Panic Attacks:  What Causes Them?

This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart for more than one reason.  First of all, my background is in nursing - psychiatric nursing.  Additionally,I used to suffer from Panic Attacks.

Panic attacks can be very - VERY frightening.  They seem to appear out of nowhere - at the strangest times and in the most inconvenient places!  You experience feelings of impending doom - but you have no idea what sort of danger or tragedy are are fearing. 

You may start feeling as though your heart is pounding rapidly - because it very well could be.  Your breathing becomes difficult.  You may simply feel that you are going to die - but you don't know why or how you just have this intense anxiety.

Of course there are many other symptoms that sufferers report but those are the ones that I dealt with on a regular basis.

Reportedly the number one cause of panic attacks is anxiety - resulting in a fear of a real or imagined threat, situation, or event.  If you remember anything about the 'Fight or Flight Response' you probably know that when your body - when you - feel threatened a number of things begin happening inside your body to assist you with the threat.

A message is sent from the brain to the nervous system.  The nervous system is actually broken into two sub-categories; the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.  The latter is responsible for bringing the body back into the state of homeostasis - our normal state.