Anixety & Panic Attack On The High

Anixety & Panic Attack

A long time ago, I witnessed an elderly woman experience a panic attack. She paced around the room with anxiety written all over her face, muttering to herself repeatedly in a worried tone. Went to her daughter’s room every few minutes just to make sure the former was all right and she herself wasn’t alone in the house. She was suffering a panic attack. Only then, we weren’t wise to pick that up.

A panic attack is said to be a symptom of an anxiety disorder. These attacks are a serious health problem, not only in USA but globally. At least 20% of adult Americans (that’s about 60 million people) had suffered from panic attacks at some point in their lives. About 1.7% of adult Americans (that’s about 3 million people) from that 20% will have full-blown panic disorder. The number is twice as often for women than men.

The alarming fact is that people experienced their first panic attack when they were as young as 15 -19 years ago. If go unchecked and unmanaged, they will have repeat attacks and caused not just disturbance and disruption to their lives but also to their loved ones. The mental trauma may cause caregivers to experience an emotional or mental breakdown. This is why panic attacks should not be dismissed merely by a wave of the hand, and this is “nothing, just temporary”.

The sudden effect

When someone has a panic attack, he/she could do something extremely routine. He could be driving, shopping or merely waiting in line in a queue at the bank. All of a sudden, he/she may experience a phobia of something – whether being mugged, robbed, killed or as simple that he will be late for work because the jam is holding him up, and his superior will reprimand him so severely that the boss will fire him, and left without a job, his little baby girl will go without milk, his young son isn’t able to go continue school and his wife is going to divorce him.

He may not know but the moment he enters a traffic jam, another panic attack may be triggered. It could be so severe that he froze and lost control of what he was supposed to do next. At this stage, the person is said to have panic disorder with agoraphobia. Thus, there are two types of panic disorder, panic disorder with or without agoraphobia.

Like other major illnesses, panic disorder can have a serious impact on a person’s daily life unless the individual receives effective treatment. My relative eventually sought medical treatment and is still on medication today.

With the global economy going south, those without jobs may find it harder to land themselves another job. Those with jobs may find that their salary could not fight the rising cost of inflation. Will panic disorder and panic attacks shoot up? Sadly, I think it will.

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