The Cause Of Panic Attacks.

When you get all of these dreadful symptoms in a matter of seconds and think you are going to die, what exactly is happening inside your body?

Inside your body, you have a system called the sympathetic nervous system. When a person is faced with a stressful situation, this system is responsible for providing more sweat, adrenalin, pumping the heart more etc. in order to give you the best chance of survival. If it's a small threat then it will barely budge whereas if your life depends on it then it will go into overdrive.

The problem that you have is your system is easily triggered into go into full overdrive and this is what a panic attack is.

Why Do You Get Panic Attacks And Most People Don't?
The reason that you now continue to get panic attacks again and again is actually due to a fear of panic attacks. Take away this fear, or anxiety, and they will stop. This is known as a positive forward feedback loop in medical jargon.

Here's an example - you feel a pain in your chest. You think that this could be the beginning of another panic attack or maybe even a heart attack. Your fear is exaggerated and it causes your SNS to produce more adrenalin, sweat more and increase the heart rate. Now you feel that your fears are coming true and you get even more anxious. The loop repeats itself quickly and before you know it, you are having a full blown panic attack again.

The only way to stop panic attacks from happening again and again is to break this loop.
Behavioral Therapy
Doctors generally do not recommend drugs for people who have panic attacks because they are generally not effective and only reduce anxiety slightly.

Instead, behavioral therapy is recommended, specifically because it targets this loop by allowing you to learn how change your thoughts when a panic attack may happen.

For example, if you experience a trigger for a panic attack and start to fear what might happen, you will instead know how to cope with it and subdue your fear. You can, for example, use coping statements such as "this is just a panic attack, this is just my SNS overreacting, there is nothing to fear" etc.