What are Anxiety and Panic attacks?
 
A panic attack is a sudden surge of overwhelming fear that that comes without warning and without any obvious reason. It is far more intense than having anxiety or the feeling of being 'stressed out' that most people experience. One out of every 75 people worldwide will experience a panic attack at one time in their lives.
In any given year, about 1/3 of American adults have at least one panic
attack; most of these adults never develop repeated panic attacks. This
startling data means that anxiety attacks and panic disorder are the most common emotional disorder and is more common than depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD, ADHD, phobias, alcohol abuse or depression.

Anxiety and panic disorder also has the lowest rates - about 21% - for seeking help and finding it.  Sadly these numbers are on the rise every day.

We, at The Anxiety Panic Attack Resource Site, invite you to take your time and read the  comprehensive information we have gathered regarding anxiety attacks and panic attacks over the years so you can make an informed decision as to the best course of treatment that would best fit you.

Anxiety Attack Statistics

Prevalence of Anxiety Panic disorder: approximately 2.4 million Americans (NIMH)
Prevalence Rate: approx 1 in 113 or 0.88% or 2.4 million people in USA
Incidence (annual) of Anxiety Panic disorder: 1.7% of US adults annually (NIMH)
Incidence Rate: approx 1 in 58 or 1.70% or 4.6 million people in USA
Incidence extrapolations for USA for Anxiety Panic disorder: 4,624,000 per year,
385,333 per month, 88,923 per week, 12,668 per day, 527 per hour, 8 per minute, 0 per second.
Lifetime risk for Anxiety Panic disorder: 3 million Americans (NIMH); 1.6% adults (USSG)
Prevalence of Anxiety Panic disorder: Anxiety Panic disorder strikes between 3 and 6 million Americans, and is twice as common in women as in men.1
Incidence of Anxiety Panic disorder: About 1.7% of the adult U.S. population ages
18 to 54 - approximately 2.4 million Americans - has anxiety panic disorder in a given year. 2

Prevalence of Anxiety Panic disorder discussion: Approximately 2.4 million American adults
ages 18 to 54, or about 1.7 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have anxiety panic disorder. 3

In the United States, 1.6 percent of the adult population, or more than 3 million people, will have anxiety panic disorder at some time in their lives.4

Prevalence statistics about Anxiety Panic disorder: The following statistics relate to the prevalence of Anxiety Panic disorder:

3 million American adults (NIMH)

1.7% of the adult U.S. population ages 18 to 54 (NIMH)


1. excerpt from Panic Disorder: NWHIC
2. excerpt from Facts about Panic Disorder: NIMH
3. excerpt from The Numbers Count: NIMH
4. excerpt from Understanding Panic Disorder: NIMH


You are out living your day to the fullest... walking in the sunshine, reading a great novel, cooking a special dinner and you are stricken by an irrational and intense terror.... Nothing in the outside world has changed, but your heart is racing, your mind is filled with anxiety, you start to tremble,  you're having trouble breathing, and you feel a threat of impending doom.

The most essential thing to learn about panic attacks are the experience of panic itself. Once it happens, a person's life changes dramatically. Panic attacks bring on the fastest and most complex changes known in the human body. It is experienced as overwhelming, uncontrollable dread, as if one is terribly ill, about to die or lose one's mind. It drastically changes the the functioning of major glands, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, eyes, and the largest muscle groups. Even violent poisons or traumatic injuries have less effect. A cascade of stimulants and hormones - adrenaline, epinephrine, glycogen, cortical, norepinephrine, among others - flood all the cells of the body via the bloodstream. The impulse is to run, get out, or hide.

The immediate cause is believing one is trapped and helpless, by some overwhelming threat. While panic can happen as a consequence of crime or disaster, it doesn't matter whether the threat is real. Often, panic happens after several weeks or months of stress. It happens more often with persons who are very worried, perfectionist, socially avoidant, or who have had abuse in childhood. Heredity may play some part. What keeps panic going, and getting more intense and frequent, is worrying excessively about it and strenuously avoiding situations that appear to bring panic .  Look up Signs and Symptoms of Panic Disorder for more details.

