Understanding Anxiety Attacks

By knowing the facts about panic and anxiety attacks, you can start to remove the fear which surrounds them. Now we can turn to the reasons why they have had such an impact on your life. It should help you get them into proper perspective.

Sensitization

Your first panic attack was probably extremely unpleasant, and to some extent shocked you. 'Where did those sensations and feelings come from?' you might have wondered. Because the experience hit you with such force, and so unexpectedly, it probably had the immediate effect of conditioning you into fearing the next one and when it might happen.

At that stage, the only thing you did know with any certainty was that it was horrible, unpredictable, and spontaneous and you didn't want another one.

This fear of the next anxiety attack can have a profound effect on your life. On top of the usual day-to-day worries you now have this other, very potent fear: that of the next attack. Fear is an incredibly strong emotion. It has the effect of priming the autonomic fight or flight response into readiness. As a result you begin to feel on a knife edge without knowing why. You suddenly find that you can be roused with alarming swiftness. You may lose your temper too quickly or find yourself feeling frustrated much more easily than you used to. This state of arousal has been called sensitization, and is a very common anxiety attack symptom.

So instead of calmly going about your day-to-day activities, and taking things in your stride, you find your emotions becoming worn out simply because they have become exaggerated in this sensitized state.

Melanie told me she felt 'totally debilitated' during the time she had her anxiety attacks. You may find yourself more nervous and apprehensive, and not just because of worrying about when the next attack might be. There is a definite feeling of general unease. And because you haven't had the anxiety and panic attacks properly explained to you, the bewilderment and fear you already have about them is probably increased even more.

In feeling bewildered it is easy to understand such thoughts arising as 'Am I going crazy?' or 'Am I losing my mind?' No, you are not going crazy or losing your mind. All that has happened is that you are experiencing this particular anxiety symptom, and have become hypersensitive. That doesn't constitute madness in anyone's book. Hopefully, now you understand why you may have felt a sense of confusion, you realize that you are perfectly sane and will remain so. No one who has panic and anxiety attacks has ever lost their mind or gone crazy because of them. There is no research which has found any such thing happening to anyone.