| Are panic disorder and panic attacks the same | | | | motorway that I was on at the time and I |
| thing or are they two separate conditions? In | | | | pulled into a rest stop. I remember how |
| other words, does someone who suffers from | | | | tightly I hung onto the steering wheel so as |
| panic attacks automatically get labelled as | | | | not to lose control of the car. I was scared, |
| having panic disorder? The short answer to | | | | I mean really scared. I'd never, in all my |
| that question is no. Someone who suffers from | | | | life to that point experienced anything so |
| panic attacks doesn't necessarily have panic | | | | frightening and brutal. Following that |
| disorder. First of all, throughout the world, | | | | incident, my life was never the same again |
| every year, many people experience panic | | | | for over twenty years. I felt anxious all the |
| attacks first-hand. In a lot of cases, these | | | | time and during the following few weeks I |
| attacks are isolated incidents and are | | | | started to suffer panic attacks quite |
| usually triggered when the sufferer is | | | | frequently whilst travelling. I rapidly |
| experiencing extreme stress within their | | | | developed a travel phobia and would get so |
| lives or when the person is faced with some | | | | very anxious just thinking about taking a |
| heavy negative emotion. For example, | | | | journey. You see, because I couldn't see what |
| following the death of a loved one etc. | | | | was causing these attacks, I couldn't |
| Usually, once their stress levels have | | | | determine when the next one would strike me. |
| returned to normal or the heavy emotion has | | | | But I did know that, at that time, I'd only |
| faded with the passage of time, their anxiety | | | | ever experienced panic whilst being aboard |
| level drops and so does the risk of having a | | | | one kind of motor vehicle or another. Now, |
| repeat panic episode. These are the panic | | | | because I lived in fear of my next panic |
| attack sufferers that would not be labelled | | | | attack, I fitted quite neatly into the panic |
| as having panic disorder. Now, there's | | | | disorder category. And that's the real |
| another type of panic sufferer. This is the | | | | difference. Someone who experiences panic |
| category that I used to fit into. You see, | | | | attacks very frequently or lives in fear of |
| when I had my first panic experience, even | | | | his or her next panic episode has panic |
| though I was working and playing hard, I was | | | | disorder. In contrast, someone who suffers |
| enjoying life and doing rather well for | | | | panic attacks infrequently and certainly |
| myself. Whilst driving to my hometown one | | | | doesn't live in fear of them, doesn't. |
| Friday evening in 1985, to see my family and | | | | |
| friends, I was struck with a panic attack. It | | | | To find out how I eliminated my panic |
| came out of nowhere and for no apparent | | | | disorder completely, please visit my panic |
| reason. I managed to get my car off the | | | | disorder website. |