Panic attack, a peculiar disorder

The panic attack has characteristics that make it a unique psychological phenomenon.

It is, without a doubt, the most terrifying psychological experience that a non-psychotic person can experience while awake. And yet, it remits very well and makes the patient mature a lot... when the specialist in Clinical Psychology is consulted in time and when he/she knows what he/she is dealing with. It is a panic attacka psychological phenomenon of which the following lines deal with.

What is a panic attack?

The panic attack occurs when the psychological and nervous system of the individual has been under strong pressure for months or even years (in most cases). Like some Heart attacks, it does not appear in acute moments, but in time, after days or weeks.This causes the individual to have no idea where the shots are coming from and to become more alarmed.

It usually occurs in people who, although they do things and are in good spirits, deep down they have lost their way, they do not know how to go on with their lives.

It also occurs in the postpartum period in people with complex psychological trajectories and that after the effort and the tension of the pregnancy period and the exhaustion of the childbirth suffer this disorder suddenly. And also with hashish use, which is obsessive for some individuals; it weakens the nervous system and reduces the ability to plan and the desire to do things.

Symptoms

As we have seen, it is the excruciating panic that suddenly invades the patient's mind and nervous system.. The patient is absolutely shocked by what he/she has experienced, something he/she did not expect or even imagine. The heart beats at 180 beats, and makes itself felt in the chest, in the neck artery, as if it were going to explode.

Thoughts have stopped responding, there is no interaction with perceptions, the "order-and-command" protocol has disappeared. It is chaos. Hyperventilation makes the individual dizzy and narrows his field of vision cloistering him even more in himself, where there are hardly any ideas or self-instructions, because there is only room to feel one emotion: exacerbated fear. Of what? Of oneself, of what is going on in there. The individual does not recognize himself, he experiences depersonalization and derealization, he is so far inside himself that he does not have the sensation of being in the world.

But nevertheless, he is possessed by a very intense energy that he cannot channel. He feels that he is going to die ipso facto, he feels that he is going to go mad at that moment, is afraid to act out of control and start yelling for no reason, breaking things, hurting himself.. Like an ecstasy, but a bad trip.

Some people faint. It takes hours or minutes, depending on the person, and finally calm comes. The body is exhausted, the autonomic nervous system has consumed all its energy. The individual automatically gets the idea that his head is damaged and that this is going to accompany him for the rest of his life, that he is crazy. In fact, panic attacks are more common than colds, so to speak, but they are hidden out of shame. So no one knows that many people with panic attacks no one knows that many people they pass on the street have also had panic attacks..

The other cross of this disorder is the fear of fear. The constant fear that it will happen again, the fear of the unpredictable panic. It is here, if no solution is found in time, or if the ones that are found do not know the nature of the problem and only hinder the process, where agoraphobia, claustrophobia and the unbearability of being alone are born. The first days are terrible.

The kind aspects of the panic attack

The panic attack is not ambiguous or interpretable, like depression, anxiety, or anguish. The panic attack presents itself clearly and suddenly there at the highest end of each of the symptoms of physiological anxiety.. Panic is panic. It is easily identified, because the patient, without having read anything about psychopathology, says at least one of these 3 symptoms:

• I had the feeling that I was going to die imminently.
• I thought that at that moment I was going crazy.
• I had the feeling that I was going to do something out of control like head-butting, screaming nonsense, breaking things....

There are only slight confusions between panic attacks and anxiety crises, but if we ask for these symptoms, we will be able to identify without problems if it is a panic or anxiety crisis. we will be able to identify without problems if it is a panic or anxiety crisis.. The anguish is annoying, it does not let you be, but it is not that panic.

Another curious aspect is that as the excitation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) has been maximal during the panic, normally the patient is exhausted and without more energy at that moment. at that moment, although in the minutes following the attack, thoughts about fear and anticipation already begin to be structured.

By the way, there are people who faint. Are they lucky? Maybe, but then they develop a fear of falling and hurting their head.

What to do?

The other positive aspect is that even though it is so spectacular, treated in a timely and correct manner, the disorder disappears almost completely. and a well conducted therapy will reinforce the individual's sense of strength not only in the face of possible panic, but also in the face of any anxiety symptoms or other difficulties in life.

To go to a good clinical psychologist who explains the symptoms well, who quickly provides behavioral resources to get out of the way, reports on its evolution, and contributes in the rest of the therapy to make the patient aware of the context that has provoked the panic attack, is crucial. The difference between this and staying at home, locked up, scared, increasing the intake of drugs and becoming depressed, is colossal.

Of course, the victim of panic must have patience for at least a few months or a couple of years, because this disorder leaves some leftovers, although never reaching the intensity of panic episodes: headaches, migraines, tension sensations in the cervical and neck muscles, days when they feel more vulnerable, dizziness, attacks due to memories of stimuli that produce nerves, avoidance of being in places of public agglomerations, tachycardia... but a good therapist will help to go through this long final stretch.

And I repeat, the person will come out reinforcedIf he/she has complied with the instructions and has understood the context so that it does not happen again, he/she will have overcome many moments of fear... in solitude, which is a way of becoming an adult like any other.

The first treatment should be only behavioral. Instructions and techniques are few and specific, simple to communicate. The important thing is to transmit to the patient the certainty that this will pass and that it will not leave any sequelae.

Parents, when they come for consultation frightened because they see their children at night with night terrors, are definitely reassured when they are informed that, although the fear they are seeing in their children is spectacular, that is not going to have the slightest consequence on the maturational development of their nervous system.. The same applies to this.

In a second phase of treatment, the context should be analyzed from a mild cognitive or dynamic point of view. Third generation narrative therapies or psychoanalytic listening therapy should help therapist and patient to fix the content that has undermined the individual's physical and psychological resistances. It will be fundamental to frame what happened and to bring a deeper peace of mind to the subject. Likewise, this will serve to resume the directions and illusions that disappeared to make way for the anguish.

As for medication, the best thing is that the subject can face his fear without pharmacological aids that will subtract and delay the attribution of self-competence. But there are patients who, because of their context and characteristics, were already taking them and nothing will happen by integrating this medication in the treatment of a panic attack.