Panic attacks are frightening but fortunately physically harmless episodes. They can occur at random or after a person is exposed to various events that may
I was discussing my panic disorder with my sister one day, when she made a curious statement: “I don't think you breathe AT ALL when you have a panic attack,” she said to me.
She had witnessed many of my panic attacks, my sister. Many times she had seen me gripping walls, with trembling, weak hands, struggling to keep myself upright. She always took my clammy hands, at those times, and guided me to a chair. She would look into my dazed brown eyes, study my pale, terrified face, and try to understand the slurred words that slipped from my mouth. She was very observant, my sister. But she never saw me breathe during a panic attack.
Hyperventilation
According to Web MD, there are two types of hyperventilation—acute and chronic. Acute hyperventilation is usually triggered by a sudden scare or emotional upset. Acute hyperventilation—a person gasping loudly for breath—is what most people picture when they think of hyperventilation. By contrast, chronic hyperventilation is an ongoing condition and is far subtler than its dramatic counterpart. A person with chronic hyperventilation syndrome (CHS) routinely breathes faster and deeper or, like me, shallower than other people breathe. This pattern of breathing lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood and can make a person more susceptible to panic attacks.
In his article, Panic Attacks, New Understanding of Causes and Treatment, Dr. Bert A. Anderson lists these symptoms, which are common in both panic attacks and hyperventilation:
*Lightheaded, giddy, dizzy, vertigo
*Faint
*Headache
*Blurred vision
*Tremors, twitching
*Numb, tingling, prickly feelings, especially in the face and arms
*Chest pain or pressure
*Nausea or vomiting
*Abdominal pain or upset
*Gas and abdominal extension
*Lump in the throat
*Dry mouth
*Difficulty breathing
*Weak, exhausted, fatigued
*Apprehensive, nervous
*Feelings of unreality
*Fearful during an attack of dying
*Going crazy
*Doing something uncontrolled
There is one other symptom that I have during a serious panic attack, which is not on Dr. Anderson's list because (I assume) it's not a common panic attack symptom—slurred speech. But having slurred speech is, indeed, a symptom of hyperventilation.
Getting Angry
Though I have suffered with panic attacks almost all of my life, though I have had a serious panic disorder for the past 5 years, though I have sought physical and psychological treatments for my panic disorder, not one medical professional ever mentioned that my breathing might be to blame for my problems. NOT ONE.
But I found my diagnosis on the Internet. In the same article mentioned above, Dr. Anderson wrote, “panic attack sufferers all have one thing in common. They don't breathe properly. There is much to know about faulty breathing and having panic attacks.” Indeed, there was much for me to know, and I learned all of it online, not from some wacked-out blogger, but from respected medical professionals on sites such as WebMD and eMedicine.
It's not that doctors have not known, for many years, about hyperventilation's link to panic attacks; indeed this is why controlled breathing is one of the methods so frequently prescribed for panic attacks. But, while doctors have known that hyperventilation causes many of the symptoms of panic attacks, they tend to believe that hyperventilation is caused BY the panic attack. In other words, the panic attack scares you into hyperventilating which caused those distressing, physical symptoms.
But now there is research that suggests that CHS may CAUSE panic attacks. This means that chronic hyperventilation may “trip” the panic switch, causing the whole spiral of a panic attack to begin. To me, the panic component of hyperventilation makes perfect sense. When you hyperventilate, even though you may be breathing faster and deeper, you are actually depriving your body of oxygen because of the rapid depletion of carbon dioxide. This causes an effect similar to suffocation. If you have ever had your breathing cut off, for any reason and for any length of time, you know what that feeling of panic is like. It's primal, instinctual. You panic as you desperately try to find a way to breathe. In the same way, hyperventilation (a form of suffocation) may be the trigger that causes the panic of a panic attack to begin with.
Why is this significant and why does it matter?
Well to me it means that my panic attacks may be wholly caused by my breathing condition and, if it is, that means that I am in total control of the trigger. By practicing breathing exercises and controlling my breathing at all times, I may be able to free myself from my dreaded panic attacks. This puts me in control of my attacks rather than feeling, as do most panic attack sufferers, that I am at the mercy of these attacks.
If you suffer from panic attacks, you might want to have your breathing tested, via a blood gasses test) to see if you are operating on a chronically low level of carbon dioxide. If you are, this finding can put you on the road to complete recovery from panic attacks.
It's worth a try.
SOURCES
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/hyperventilation-topic-overview
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/807277-overview
http://www.power-surge.com/educate/panicattacks.htm
Shane Lynn