Panic Attacks

10-15% of all adults suffer from panic attacks,

unexplained anxiety,

or phobias.

Common occurrences can produce traumatic after-effects that are just as debilitating as those experienced by veterans of combat or survivors of childhood abuse.

Traumatic effects are not always apparent immediately following the incidents that caused them.

Symptoms can remain dormant,

accumulating over years or even decades.

Then,

During a stressful period,

or as the result of another incident,

they can show up without warning.

There may also be no indication of the original cause.

Thus,

a seemingly minor event can give rise to a sudden breakdown,

similar to one that might be caused by a single catastrophic event.

It is difficult enough to deal solely with the symptoms of trauma without the added anxiety of not knowing why we are experiencing them or whether they will ever cease.

Anxiety can crop up for a variety of reasons,

including a deep pain that comes when your spouse,

friends,

and relatives unite in the conviction that it is time for you to ‘get on with your life’.

They want you to act normally because they believe you should have learned to live with your symptoms by now.

There are feelings of hopelessness,

futility,

and despair that accompany being incorrectly advised that the only way your symptoms can be alleviated is through a lifelong regime of medication or therapy.

Estrangement and fear can arise from the thought of talking to anyone about your symptoms because your symptoms are so bizarre you are certain that no one else could be experiencing the same thing.

You also suspect that no one will believe you if you do tell them,

and that you are probably going crazy.

There is the added stress associated with mounting medical bills,

as you go in for a third or fourth round of tests,

procedures,

referrals,

and finally,

exploratory surgery to ascertain the cause of your mysterious pain.

You live with the knowledge that the doctors believe you are a hypochondriac because no cause for your condition can be found.

When interpreting trauma symptoms,

jumping to the wrong conclusions can also be devastating.

Harmful consequences can ensure when inaccurate readings of symptoms lead people to believe they were sexually,

physically,

or even ritually abused as children,

when they were not.

I am in no way suggesting that childhood abuse does not occur.

Large numbers of children in every segment of society suffer unconscionable abuses every day.

Many of them do not remember the abuses until they become adults.

However,

frightening and bizarre ‘memories’ of past events that seem extremely real sometimes have never happened.

#PTSD