What Causes A Panic Attack

Besides the situations reasons mentioned above, researchers are unsure about the exact reason for panic attacks. In many ways it’s just our bodies designed to do what they should, but in our modern world our bodies do not have the same required need to run out or stress, being chased by a saber toothed tiger who wants his dinner.

Our natural defense system against stress is our flight and fight response which is one of our most basic and primitive action and also one of our most powerful. It’s meant to be powerful as it’s meant to protect us from moving buses, falling trees and anything else that may come between us and life. This flight of fight response speeds up your heart, pumping adrenaline into your blood to get you ready to run for your life. Our poor bodies have not evolved as fast as our world, so while our brain is telling us to run, our bodies stall nice and still, or sitting quietly somewhere.

The fight or flight response is meant to help you either stand and cope with the danger, or run away from it. It’s normal and it’s natural. What makes a panic attack difference is there is no danger- it’s just the expectation or preemptive possibility of danger that’s triggering it.

While some panic attacks can be attributed to a family history of panic attacks, or to a psychological disorder, they can also occur with no clear reason.

Stress Can Trigger a Panic Attacks

People who live stressful, high powered lives are more likely than others to suffer from panic attacks. As the stress in our lives becomes more intense the pressure increases. It’s a little like one of those whistling kettles that explode with steam and noise once they get to the right temperature. The pressure builds and builds until there is no where for it to go but course through your body. The more stress you place on your body and mind every day, the closer you are at all times to that boiling point.

Our brain is very clever. It is constantly checking and rechecking to make sure we have all the reactions and chemicals we need to live our lives. It is always ready to kick start our flight or fight response, ready to protect us against whatever s our enemy. It can’t tell the difference between a real saber toothed tiger and a metaphorical one, but to all intents and purposes, the tiger is just as dangerous and we need protecting from it. The panic attack is merely our body trying to look after us they way our bodies have been caring for us since we first experienced stress.

Just because our brain thinks its life threatening doesn’t mean that it is. It just means our most primitive part of our body, the part that works completely on instinct rather than logic or reason has decided we need a bit of a kick start. This can be either because we’re living on a constant rollercoaster of stress or because something in our environment has reminded us of something we associate with danger and the need for a flight or fight reaction.

If you’ve ever brushed past a car alarm, barely touching it and it’s gone off you’ll know how easy it can be to set off something incredibly sensitive. Our flight or fight response can be like that too. We can become so sensitive that it starts up at the smallest incident and it’s difficult to stop it once its screams of protest against danger have begun.

The solution is simple. If we go back to our whistling kettle, the simplest way to stop it boiling, letting all that steam and noise go is to turn down the heat. Our panic attacks can be managed or prevented in the same way. All we need to do is turn down the heat. Even if the day to day stress remains, we can learn to manage it at a simmering boil, rather than at a fast and furious froth of bubbles and heat.