Panic attack focuses on 2 out of 100 women in the world

Women are twice as prone than men

Panic attack is a sudden upsurge of overwhelming and frightening emotions where the victim believes he or she is on the threshold of death. It may arise without warning or without any obvious reason. Generally not accompanied by any manual manifestation, it dies down with equal speed. Although it is not dangerous, it leaves the victim petrified and completely drained because he or she feels crazy and out of control. The startling fact is that about 5 percent of the world's adults experience such attacks at some point in their lives.

Generally, people in the grip of such attacks cry out in fear, complain of suffocation and desperately want to move away from whatever situation  they find themselves in. Exact triggers are still unclear, though stressful life transitions have come up as improvement factors. Stress lowers body resistance and upsets the body's hormonal balance, triggering an attack. Genetics too play a role. Often, a vicious cycle sets in, with the victim becoming paranoid about situations that have been known to trigger the symptoms; this pushes up stress levels and may lead to a fresh attack.

Recognize an attack if you experience...

• Trembling accompanied by sweating
• Paralyzing terror
• Racing heartbeat
• Gasping for breath
• Fear of death (necrophobia)
• Choking sensation and chest pain
• Tingling in toes and fingers
• Light-hotheadedness or nausea

Once you recognize the symptoms, don't just shut your eyes and pray that you tide over them. Ask friends and colleagues if they know someone who's treated such cases. Set aside feelings of shame or stigma: It's a condition, it could happen to anyone and you need to get clinical help to tackle it. Delaying treatment will precipitate the situation, leading to phobias and depression and other medical complications such as shooting blood pressure, throbbing pain in the head and in extreme cases, even arouse suicidal feelings.

The good news is that the treatment is effective and most people feel normal within few weeks. Your doctor may prescribe an anti-depressant as the first line of treatment. Once you feel you're getting better and becoming dependent on medication, do not make the mistake of stopping the treatment of your own. You must allow your doctor to follow the proper line of treatment.

Sessions with your psychiatrist will teach you to understand your panic attacks and deal with them. He'll pursue two lines of treatment - cognitive and behavioral. He'll teach you to recognize triggers and skip away from them. For instance, if travelling makes nervous and leaves you with sweaty hands, your doctor may take you theoretically or physically through a series of bus-ride experiences to prove that panic attack are independent of triggers. Once you start believing this, the trigger begins to loose it's power.

Help at home

Friends and relatives are the best support system. If you recognize the symptom of a panic attack in someone you know, ask the person to first relax his/her shoulders and make physically comfortable. Speaking in a reassuring, calm tone ask the victim to relax the mind and the muscle. Then ask the person to slow down breathing by pursing the lips and blowing out air repeatedly. If the person can talk, it denotes he/she has begun to breath normally.