Panic attacks are an anxiety disorder.
And while not classified as a mental disease, it can nevertheless cause much emotional pain and suffering in the persons experiencing it.
But this type of anxiety disorder can cause physical reactions as well.
A partial list of common symptoms that someone going through a panic attack will experience are dizziness, rapid or erratic heart beats, sweating, hyperventilation, and nausea.
Not everyone will experience the identical symptoms, and usually the person will multiple symptoms simultaneously.
By themselves, these reactions are not normally life threatening.
But, in a person with pre-existing health problems, such as high blood pressure, the initial panic attack can escalate into something far more serious such as a heart attack or stroke.
In extreme cases of the illness, sometimes just the thought of a potentially traumatizing event can trigger these debilitating reactions.
Panic disorder or panic attacks can arise form a number of different causes.
Usually, however, the genesis of the anxiety can be traced back to an emotional trauma that occurred sometime in the past.
Over the years, health professionals have come up with a variety of methods to combat panic attacks.
In industrialized modern societies, drugs and prescribed medications are usually the first choice of both doctors and patients alike.
Doctors like it because it is a quick solution.
A full blown analysis into the cause of the anxieties and then coming up with an appropriate plan to cure the panic attacks can potentially take months.
It is much quicker to simply describe a pill and monitor the results.
Patients like medications because it is easy.
It usually requires no effort on their part other than taking a pill.
In the long run, however, medications can only serve as a stopgap measure.
They absolutely allow the person to have a modicum of control over their condition, but they are not a cure.
In addition, over time, if a medication is heavily used, the body gradually acclimates itself to the drugs.
As a result, the drugs become less effective which causes the doctor to either increase the dosage or switch to a different drug.
In the worst case scenario, the person can become so dependent on the medications that they become addicted to them and are unable to function without them.
Over the years, researchers have determined that the best long term cure for panic attacks is a combination of medications and therapy.
In the beginning, the anxiety may be so severe that drugs may be the only way to realistically treat the illness.
But, the ultimate goal is to use therapy to reveal the real source of the anxiety and combat the anxiety at its core.
On the way to reaching this goal, the medications can be gradually reduced until they are no longer needed.