else’s problems, and pile those concerns on top of their own which they try to ignore or deny.

Think about whether any of these things hold true for you. They are important factors to be aware of, since they are the sorts of things which can generate a lot of internal stress and worry which may weaken your ability to cope with other day-co-day problems and ultimately lead to more panic attacks.