Panic attacks masquerade as a variety of medical disorders. Panic mimics some medical conditions almost completely, causing years of misdiagnosis. These are hypoglycemia, complex partial seizures, drug effects, heart arrhythmia and hyperventilation syndrome. Panic partly mimics others: angina, asthma, irritable bowel, colitis, vertigo, mitral valve prolapse, post concussion syndrome, hypertension, postural hypotension, and hiatal hernia. Almost everyone who panics believes they have a serious physical illness, and go from doctor to doctor for several years as symptoms shift. Yet panic is easily diagnosed by professionals experienced in panic.

About 7.2% of all adults, or 1 in 15, have a panic disorder which is a primary part of their disorder, (NIH, 1993). In any given year, about 1/3 of American adults have at least one panic attack; most of these adults never develop repeated panic attacks. This startling data means that a phobia/panic disorder is the most common emotional disorder, more common than alcohol abuse or depression. Phobia/panic disorder also has the lowest rates for seeking help and finding it, about 22%. Phobia is the most common and the most hidden condition at the same time.

After a few months of panic, about 10% of people become housebound and unable to leave home alone. After a few years, about 30% of panic sufferers have a loss of job, pay or job responsibilities. Some 17% are at risk for alcoholism and about 40% risk a chronic depression as life opportunities are cut off. A majority have marital problems and much reduced travel and social life. The economic cost has been estimated at about $2600/year in misdirected treatment, and about $12,000 a year in lowered job earnings. For most, panic closes life off like a prison.

If you are agoraphobic, there's a 40% chance you had near relatives who were phobic. You may have suffered early abuse. In addition, there may have been a lot of instability in your home, such as repeated moves or foster care. You have had the usual childhood phobias - snakes, darkness, lightning - and they cleared up by themselves.  You may have had your first panic as part of a school phobia.

Your phobia most likely started with a panic attack about age 23, as if "out of the blue". After a while you saw that only certain situations brought it on, those in which you were trapped in some way. Just before the first attack, you were likely to have been under unusual stress, responsibility, or loss of security. Then you soon started to avoid those panic situations and to worry and dread going back to them. Very soon you began multiple consultations with several physicians to check out your alarming symptoms, which shifted from year to year. By the end of the first year you were already avoiding crowds, stores, transportation, and closed in spaces. There was a 10% chance you became housebound.

After 8 to 10 years of mostly misdirected treatment, you found that periods of panic would be followed by 1 or 2 years of some relief, only to return stronger than before. Because you still didn't know your condition, you began to feel a bit alien and became good at hiding you condition. You slowly began to give up on friendships, social life, travel, work ambition and other life plans. If male, you began a period of heavier drinking, as a way of self-medication. A kind of chronic, low grade depression set in along with lowered expectations in life. You started to get resigned to your prison.

After 20 or more years of having agoraphobia, you found you could get by in safe areas or with a safe friend, but your life became narrow and limited. You became very dependent on your partner to travel. In fact, your relationship got strained as your partner felt increasingly helpless and distant. There was less sexual desire. There was a good chance you had some loss of your work role and impaired work performance. Amazingly, you have not learned what to call your condition. It has become a way of life, the way your life has turned out.

While panic attacks are always part of agoraphobia, social phobia, or any phobia, it also turns up some of the time in other anxiety disorders. About 30% of obsessive-compulsives experience panic attacks, particularly around the need to stop the rituals of washing, checking, or cleaning. A good estimate is that about 40% of those of who have post-traumatic stress disorder do have panic attacksat least occasionally, and sometimes regularly. These persons have undergone a major trauma such as rape, assault, a natural disaster, combat, major surgery, and early childhood abuse of all kinds. Sometimes panic disorder exists in a person by itself, but is much more common with the above conditions.

Panic attacks are associated with some personality disorders but is not essential to their diagnosis. The avoidant personality is very shy, sees rejection everywhere, and shrinks from people. The obsessive-compulsive person is perfectionist and has excessive needs to control. The borderline personality is disorganized, quite vulnerable emotionally, and has stormy relations.