is it really just a disease?

[lunasea]

i mean, panic attacks are not normal to human beings... we develop panic and anxiety oruselves.

but sometimes we have an attack with no real cause or trigger. even doctors are still trying to figure out what actually creates an attack...

I am beginning to see it more as a disease I canot fix. I think when you see it as a disease oyu realize it is something you cannot really prevent but most put up with, creates less fear... what youguys think?

[purplehaze]

Its not a disease
you can prevent it
Doctors are just GPs..which means they have a wide knowledge but know not a lot about one area
It does not create less fear, only understanding your fear helps


Read up on itor I will send dwarfs to your house with cream cakes which they will eat in front of you until you understand all of the above

[june]

i am beginning to realise that the majority of doctors do not really recognise our panic because:-

1. we go with such a variety of ailments - most of them a bit vague.

Doctor i feel a bit sick - Doc "have you actually been sick?" well, no. but i feel awful. My head is spinning and i feel faint.
The doctor checks your ears etc and can find NO PHYSICAL cause.

1. I have a terrible headache.

Doctor "have you taken parecetamol?" no its not a normal headache it just hurts here. its really bad.
THEN to be told its all in your mind......... its just stress stop worrying and it will all go away....

Just this morning i was watching TV and all of a sudden i felt such fear/ terror. WHY???? i have no idea. How do i explain that????
I have posted before with a list of ailments - like an A4 sheet -
but the doc says i am OK
its all in my mind - just panic/ anxiety ETC ETC
It is no wonder that we are all so confused.
June

[Anxious_gal]

Well its kinda hard to say what’s not natural to us humans as we have evolved so much.
Food additives are not natural, same with chemicals you find in everything from shampoo to makeup.
Anxiety is totally natural even animals get anxiety,
The fight or flight response is totally natural to every living creature, but in humans the fight or flight response has evolved into a panic attack.
To see this as a disease is you giving up, you see it as something you cannot change but you can.
To give up is to give in, it may seem like the easy option to give in but in the long run its not.
If you get a panic attack out of no where, most of the time there has been some kind of stress before you had that panic attack, even drinking caffeine can bring on a panic attack. Negative thoughts, stress, fear, lack of sleep, hidden emotions, can all lead up to a panic attack.

[titchjd]

hiya panic attacks are normal 2 human beings in the sense that Panic is an important part of us its our defence mechanism ...so an attack of panic is normal in the right situations......with panic attacks that happen regularly its just our system a bit out of sync ....its not a disease and is treatable ..well managed there isnt a cure as panic is part of us ...we just have 2 learn how 2 accept it ...that is the hard part .

Gps are like any1 else unless they have suffered they cant fully understand what its like .

there are triggers etc most time without you realising .....but you have 2 change youre thinking and not want 2 stop the attacks but learn how 2 manage them when u have them ..then they becum less scary x

have u read Claire weekes books ..if not I reccommend you do they explain a lot xxx
take care xxx

[lunasea]

Its not a disease
you can prevent it
Doctors are just GPs..which means they have a wide knowledge but know not a lot about one area
It does not create less fear, only understanding your fear helps


Read up on itor I will send dwarfs to your house with cream cakes which they will eat in front of you until you understand all of the above

I am afraid I will need to steal those cakes and eat them... And enslave the dwarfs.

Beyond that, it just baffles me that it can hit me without thinking about anything stressful.

[jill]

Hi hun,

Ohh please read ALL you can about panic anxiety and how are minds work, learn how we are being programmed all day, every day, but most of all, learn about yourself, get to know your likes, your dislikes, your fears and what makes you happy

Hunny, a panic attack DOES NOT happen for no reason, BUT, its finding that reason which can be dame hard. If in your life, RIGHT now, there seems no reason for your attack, try looking back to your first one, you may find the reason for your first attack and lack of understanding starts a vicouse circal (opps spell check) when looking, you may not have just one thing that jumpes out at you, eg truma, for some people, it can be many, many little things, which have put alot of presure on you over time.

From what I know, panic, is are minds way of telling us, its had enough, do something, BUT, if we don't know what its warning us about, we can't change things, so we start to fear, the next panic and the next and after that things become what I call an aotomatic response. Are minds are sooo sensitive we feel every emotion and feelings in our body, soon as we feel something not quite right ( normal anxiety) insead are minds think, PANIC and off it goes.

