Tony: re panic attacks

[sarah]

I have really enjoyed reading your messages and in most cases agree with you 100%, however, in one post I read an answer to someone with a girlfriend that has panic attacks and you replied to the effect that with panic/anxiety disorder the person usually has had a severely abusive childhood and is antisocial. I have had panic and/or anxiety attacks (usually involving speaking in public, or signing long term contracts), saw a highly respected specialist in that area, and have been prescribed low doses of Klonopin. Never in my readings about the subject, through my physician, or knowing other successful people with the problem have I heard of the causes you descibe in the post. Perhaps the wording should be that with someone who has only one significant person in their life, no support system, and other symptoms, they are more likely to be prone to panic attacks (not the other way around?). If you have more information I would greatly appreciate you sharing it with me.

[Tony T]

Panic attacks are a very complex disorder. I am not a physician nor when I post about medical problems about which I have a rudimentary knowledge do I intend them to be entirely complete.

 

For that matter, I don't hold myself to be an ultimate authority on anything, including myself.

 

I have read extensively on this subject over the years and I can promise that what I wrote was accurate. However, there are exceptions. There is a genetic element in many cases and the predisposition to panic disorder, which occurs due to a chemical and neurotransmitter over-reaction in the brain, can be inherited from parents and not necessarily be due to abusive parents, etc. For your information, research has found that many who have panic attacks lost a parent or other significant loved one in childhood...but this does not apply to all.

 

It is best when you read anything anywhere you have an open mind and understand that everything doesn't apply to everything.

 

In reading your post above, you referred to public speaking. I have read many times that performers and others with that particular problem are usually prescribed a beta-blocker to be taken prior to the public appearance. But Klonopin, which is in the Xanax family of drugs, could probably work well also.

 

Panic attacks are almost always associated with being in situations which the sufferer feels he or she cannot quickly get out of. Public speaking is one of those things where it would be very embarassing to walk away from prior to completion. Certainly, signing a long term contract obligates one to doing or paying something that can't be easilly gotten out of.

 

To learn all you could ever possibly know about panic disorder, simply put the term in any good search engine. Or you can buy countless books about it at a good bookstore. It is very often associated with agoraphobia...you can put that in your search engine as well. Many who have panic attacks ultimately end up with agoraphobia or at least a number of selected phobias.