EXPLANATION OF PANIC DISORDERS

Types of Anxiety

Generalized Anxiety Disorder:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is characterized by chronic anxiety that persists for at least six months but is unaccompanied by panic attacks, phobias, or obsessions. You simply experience persistent anxiety and worry without the complicating features of other anxiety disorders.

To be given a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, your anxiety and worry must focus on two or more stressful life circumstances (such as finances, relationships, health, or school performances) a majority of days during a six-month period. It's common, if your dealing with GAD, to have a large number of worries, and to spend a lot of your time worrying. Yet you find it difficult to exercise much control over your worrying. Moreover, the intensity and frequency of the worry are always out of proportion to the actual likelihood of the feared events happening. Physical symptoms may include, fatigue, restlessness-feeling keyed-up, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, difficulties with sleep.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

Post-traumatic stress disorder develops when a person has experienced, witnessed, or been confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury. This person re-experiences the event through distressing recollections, dreams, flashbacks, or heightened anxiety when exposed to situations or objects that resemble or symbolize the traumatic event. This person also tends to avoid things associated with the trauma and to experience a numbing such as an inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma, diminished interest or participation in significant activities, and detachment or estrangement from others. Additional symptoms can include difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritability, difficulty concentrating, hypervigilance, and an exaggerated startle response.

Agoraphobia:

Agoraphobia is the fear of being in particular places or situations that are away from one's area of security, that is, one's safe place or person. This disorder usually begins full-blown with a panic attack while victims are away from home--on the way to work, standing in line in the grocery store, or driving on the highway. There is no "common" place or circumstances where an attack will happen, but attacks usually occur away from home or apart from someone who the sufferer depends upon.

Along with the panic attack and it's debilitating physical symptoms, agoraphobia victims feel an internal sensation of impending doom. They fear their anxiety reaction will continue to get worse until they finally "go to pieces" or end up screaming and hysterical in front of others. They especially fear loss of control or making fools of themselves in public. When the sufferers retreat, usually to their homes, the panic symptoms subside. Other than the memory of the extreme discomfort, sufferers quickly return to their original state, although many do feel "drained" for some time afterwards.

Escaping to home teaches sufferers that their houses are secure, safe places. Home then becomes their "area of security." The attacks also become associated with the situations or places where they occurred-a learning process known as classical conditioning. Sufferers develop a "learned response" in reaction to their fear. First, people have a fearful reaction to one particular store, bridge, or roadway. Then their reaction generalizes to all stores, bridges, or roadways. As time goes on, the sufferers' fears become more widespread and more pronounced.

In my case, the fear reaction started in the grocery store, then eventually spread to driving, freeways, etc. Gradually, sufferers withdraw from all situations they expect will cause the uncomfortable, unpleasant feelings of anxiety and the awful physical sensations that accompany the attacks. Agoraphobia is developing.

PAD Without Agoraphobia:

Panic disorder without agoraphobia involves unexpected panic attacks accompanied by worry about the return of panic and persistent fears of life-threatening illnesses, losing control, or "going crazy." Common symptoms include dizziness, feelings of unreality, palpitations, shaking, sweating, and nausea.

PAD With Agoraphobia:

Panic disorder with agoraphobia: All the above, plus anxiety when entering or avoidance of situations where a panic attack might occur and where escape is a problem or help would not be available. Common situations include crowds, bridges, tunnels, travel, waiting in lines, be alone.

Specific Phobia:

Excessive fear attached to a specific object ( animals, heights, blood, flying). The object or situation is avoided or provokes intense anxiety.

Social Phobia:

Excessive fear of embarrassment in social, performance, or other evaluative situations. These situations are avoided or suffered with intense discomfort.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:

OCD is the acronym for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Obsessions are defined as recurring unwanted thoughts or worries, and compulsions being activities or rituals that you may perform to relieve the anxiety brought on by obsessions. The cause of OCD is generally accepted and reasonably proved to be a chemical imbalance in the brain and has also been linked to the neurochemical Serotonin.

A class of drugs called SSRI's (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) have been shown to be effective in helping to treat OCD. There are several generally accepted subdivisions of OC's. Amongst them are Washers, Checkers, Cleaners, Hoarders, Repeaters, Orderers, and Pure Obsessives.

Washers are those OC's that generally have a fear of germs, dirt, or contamination from substances like bodily fluids, dirt, dust, bacteria, viruses, excretions, and the like. Washers that are compulsive can spend hours washing themselves, or parts of their body, to the exclusion of all else, trying to rid themselves of "contamination". They may also avoid contact with things to avoid being "contaminated". One of the most striking things about the spread of contamination is that the "contaminant" can (in the OC's mind) be spread from object-to-object without actual physical contact.

Cleaners are those OC's that feel that other things are contaminated or dirty, and spend much time cleaning their surroundings. For instance, a cleaner might spend hours dusting their home and then go back and start again as soon as they have finished because dust has settled in the interim.

Checkers have a problem remembering or being sure that they have or have not done something and therefore go back to check whether they have or not. For instance, a woman might turn off the stove but be compelled to go back and check 20 or even 100 times to be sure that it is indeed turned off.

Hoarders collect things...almost anything. They usually cannot even stand to throw away garbage and often will let it just sit around them. An inability to get rid of things is the significant symptom of this class of Obsessive-Compulsive.

Repeaters are OC's that feel compelled to do things a "right" number of times. This may serve to protect them from some imagined danger, or prevent possible harm to themselves or a family member. Repeaters generally fear that if they do not do things the "right" number of times, something bad will happen, although some may just have to do things "just right" for no apparent reason.

Orderers have to have things organized absolutely "the right way". An orderer might be reluctant to let anyone touch their possessions, lest they be misarranged. Orderers might spend hours just aligning a piece of paper on a desktop, or straightening a bookshelf.

The last type is the Pure Obsessive, which is also the most difficult OC to treat. These OC's generally suffer from obsessive thoughts of a disturbing nature. An example might be a person who constantly obsesses over whether they will hurt their child. Even though they know they wouldn't, they can't stop worrying that they might.

OCD can range from a mild nuisance to a very debilitating affliction. Some people might be unable to act "normally" or may be unable to function at all in social or workplace settings...or even at home, if the situation is bad enough. The good news is that there are ways obsessive-compulsives can be helped. These treatments range from cognitive behavioral therapy, to drug treatments, to neural surgery. There are options out there, and if you have OCD, and have not already taken steps to get help, I strongly advise you seek the help of a professional.

Medical Conditions:

This condition is characterized by anxiety resulting directly from a medical condition. Among the wide range of medical conditions that can cause anxiety symptoms are endocrine conditions, (hyper-thyroidism, pheochromocytoma, hypoglycemia, hyperadrenocorticism), cardiovascular conditions (congestive heart failure, pulmonary embolism, arrhythmia), respiratory conditions (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia), metabolic conditions ( vitamin B-12 deficiency, porphyria), and neurological conditions (neoplasms, vestibular dysfunction, encephalitis). A malfunction within the inner-ear system, can also cause a lot of the symptoms of panic disorder.