Have You Experienced A Panic Attack While Driving?

It’s an average day and all is running smoothly when without warning you’re hit with a Panic Attack while driving to on your way to work.  No, it’s not an earthquake shaking your car and everything around you.  No, it’s not a sudden case of the flu making you sick.  

You feel a sense of total terror that’s starting to overwhelm you.

Your heart is crashing against your rib cage and your hands feel sweaty. You can’t catch your breath and everything is spinning around in your head.  You need to pull over so you don’t lose control of the car.

Panic Attacks & Driving

In some cases many who experience a Panic Attack under these conditions become fearful believing it’s a medical emergency and call 911.  An ambulance arrives and next thing you know you are surrounded by heart monitors and doctors rushing about.

You may even look like you are having a heart attack; however, the tests reveal it’s not.  You’ve had a Panic Attack and your world is turned upside down.  After leaving the hospital embarrassed and exhausted, you go home to sort this out in your head and ask why it's happening to you.

A Panic Disorder can begin in young adulthood, around ages 18-25.  Possibly after a traumatic event like a car accident or losing your job. Unfortunately there are 6 million people who have panic disorders but there's no clear reason why. The only thing that is common throughout is the feeling of being helpless to stop it.

First you should talk to your doctor about what’s happening to you and if you truly do have a Panic Disorder. Once diagnosed you need to discover your treatment option. 

Panic Disorder is a real mental health problem, not something that you made up or use when you want attention. Those are things other people say to you, but that's not medically accurate.

Panic Attacks are so unpredictable that you need support from family and friends who can help you reinforce what you learn to get back on the road to being well.

Natural Treatments For Panic Attacks may include relaxation, visualization, breathing exercises and redirected self-talk to stand your ground against a this unpredictable attacks. In time, you will find it easy to manage Panic and get back to doing things without fear of interruption.

Find out more about Panic Attack Solutions and even more specially how to conquer Driving Fear.  

 

Check out the links on this site for both General Anxiety Solutions as well as treatments for specific Panic issue such as Fear of Driving, Fear of Flying etc.

Why Does Someone Suffer From Anxiety & Panic Attacks?

A Panic Attack is the sudden onset of Intense Anxiety, characterized by feelings of intense fear and apprehension, and accompanied by palpitations, shortness of breath, sweating, and trembling. 

Anxiety and Panic Attacks Can Begin Without Warning

Those who experience Anxiety and Panic Attacks may believe it is just a temporary result of stress. 

Unfortunately, these attacks may continue and get worse over time.  

What Causes A Panic Attack? 

The short and obvious answer: panic attacks are caused by high anxiety. But, what exactly is anxiety? Understanding how Anxiety crops up will help you defeat Panic Attacks. One of the biggest myths surrounding anxiety is that it is harmful and can lead to a number of various life-threatening conditions.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or fear resulting from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event, or situation. It is one of the most common human emotions experienced by people at some point in their lives. However, most people who have never experienced a panic attack, or extreme anxiety, fail to realize the terrifying nature of the experience.

Extreme dizziness, blurred vision, 
tingling and feelings of breathlessness, 
and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

When these sensations occur and people do not understand why, they feel they have contracted an illness, or a serious mental condition. The threat of losing complete control seems very real and naturally very terrifying.

 

Fight/Flight Response: One of the Root Causes of Panic Attacks?

I am sure most of you have heard of the fight/flight response as an explanation for one of the root causes of panic attacks. Have you made the connection between this response and the unusual sensations you experience during and after a panic attack episode?
 
Anxiety is a response to a danger or threat. It is so named because all of its effects are aimed toward either fighting or fleeing from the danger. Thus, the sole purpose of anxiety is to protect the individual from harm. This may seem ironic given that you no doubt feel your anxiety is actually causing you great harm...perhaps the most significant of all the causes of panic attacks.

However, the anxiety that the fight/flight response created was vital in the daily survival of our ancient ancestors—when faced with some danger, an automatic response would take over that propelled them to take immediate action such as attack or run. Even in today's hectic world, this is still a necessary mechanism. It comes in useful when you must respond to a real threat within a split second.

Anxiety is a Built-In Mechanism to Protect us from danger.
 
Interestingly, it is a mechanism that protects but does not harm—an important point that will be elaborated upon later.

