Panic and Anxiety Attack Causes.

Simply put, a panic attack occurs during the almost instantaneous onset of intense anxiety. Most often characterised by deep feelings of fear and apprehension and accompanied by heart palpitations, shortness of breath plus a variety of other symptoms including sweating and trembling.

Whilst the medical profession is not in agreement about what is the exact cause of a panic attack there are certainly several things that do indeed play a role in bringing one about -- this includes a combination of factors to do with a person's biological make up, their environment, way of living and inherited traits.

There is ongoing investigation in which some experts are looking at genetics to find out if they play a role in the cause of panic attacks for some sufferers. As things like hair and eye colour can be inherited from parents it's also been seen that anxiety and panic attacks can run down through generations. When looking to see if someone is predisposed to anxiety or panic disorders, researchers find that in many cases the sufferer has a family member who is either had a panic disorder or a different type of emotional disorder like depression.

Another possible reason for panic attacks are abnormalities in the brain. That's because different types of changes in the way parts of the brain function can result in a panic disorder.Recent studies have found that panic disorders frequently occur in people who suffer with psychotic disorders such as post-dramatic stress disorder as well schizophrenia.

Researchers think that these psychotic symptoms may bring about someone having a panic attack and that psychotic episodes could predict the onset of specific anxiety disorders and may play a part in post-dramatic stress disorder as well.

As a throwback from our more primitive days research suggests that our bodies flight or fight response to danger may also be involved in the onset of panic attacks. This is because our bodies natural alarm system is made up of an involved set of physical and mental mechanisms which operate when we think are in danger. Simply put, in order to give the body adequate resources to either fight or flee, these systems put the body on alert thus increasing heart rate and breathing.

During a panic attack however, these feelings or emotions become triggered unnecessarily even though there is no danger.

Heightened levels of stress are quite often found in people of panic attacks -- but it's not just particular types of stress that are the cause. Stress has the effect of causing intense anxiety and panic and can originate from major events such as the death of or separation from someone close. In cases like these investigators have found that when stress causes your resistance to be lowered that underlying physical predisposition (fight or flight) kicks in triggering an attack.

The environmental causes of panic attacks can be due to things like addiction to alcohol or drugs. Indeed, both intoxication with and withdrawal from either alcohol or drugs can contribute to panic disorders for some people.

Frequently,the combined biological and environmental causes of panic disorder will work in tandem. Whilst they may be able to stand strong against one or the other problem, they may not have the strength to stand against two together.

The usual scenario for panic attacks is there just happened suddenly.However, studies have shown that after having panic attacks over a period of time, sufferers can bring them on themselves by responding to the physical symptoms associated with the attack. If, for example,a panic attack sufferer gets a racing heart caused by the drugs that they are taking -- they may interpret that as a symptom of an attack.

It could be that this might actually bring on an attack as one of the main contributors to a panic attack is the worry about when the next one will happen.

One of the most important steps that someone suffering from anxiety or panic attacks should take, is to find out what causes the panic attack by working out what circumstances regularly precede the onset of a panic attack. This is one of the vital steps that should not be missed if you want to deal with and overcome panic attacks.