Rough draft, good shit -Alexandro. Panic attacks aren’t fatal, but ignorance on their nature can make life hell for sufferers. By Alex Olivares GARDEN GROVE, CA—At his ex-girlfriend’s house back in 2009, Shane Joshua Baca began to experience what he thought was his first heart attack. The now 23-year old amateur poet had been on a drinking binge and was regularly smoking cannabis to cope with being kicked out of his family’s house, which he describes as one of the toughest times in his life. However, instead of feeling relaxed and carefree, Shane’s heart began to race at 186 beats per minute, sweat began to drip from all of his pores, and tremors over took his body. After a 911 call, he was treated in an emergency room with painkillers to slow his heart rate, but every day for the next year and a half, he says, “It just happened over again.” Despite affecting over 6 million Americans a year— enough to fill Disneyland to capacity over 80 times—most victims are unfamiliar with how to identify panic attacks, making life hell for sufferers who genuinely believe they may die instantly without reason. Treatment for this disorder, however, is possible and the lowering of frequency in attacks can be achieved over time. Symptoms for panic attacks include elevated heart rates, heart palpitations, chest pain, sweating, trembling of arms and legs, shortness of breath, tingling in the hands, a need to escape, and an intense fear of dying. When experiencing a panic attack for the first time, which usually occurs between ages 15-19, events that remind victims of the event often spark repeated attacks, developing phobias, or irrational fears. For example, if someone were to have their first episode in an elevator, this person may avoid riding elevators to prevent a panic attack. This makes life difficult to enjoy for those that experience frequent episodes because they may be unable to enjoy normal activities. Though the symptoms of a panic attack may express themselves physically, the fact that panic attacks are a mental disorder allow for many different kinds of treatments that can be tailored for each person. Distraction from the anxiety is one of the best ways to calm an attack, so breathing exercises and hobbies may be able to help reduce the frequency of episodes. For example, tingling in the hands is a sign that can give panic attacks away to those treating patients. This tingling is caused by hyperventilation or a person breathing rapidly in response to panic. Slowing down the rate of breath can remove this symptom, and the most popular breathing exercise to accomplish this is the 5-2-5 count. This requires a person to breath slowly into the diaphragm—or stomach--for a period of five seconds. After filling the diaphragm, one must hold for two seconds, after which they will exhale for another five seconds. The process is repeated until tingling symptoms have calmed down. Finding hobbies to distract oneself from the fear of panic attacks is also helpful for many people. For Shane Baca, that hobby was poetry. Shane began to keep a daily journal of how he felt every day because of his panic attacks. “And then that kinda slowly turned into like, kinda like poetry/rap,” he says. “Whatever was all in my head, like in my mind at the time, I would just sit there and write it down. And for some reason that kept me calm.” Exploring the thoughts and feelings that come with panic attacks is important for discovering how to handle them. Simply recognizing the patterns that panic attacks follow can help sufferers realize that they are not crazy or going through life threatening medical complications. And this realization can be important in order to avoid unnecessary healthcare costs. For most people going through panic attacks, being convinced that they are going to die due to some unidentified health issue inspires frequent trips to the emergency room, doctor’s appointments, and purchasing medications to quell anxiety. And without insurance, this adds up quickly. “I’m like 8,000 dollars in hospital bills,” said Shane. “The thing that sucks now is that I’m insured, but they won’t take care of it.”
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 06:34:05 +0000
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