Panic Attacks - Are They Unpredictable?
The most baffling, and likely the most scary panic attacks are those that happen out of the blue, when you least expect them.
You may have no trouble in understanding a panic attack that happens in response to a perceptible and predictable risk situation such as jumping out of an aircraft with a parachute, but the panic attacks that happen while sitting down quietly at home are hard to explain.
You could be in a situation where is no outside threat to you and no ground to anticipate any threat, but with next to no warning you begin to perspire, you become short of breath, and have a thumping heart.
Often these sensations are taken as signs of some internal threat, some risk to your health and wellbeing.
In the absence of any effective account for the panic attack, it is almost impossible to anticipate when and where the next episode will happen.
The irregular and incomprehensible circumstances of these panic attack are an additional concern and burden for you.
As you cannot be fully reassured of feeling safe at any time or locality, it becomes difficult to program day to day activities.
In the absence of prescriptive signs of threat, you tend to be directed by your moods.
There may be days when you wake up and think I cant do anything today or go anywhere.
If you are in this frame of mind then your mood will almost ensure that indeed you don't make the attempt.
However, there will be some days which you feel calm and confident and feel that you are safe and unlikely to panic.
So your plans for the day, either going out or remaining at home, are determined primarily by these general feelings.
Regrettably we are all pre-disposed to over predict fear, we lean toward predicting that we will be more fearful under any given threat than usually turns out to be the case.
I'm sure you will have noticed this.
An example of this over prediction happens for many people in anticipating public speaking.
For many people the real event turns out to be less awful than they anticipated.
Because of this broad disposition to 'over predict' your fears, you are inclined to be more guarded and cautious than is justified by your actual experiences of panic attacks.
You predict many more panic attacks than you actually experience.
This is common, you are not alone.
The occurrence of at least some unforeseen panic attacks is considered as a symptomatic sign of a 'panic disorder'.
With recurrent sequences of panic attack, it is possible to start to be able to describe 'triggers' for the unforeseen panic attacks, and find some pattern in their occurrence.
This will enable you to better prepare and even avoid them altogether.
You may have no trouble in understanding a panic attack that happens in response to a perceptible and predictable risk situation such as jumping out of an aircraft with a parachute, but the panic attacks that happen while sitting down quietly at home are hard to explain.
You could be in a situation where is no outside threat to you and no ground to anticipate any threat, but with next to no warning you begin to perspire, you become short of breath, and have a thumping heart.
Often these sensations are taken as signs of some internal threat, some risk to your health and wellbeing.
In the absence of any effective account for the panic attack, it is almost impossible to anticipate when and where the next episode will happen.
The irregular and incomprehensible circumstances of these panic attack are an additional concern and burden for you.
As you cannot be fully reassured of feeling safe at any time or locality, it becomes difficult to program day to day activities.
In the absence of prescriptive signs of threat, you tend to be directed by your moods.
There may be days when you wake up and think I cant do anything today or go anywhere.
If you are in this frame of mind then your mood will almost ensure that indeed you don't make the attempt.
However, there will be some days which you feel calm and confident and feel that you are safe and unlikely to panic.
So your plans for the day, either going out or remaining at home, are determined primarily by these general feelings.
Regrettably we are all pre-disposed to over predict fear, we lean toward predicting that we will be more fearful under any given threat than usually turns out to be the case.
I'm sure you will have noticed this.
An example of this over prediction happens for many people in anticipating public speaking.
For many people the real event turns out to be less awful than they anticipated.
Because of this broad disposition to 'over predict' your fears, you are inclined to be more guarded and cautious than is justified by your actual experiences of panic attacks.
You predict many more panic attacks than you actually experience.
This is common, you are not alone.
The occurrence of at least some unforeseen panic attacks is considered as a symptomatic sign of a 'panic disorder'.
With recurrent sequences of panic attack, it is possible to start to be able to describe 'triggers' for the unforeseen panic attacks, and find some pattern in their occurrence.
This will enable you to better prepare and even avoid them altogether.
