Identifying The Panic Attacks Cause
If you’ve ever experienced a panic attack, you know what it is—a sudden, apparently unmotivated episode of extreme anxiety accompanied by a whole list of unpleasant physical sensations, such as racing heart, cold sweat, breathlessness, dizziness, etc. In fact, the physical sensations of a panic attack are remarkably like the natural and essential “fight or flight” alarm mechanism, that powerful rush of adrenaline which evolved to enable humans to respond to life-threatening external events. In a panic attack, however, there is no external threat to justify the physical response.
What makes some people susceptible to these debilitating moments? A number of possibilities are at the root of the panic attacks cause and have been theorized.
Hereditary causes. Because a tendency to panic attacks and panic disorder can run in families, there is a possibility they are influenced by hereditary factors. Certain personality traits are often found in people prone to panic attacks—particularly a lack of assertiveness and tendency to passivity. Heredity doesn’t appear to be a particularly strong predictor, however, and it’s difficult to separate nature from nurture in family histories. The attitudes and atmosphere a person grew up surrounded by could account for a good deal of the coincidence.
Biological causes. A number of diagnosable physical and mental illnesses can apparently bring on associated panic attacks. Vitamin B deficiency, hypoglycemia, and hyperthyroidism have also been linked to panic attacks, suggesting the possible operation of some chemical imbalance in the mechanism underlying panic attacks. Less surprisingly, people who suffer from phobias, OCD and post-traumatic stress disorders are also more prone to panic episodes.
Such genetic and biological factors likely lead to a long-term continuing experience of panic attacks, but there are also a number of causes for a more sudden and possibly temporary susceptibility. These are classified generally as environmental or external causes.
Stress. For instance, it’s recognized that people are more vulnerable to developing panic disorder at peak stress times in their lives. Losing a loved one through death or divorce, and other major life-changing events sometimes precede the onset of panic disorder. Stimulant drugs (legal or illegal) can also act as triggers. A number of medications actually list panic attack among their known side effects, and various drugs (including alcohol and caffeine) can interact to trigger attacks.
In cases where temporary stress or short-term drug use leads to panic attacks, it’s possible the attacks will cease once the external stressor is removed. However, these short-term external causes may simply be activating a pre-existing vulnerability that can be traced to heredity or other illnesses, and once activated the tendency may not pass.
Conditioning. Furthermore, whatever it is that causes the first panic attack—whether internal or external, lasting or temporary—the panic experience itself is so powerful and traumatic that it can easily become self-perpetuating. The situation or circumstances that the victim associates with that episode—where they were, what they were doing, eating, smelling, whatever the very first sensations were—can become triggers for the next attack. The first sensation of dizziness or a quickened heartbeat due to a totally different source can quickly summon up the association and escalate into full-blown panic. Eventually, anticipatory fear alone can bring on an attack.
With so many factors possibly contributing to the onset of panic attacks or panic disorder for any individual, identifying and treating the originating cause is difficult and even impossible in many cases. It may require exploring several different types of therapy to find help. For many, the answer may lie not in controlling the cause, but learning instead to control the symptoms.
