Coping with Panic Attacks and Anxiety

This booklet is for anyone who may suffer from panic attacks or panic disorders or for anyone who wishes to find out more about it and how they may be able to help others. What is a panic attack? Panic attacks are extremely frightening. They may appear to come out of the blue, strike at random and make people feel powerless, out of control and as if they are about to die or go mad. A panic attack occurs when your body experiences a rush of intense psychological (mental) and physical symptoms. It is rush of adrenalin and an exaggeration to your normal bodily reactions to stress. You may feel an overwhelming sense of fear, apprehension and anxiety. As well as these feelings, you may also experience physical symptoms shortness of breath across chest area dry mouth  nausea sweating or hot flushes  irregularity in your heart beat (palpitations)  feeling of wanting to visit the toilet more often Approximately 1 person in 10 experiences occasional panic attacks. How do panic attacks happen? Many people suffer from panic attacks after experiencing a shocking, frightening or traumatic event in their lives. For some, this attack may happen only once. However when these attacks have no apparent trigger, are recurring or happening on a regular basis, this can be attributed to a panic disorder. Panic disorder In this Informative eBook PDF