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Seven out of every twenty people have experienced a panic attack.

It is no surprise that panic disorder is noted as being the most common anxiety problem for which people go to seek help.

Most attacks last for between 3 and 20 minutes.

There tends to be no regularity to the pattern of attacks; in fact, their irregularity is one of their features.

Another common feature of panic attacks is how they appear to strike ‘out of the blue’ and without provocation. This makes them markedly different from phobic reactions, which are provoked only in response to specific feared situations or objects.

 

'Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination'

Christian Nevell Bovee






Panic Attacks

Anxiety is a psychological condition, prolonged by thought processes and rituals which cause the person affected to avoid certain situations which, they believe, will exacerbate their anxiety, and this avoidance behaviour then affects the quality of their life.

A panic attack is a sudden intense response to normal thoughts or sensations. This is often accompanied with a feeling of impending doom, and physical symptoms, such as increased heart rate, palpitations, and pins and needles.

Physical symptoms

The full range of physical symptoms, that people may experience during a panic attack are:

• Shortness of breath
• Fast heart rate or palpitations
• Pains or discomfort in the chest
• Feeling smothered or as though you are choking, feeling faint,   dizzy or unsteady
• Feelings of unreality (depersonalisation and derealisation)
• Tingling in the extremities, or numbness
• Hot and/or cold flushes, sweating
• Trembling muscles or shaking
• Feeling nauseous
• Wanting to go to the toilet.

Mental and Emotional symptoms

• A sudden overwhelming feeling of fear, terror, or apprehension,   an awful sense of impending doom
• Being frightened you might die
• Being scared you might go crazy or lose your mind
• Fearing you might lose control completely
• An overwhelming compulsion to escape the situation

Although terrifying, none of these thoughts and feelings are dangerous.

There is no evidence that anyone has ever died from a panic attack, and no one has ever gone crazy. Neither has anyone completely lost control of him or herself.

Nor is there any evidence of anything bad happening to someone during a panic attack, no matter how frightened they may feel.

Hypnotherapy and NLP, used in conjunction, can provide rapid solutions for the causes of panic attacks.