The Physical Manifestations of a Panic Attack: Other pieces of the puzzle to understand the causes of panic attacks. Nervousness and Chemical Effects...
 
When confronted with danger, the brain sends signals to a section of the nervous system. It is this system that is responsible for gearing the body up for action and also calms the body down and restores equilibrium. To carry out these two vital functions, the autonomic nervous system has two subsections, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.  Although I don't want to become too "scientific," having a basic understanding of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system will help you understand the causes of panic attacks.
 
The sympathetic nervous system is the one we tend to know all too much about because it primes our body for action, readies us for the “fight or flight” response, while the parasympathetic nervous system is the one we love dearly as it serves as our restoring system, which returns the body to its normal state.

When either of these systems is activated, they stimulate the whole body, which has an “all or nothing” effect. This explains why when a panic attack occurs, the individual often feels a number of different sensations throughout the body.

The sympathetic system is responsible for releasing the adrenaline from the adrenal glands on the kidneys. These are small glands located just above the kidneys. Less known, however, is that the adrenal glands also release adrenaline, which functions as the body’s chemical messengers to keep the activity going. When a Panic Attack begins, it does not switch off as easily as it is turned on. There is always a period of what would seem increased or continued anxiety, as these messengers travel throughout the body. Think of them as one of the physiological causes of panic attacks, if you will.

After a period of time, the parasympathetic nervous system gets called into action. Its role is to return the body to normal functioning once the perceived danger is gone. The parasympathetic system is the system we all know and love, because it returns us to a calm relaxed state.

When we engage in a coping strategy that we have learned, for example, a relaxation technique, we are in fact willing the parasympathetic nervous system into action. A good thing to remember is that this system will be brought into action at some stage whether we will it or not. The body cannot continue in an ever-increasing spiral of anxiety. It reaches a point where it simply must kick in, relaxing the body. This is one of the many built-in protection systems our bodies have for survival.

You can do your best with worrying thoughts, keeping the sympathetic nervous system going, but eventually it stops. In time, it becomes a little smarter than us, and realizes that there really is no danger. Our bodies are incredibly intelligent—modern science is always discovering amazing patterns of intelligence that run throughout the cells of our body. Our body seems to have infinite ways of dealing with the most complicated array of functions we take for granted. Rest assured that your body’s primary goal is to keep you alive and well.

Not Convinced?

Try holding your breath for as long as you can. No matter how strong your mental will is, it can never override the will of the body. This is good news—no matter how hard you try to convince yourself that you are gong to die from a panic attack, you won’t. Your body will override that fear and search for a state of balance. There has never been a reported incident of someone dying from a panic attack.

Remember this next time you have a panic attack; the causes of panic attacks cannot do you any physical harm. Your mind may make the sensations continue longer than the body intended, but eventually everything will return to a state of balance. In fact, balance (homeostasis) is what our body continually strives for.

The interference for your body is nothing more than the sensations of doing rigorous exercise. Our body is not alarmed by these symptoms. Why should it be? It knows its own capability. It’s our thinking minds that panic, which overreact and scream in sheer terror! We tend to fear the worst and exaggerate our own sensations. A quickened heart beat becomes a heart attack. An overactive mind seems like a close shave with schizophrenia. Is it our fault? Not really—we are simply diagnosing from poor information.

Cardiovascular Effects Activity in the sympathetic nervous system increases our heartbeat rate, speeds up the blood flow throughout the body, ensures all areas are well supplied with oxygen and that waste products are removed. This happens in order to prime the body for action.

A fascinating feature of the “fight or flight” mechanism is that blood (which is channelled from areas where it is currently not needed by a tightening of the blood vessels) is brought to areas where it is urgently needed.

For example, should there be a physical attack, blood drains from the skin, fingers, and toes so that less blood is lost, and is moved to “active areas” such as the thighs and biceps to help the body prepare for action.

This is why many feel numbness and tingling during a panic attack-often misinterpreted as some serious health risk-such as the precursor to a heart attack. Interestingly, most people who suffer from anxiety often feel they have heart problems. If you are really worried that such is the case with your situation, visit your doctor and have it checked out. At least then you can put your mind at rest.

What are the Respiratory Effects of a Panic Attack?  (Click Here to Continue This Article..)

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