Cyclothymia

Causes of Panic Attacks

At work, your boss is on your case about late paperwork; never minding the fact your work-load was so ridiculous, that if you turned all your assignments into feathers, you could crush a small person by dumping them onto an unsuspecting head. Your desk looks like the line at the only fast food restaurant near your office around noon: hopelessly crowded with angry people sticking their heads out of windows to yell at other angry people, making obscene gestures with whichever body part was most readily available, and blowing their horns like it was new years.
You haven’t had a day off since the chickenpox in the third day. You’re pretty sure the receptionist wasn’t being sincere when she gave you that wide eyed stare and told you that she “lost” your vacation request. No wonder you’re having panic attacks.
Panic attacks are caused for the most part by stress and anxiety. They are the manifestation of the invisible weight you carry around on your back, hoping no one sees it. Anything that is disturbing enough to upset your daily life can cause a panic attack.
Not only can stress cause you anxiety attacks but it doesn’t have to be something that happens immediately. You can have a fight with your sister and not get hit with the pure weight of the anxiety until days later when you see an episode of Charmed where Prue has recently died. It doesn’t’ matter how often you’ve seen that episode either. You can easily find yourself panting on the couch, unable to breathe, just because it reminds you of how close you and yours are when you are not fighting.
There are also a number of kinds of panic attacks that originate with a fear of something else. It is not uncommon for an individual to be in a crowd of people and become extremely anxious because of the claustrophobia or lack of air before the onslaught of a panic attack. Panic attacks with fear as its original “trigger” should be addressed in a different way than straight anxiety panic attacks.
When a panic attack is brought on by the fear of something else happening your main priority on the other side of the attack is to find out if there is a way to deal with the initial problem. Antisocialism is one such cause. If you are so uncomfortable around new people that you are having a panic attack ever other week you should look into what about them is making you such a wreck.
Ultimately the causes of panic attacks are as variant and many as personality traits. The best way to figure out what causes your own personal attacks is to simply list the things that make you uncomfortable. You may even try keeping a journal on when your attacks hit and under what circumstances. With this you will figure out what is causing your little breakdowns in no time. Once you know what’s causing it you will be better equipped to stop them.