As it has allready been said, the flight, fight response is normal, its in us all. I read that it is there to portect us, BUT, when used in the correct way, you do not even know its there.

I read a few true stories on this,(flight, fight response) can' remember them all off the top of my head, but the 2 I do remember, a father, coming out of his house, only to find his son been run over and the car was on top of his child, without even thinking he ran to his son, lifted up the car off his son. He said "I don't even know where I got the strength from, I just paniced and did not know what to do, my heart was beating soo fast, did not have much time to think, I just did it"

Another was a women, who was walking down the street, she heard footsteps behind her, she felt threatend, it seemed the faster she walked, the faster this person walked behind her, she said " I felt soooo scared, I new this person was up to no good, my heart was pounding in my chest, I felt sick, the sweat was pouring off me, so I started to run, I have never ran so fast in all my life and did not stop untill I got in the house, I calmed down when safe at home, blimey, I did'nt even think I could run that fast.

There is a saying, YOU ARE at your strongest when in full blown panic, your senses get higher, your built for speed. It is there for the good, to help you when you are in danger, BUT, when it has been triggered, for what seems like no reason, you mind will look for danger, when it can't find anything, it makes you feel even MORE scared and you are left going round and around again, waiting for the next panic and sometimes, we label things wrongly as the danger, eg, going out, shops, crowds ohhh and a whole lot off other things, where as, these people have reason for there response kicking in.

I know when I was acute, I used to repeat to myself when in full blown panic, "I am safe, I am at my strongest, it will pass, it always did.

**doctors are still trying to figure out what actually creates an attack...**

I feel that with panic and anxiety we all my have the same symptoms, BUT, what brought us to this horrible illness is different for everyone, that is why, it is soooo hard to treat, because what happens sometimes, they can treat the panic, with CBT but, if the underlining course is still there, the panic may return, do you know what I mean? I know what created mine and I know for me, knowing what created me to hit full blown panic, helped me move on a little, but I allso know, that sometimes its dame hard finding the reason.


**I am beginning to see it more as a disease I canot fix.**

This was one of my fears, I had something, I could not fix, BUT, this great site tought me well, my thoughts where, thinking like this will only fuel things, anxiety, panic, breeds on our fears, if we think this way we have no hope, without hope, what am I left with, mmm, living with panic, for the rest of my life. Blimey, I did not want that, no-one wants that, so I felt I needed hope, read all I could on this great site and anything else I could get my hands on to find proff that this illness could be beatin. IT CAN.

PANIC, IS NOT a disease which cannot be fixed, it IS a very, very complexed thing, which has many, many pathways we need to go down to help ourselve, BUT, IT CAN BE fixed, with alot of hard work time and the right support.

I do feel whats sad, that there is not just one person out there we can go to, which will help us fix things, someon who will say, ohh just do this, just do that and there, its gone.

Many, many people suffer for different reasons, its finding YOUR reason, thats the hard bit hun and my heart goes out to you because I know its DAME HARD

**we develop panic and anxiety oruselves.**

This is true, but thats the millioin doller quetion is'nt it?, how did we get like this???? only you have the answer to that hun, BUT, this is where some therapy comes in, to help us find, what went wrong, what triggered the first pa, whats keeping the pa's going.

As I said, I know what triggered my first pa, so I started working on the things that triggered the first, making small goels, BUT, what I was left with, was fearing the next and the next. Trying dame hard to take the label off things I thought was causing the panic, eg, the shops, the cowds the plane ohh and many other things. I know for me, NONE of these things where the cause of my panic's. It was ME, that put that label on those things and many other things, it was taken that label off, that was dame hard.

I had my first pa on a plane, it has taken me four years to shut that automatic response down to flying, hay, I like flying, love my hols, its been hard work, but I did it, over time and working on my thought pattens, did it myself, BUT not easy.

Hunny, what I would say to you now is, try changing your thinking on panic, try and help yourself see, that its possible to get better, learn to eccept how you are now,(just for now, NOT forever) but look to get better.

Learn to eccept your panic FOR NOW, BUT not expect panic, does that make sense?

You have had some great replies hun, keep posting, keep reading, the road to recovery IS OUT there, but you have to try dame hard to find it, its not easy hun, please try and change the way you think of panic, it helps us sooo much to move on a little.

YOU TAKE CARE

LOVE JILLXXX