Many of us have heard of mental disorders, and most of us think that
only certain people go afflicted with these conditions. Heretofore
this is just not the case. Genial disorders include panic attacks,
anxiety disorders and sociable anxieties as well. These attacks can
range from modest uncomfortableness to debilitating agoraphobia and
this is a condition that can affect anyone.
Areas of the brain affected by panic
attacks and agoraphobia.
How Common Is Panic Attacks or Agoraphobia?
About 1.7 percent of the adult U.S. population ages 18 to 54—approximately
2.4 million Americans—has panic disorder in a given year.
Women are twice as likely as men to develop panic disorder.
Panic disorder typically strikes in young adulthood. Roughly
half of all people who have panic disorder develop the condition
before age 24.
What Is Agoraphobia?
Your life is passing along the normal path that you’ve set
out when abruptly without any warning panic has you in its grip.
You feel infirm and helpless. Your heart’s throbbing and you
have difficulty breathing. You may even wonder if you’re having
a heart attack or if you’re about to die. When you in the
end go to see a doctor, you might even be told there’s nothing
physically wrong with you.
Panic attacks are not physical conditions, and that is why your
doctor might have had trouble diagnosing your complaint. So when
you next suffer from an onset you wonder what’s wrong with
you. You find that certain situations will bring on these terrible
attacks and this will be your first cue that you’re experiencing
a panic attack.
So, what is agoraphobia you might enquire? This is a condition where
a human doesn’t will to go places or face situations where
they could become exposed to panic attacks. The very word agoraphobia
itself lets us know the nature of this debilitating condition. ‘Agora’
comes from the Grecian language and it means places where people
meet, or a marketplace. ‘Phobia’ is a fear of something.
Thus we can understand that people who suffer from agoraphobia have
a fear of being in crowded places.
Agoraphobia is a condition that develops gradually. In general it
occurs after a panic attack. After the first onslaught you may subconsciously
be preparing for another round and fearing the symptoms that will
leave you feeling helpless. This cycle of panic attack and imminent
panic attack can cause you to change your entire life style just
to avert those feelings of terror. As panic attacks can occur anywhere
at anytime, we generallyassociate the first place that we feel bewildered
as possibly the cause for our terror.
An agoraphobia sufferer will go out of their way to avoid those
places and situations where a panic attack may occur. They may even
end up being homebound as they stave off being in crowded places.
This unhealthy lifestyle can in itself activate agoraphobic attacks
to occur in routine normal situations. The increased heart rate
may also cause a panic attack because you may think that you’re
having a heart attack.
As you can see this is a cruel and highly debilitating genial condition.
For sufferers of panic attacks they should look for the checkup
care of doctors who specialize in these genial disorders and undergo
treatment before their panic attacks gyrate into agoraphobia where
they may end up being controlled in their life style due to their
ever increasing fear of being mixed-up in the face of a panic attack.
