Panic attacks can have scary symptoms

In 2002, Jennifer Lynne was 35 and the mother of two young boys.

An avid jogger, she began to feel out of breath and shaky at the slightest exertion.

She felt a tightness in her chest and was cold and clammy.

Aware of her family’s history of heart disease, Lynne thought she was dying.

A trip to the emergency room and heart tests, however, showed Lynne’s heart was fine.

“The doctor told me I had the heart of a 16-year-old!” said Lynne. “I couldn’t believe it. What was going on?”

Two years and five trips to the emergency room later, Lynne stumbled onto the answer.

“I was listening to talk radio and a doctor was explaining panic attacks,” she said. “I realized my ‘heart attacks’ were really panic attacks, but I hadn’t recognized it.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), panic attacks affect between three and six million Americans a year, and two-thirds of them are women.

Melissa Conrad, MD, of http://www.medicinenet.com, writes, “Panic attacks are sudden feelings of terror that strike without warning. A person experiencing a panic attack may believe that he or she is having a heart attack or that death is imminent.

“The fear and terror that a person experiences during a panic attack are not in proportion to the true situation and may be unrelated to what is happening around them.”

Approximately one-third of people with panic disorder develop agoraphobia, the abnormal and persistent fear of public places, especially those from which escape could be difficult.

Help for anxiety disorders, however, is available and effective.

According to the December 2007 Depression and Anxiety Alert, “The treatment of panic disorder often involves both psychotherapy and medication.”

The NIMH pamphlet “Anxiety Disorder” states, “Medication will not cure anxiety disorders, but it can keep them under control while the person receives psychotherapy.”

The psychotherapy used is usually cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

CBT is so effective that the NIMH states that it can be used without medications and is effective at producing long-lasting positive change in the person using it.

Treatment for the stinkin’ thinkin’ of fear and panic, then, is a two-pronged approach: temporary medications to mitigate the physical manifestations of the illness and CBT with a qualified therapist to relearn healthy, realistic thinking.

For more information on anxiety disorders, ranging from agoraphobia to social anxiety to generalized anxiety disorders, you might like “Conquering Panic and Anxiety Disorders: Success Stories, Strategies, and Other Good Stories” by Paul Foxman and Jenna Glatzer (published by Hunter House, 10/18/02).

“Conquering Panic” has 34 stories written by people who at one time struggled with, and were enslaved by, panic disorder. They discuss how they healed and overcame the fear.

Paul Foxman, PhD, an anxiety expert, then comments on the type of anxiety disorder discussed and the methods used to break free from the illness.