If you’ve ever experienced anxiety panic attacks, then you know that they can strike at any time. They are very intense and frightening experiences. In many attacks sufferers report that they experienced a sense of dying.

Symptoms of an attack also include a rapid pounding heartbeat, shortness of breath, chest pains and obsessive thoughts of embarrassment, fear and worry. Sufferers may also feel that something awful is about to happen.

People who suffer from panic disorder and agoraphobia are more likely to suffer from a panic attack. Although many sufferers of agoraphobia can go about their daily lives, there are some who have great diffculty in dealing with everyday life.

People who suffer from agoraphobia have a fear of embarrassing themselves in a situation where they cannot readily escape. The fear of being seen to have a panic attack is enough to put them off from certain situations.

Although attacks may seem out of the blue, they are just the result of the body’s stress response system. In caveman times when humans hunted prey, the stress response was vital to man’s survival.

During the stress response the pupils dilate, the heart pumps faster and adrenaline is released. The hunter would be ready to either run or fight his attacker. Our brain chemistry has remained mostly unchanged even after thousands of years.

Many scientists believe that the stress response is redundant in the modern world. The argumentation is that the fight of flight response is frequently and unnecessarily activated.

In modern day society getting mauled by a lion is pretty unlikely but the stress response could save you from danger such as a car accident. However, when adrenaline and other hormones aren’t expelled from the body, it can damage the mind and body. This may lead to anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders can sometimes mean that the sufferer is homebound with limited connection to the outside world. Luckily there are treatments available for anxiety disorders. What’s more, there are therapies and techniques to help deal with anxiety and depression.

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