What is a panic attack?: A panic attack (also called anxiety attack) is a sudden episode of intense fear that causes physical reactions. The body symptoms are severe and often people thinking they are having a heart attack, losing control, or even that they are dying. Many people experience a panic attack in their lifetime, and the first one is in response to a stressful event. The fight or flight response gets activated, and it is highly uncomfortable. The thoughts during panic attacks are negatively extreme – often related to physical, social, or emotional catastrophes happening.

How long does a panic attack last?: Panic attacks can last on average 5-20 minutes and generally less than an hour. The panic attack usually peaks within minutes.

What is panic disorder?: It is important to note that not everyone who has panic attacks will develop panic disorder. Panic disorder is when one experiences repeated and unexpected panic attacks and often lives with a persistent fear of the next panic attack. People can become afraid of body responses and label them as more catastrophic than they are. Anxiety about having a panic attack causes people to hyper-focus on symptoms, as well as increase the symptoms.

What is Agoraphobia?: Panic disorder can lead to Agoraphobia, which is either extreme dread or complete avoidance of situations that an escape is either difficult or unavailable. Situations often include open spaces, away from home, enclosed spaces, public transportation, standing in line or being in a crowd.

What causes panic disorder: It is not known what causes panic. Like other anxiety disorders, research shows that genetics and life stressors can play a role in developing panic disorder. It is said to run in families.

Who does panic disorder affect: Panic disoder affects 6 million adults or 2.7% of the population. Women are twice as likely as men to experience panic. Panic disorder can occur any time in life but is less likely later in life. The most common onset is adolescence to early adulthood.

The treatment for Panic: Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)is the leading treatment for anxiety.

The components of CBT for Panic: Although CBT is the broadly research based treatment for all anxiety disorders, CBT has therapy strategies specific to each type of anxiety. To treat panic, the following components are used.

• Psychoeducation on symptoms of panic disorder and understanding how it presents for the person.
• In-vivo exposure: facing cues in the environment that cause panic. Examples could include elevators, lines in stores, large events, and places outside of the home.
• Interoceptive exposure: facing body cues that are similar to panic. This means on engaging in exercises that intentionally induce the same physical reactions as panic and learning to ride the wave of the symptoms.
• Breathing skills: deep, paced breathing to get calmer and capable of using thinking skills, as well as to develop control over physiological symptoms.
• Thinking skills:
  • Assessing the realistic odds of the feared outcome happening to reduce problematic overestimating.
  • Identifying a coping plan if the feared outcome happened to move the brain away from the unhelpful reviewing.

Complementary treatments to CBT for panic: Additional treatments can be added to support individuals during CBT. Mindfulness and self-compassion skills can teach people to come to the present moment and notice panic related thoughts and feelings without worsening them. The skills encourage a gentle frame of mind and increase likelihood of success when adopting a compassionate accountability.

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