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Panic is a sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing the wildest thinking behaviour. Panic is a self generated war within. Panic is a sudden overpowering and unreasoning terror. Factors that may increase the risk of developing panic attacks include: major life stress, such as the death or serious illness of a loved one; a traumatic event, such as sexual assault or a serious accident.

Physical symptoms during a panic attack, such as a pounding or racing heart, sweating, chills, trembling, breathing problems, weakness or dizziness, tingly or numb hands, chest pain, stomach ache, and nausea. Anxiety may be happening in the back of your mind as you go about your day-to-day activities. Panic attacks, on the other hand, mostly involve severe, disruptive symptoms. During a panic attack, the body’s autonomous fight-or-flight response takes over. You can even say that mild panic is anxiety while severe anxiety is panic.

Why do people panic so easily? Often the first attacks are triggered by physical illnesses, major stressors, or certain medications. People who take on too many responsibilities may develop a tendency to suffer panic attacks. Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder also show a much higher rate of panic disorder than other people.

How do you calm down from a panic attack? There are both curative and preventive measures. As a curative measure, breathe in as slowly, deeply and gently as you can, through your nose. breathe out slowly, deeply and gently through your mouth – close your eyes and focus on your breathing. As a preventive measure: make a priority list of your goals and related activities. Discard all those not relevant to you. Gain clarity of your goal – clear and specific – develop the strategic planning. Make this your working belief and you will never have any panic attacks in your future.

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