Essay On Panic Disorder

Mollie Roy

Professor Allison Reed

PY111

21 April 2014

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is a type of anxiety mental disorder where panic attacks occur unexpectedly. Commonly confused, anxiety and fear are not the same thing. Fear is felt about something realistically dangerous and is a response to something perceived as a threat. Anxiety is often generalized as an overreaction feeling of fear, and worry when no threat is present.

Panic attacks are periods of intense terror. Panic disorder can accompany other psychological disorders. Many different things can cause a person to have panic disorder. Stress has a role in a panic attack occurring, as well as negative life changes, and heredity. Significant losses or a major, stressful transition such as going to a new school, graduating or losing someone are to be considered the negative life changes triggering a panic attack.

Studies have been conducted to show that a major contribution to panic disorder is also lactic acid. Maddock emphasizes the connection between lactic acid and panic disorder:

Lactic acid production in humans can increase 1) as part of the normal homeostatic response to intracellular alkalosis, 2) in response to metabolically significant hypoxia, and 3) in response to agents such as norepinephrine, which act to increase intracellular cyclic AMP. Patients with panic disorder consistently demonstrate an exaggerated increase in lactate level in response to respiratory alkalosis. (Summary and conclusion)

Although having intense fear of something may not seem as though it should be a disorder, it is much more advance than that. Your fear response kicks in to overdrive in a panic attack, in situations where no danger is present such as shopping, going for a jog, or e...

... middle of paper ...

...rn ways to help cope and help the person get through the struggles that occur with the disease. A person with an anxiety disorder can disrupt a whole household. It can sometimes be frustrating dealing with actions of someone else’s panic attack. Not only do they have to deal with the sometimes frustrating actions, but pay attention to the details to make sure the person is never in danger of an unstable mind set due to the disorder.

Many people do not understand what it is like to have an anxiety disorder, and like many other things foreign to people, criticism is the first action taken towards. Panic disorders can be mistaken to someone who is unaware of the disorder as just a certain attitude. Allen R. Miller states that the best way for others to help a person struggling with an anxiety disorder is to be supportive and not to “perpetuate” the person’s symptoms.