Attack of panic: what is it, how to recognize it and what is the treatment

The panic attack is a pathology that presents physical symptoms: the person feels the sensation of imminent death, madness, tachycardia, shortness of breath, drowning, among other effects. In fact many say that they experience severe chest pain similar to that associated with a heart attack. However, neither death nor infarction occur.

Usually the first episode of panic is never forgotten. From there, it is normal that the one who suffered it has the feeling that it will happen again soon. And it's the beginning of a vicious circle in which you can escape only with professional help.

"Those who have panic attacks can not be left alone, because after experiencing the first attack, their behavior changes completely, avoid the places where they have suffered from the crisis, try not to carry out the same. the action they were taking at the time of the panic, his behavior is limited and the patient's life is limited to isolation. "Gabriela Martínez Castro (MN 18627), a graduate in psychology, explained that "this particular typology of anxiety disorders generally evolves rapidly and has serious consequences".

For the director of the Center for Studies of Anxiety Disorders (Ceeta), you must try to make contact with reality as close as possible and not be guided by thoughts, fantasies and fears. Try to have a thought. as realistic as possible and contrast this thinking with reality ".

"We know that the panic attack is becoming more common. Most patients with this disorder also suffer from agoraphobia or fear of open spaces, "said the specialist anxiety disorders.

According to Martínez Castro, "the panic crisis factors are numerous: there is still a genetic predisposition (hereditary factors), the concerned socio-environmental environment (your caregivers or parents were anxious, fearful or overprotective) and a stressful event or trigger".

These events can be as routine and everyday as a stressful, moving, birth, illness or death of a loved one, migration, accident, change of life, or other conditions. employment or unemployment, divorce or separation, among many others.

Martínez Castro, however, said that "panic disorder is established when two or more crises have been repeated and that the life of the subject begins to be restricted (he does not do his usual activities, nor does it, but accompanies them for fear of come back suffer from a crisis and not have any help or possibility of escape at that time) ".

Palpitations, sweating, muscle tremors, tremor, choking or shortness of breath, feeling of choking, feeling of tightness in the chest, nausea, discomfort or discomfort, instability, dizziness or fainting, feeling of unreality, fear of losing control, going crazy, dying, tingling, shivering or choking, etc. "These are just some of the symptoms that alert us to a panic attack that occurs abruptly and reaches its maximum intensity within ten minutes of onset," said the specialist.

"Everything can be triggered when we are calm, driving, watching TV or taking a pleasant walk." Suddenly, we begin to feel palpitations, as if the heart was coming out of the chest, we felt an immense fear to die or to go mad, to despair, to need to escape, "he said. We notice that it is difficult for us to breathe and a vertigo makes us think that we could faint. We are paralyzed by fear without understanding what is happeningbut something is clear to us: we feel that we are in danger ".

When all this happens, you face a "panic attack" that you can never forget.

Thus the disease evolves by taking and canceling various areas of the person's life: personal life (family difficulties due to dependence, frequent divorce), work and / or university (due to the inability to move and the fear of staying in the workplace or studying when he is afraid of experiencing a crisis), physics (considering the high number of medical interconsultations and the lack of physical activity due to confinement), emotional (the way of life has become so depleted that the individual ends up being depressed) and social (Given the fear of the crisis and what others notice, they stop making friends and attending social events).

"It is important to note that the sooner the consultation is used and that the treatment starts, the faster stop the evolution and the recovery continues as a patient properly treated by a professional specializing in the field should return to his usual life around the third month of treatment, "said Martínez Castro.

It is a disease of a specific treatment: cognitive behavioral psychotherapy and psychiatric medication, led by experts in the field.

"In a patient collaborating with the treatment, with a weekly session leave can be reached within four to six months of treatment properly implemented, and thus resume their usual activities, without any restriction, regardless of the treatment and medication of this period, "concluded the specialist.