Archive for March, 2010

Panic disorders are characterized by panic attacks that occur repeatedly and a tendency in the patient to keep worrying or stay concerned over casual matters. Panic disorders also form when victims of panic attacks develop a fear for the attacks themselves and trigger more panic attacks by merely thinking about them. Adolescents who experience panic attacks and develop panic disorders will eventually start avoiding situations that lead to panic attacks. They will avoid socializing or taking part in team sports and so on in order to avoid peer pressure. Panic attacks are periods of intense pressure, fear, and discomfort. This is worsened by the physical symptoms that accompany these attacks that further leave the victim completely helpless and terrified.

Some of the physical symptoms of panic attacks in adolescents include palpitations, chest pain, breathing difficulty, choking sensations, trembling, sweating, changes in body temperature, flushes, dizziness, tingling, and numbness. Other symptoms including feelings like fear of death, a lack of self-control over thoughts and body, and a sense of unreality. These symptoms will appear slowly but their acceleration to a peak point is very fast. Most panic attacks in adolescents will last for a few minutes before the symptoms automatically diminish and disappear. Most of the times the victim is unable to explain what triggered such an attack, which only increases the volume of fear induced.

There are recorded instance when the patient was sitting in a peaceful state of mind under clam circumstances and yet a panic attack is triggered. The absence of any root causes for panic attacks is further complicated by the fact that they may occur at any place and they often make the patient wish they were elsewhere, in this way adolescents begin to associate panic attacks with specific situations or locations. Read the rest of this entry »