A person can experience an anxiety attack whenever and wherever he or she is, and it always takes place at least expected moments.
Anxiety is a normal part of our everyday life, being a natural response to situations of tension and uncertainty. Remember how you feel before an important exam, or when giving a speech in front of an audience or going to a job interview. The feeling of worry and panic is what anxiety is, and there’s probably no person that haven’t dealt with it in their life. Natural anxiety is characterized by a definite and logical cause standing behinds it, which triggers the fight/flight response in our body. However, there are cases when anxiety is triggered for no actual reason and occurs in circumstances that are otherwise logically safe for the person and where no anxiety should take place. This is what anxiety disorders are all about and the least pleasant of their aspects are of course anxiety attacks.
Anxiety attacks are characterized by a much higher intensity of worry, fear and even dread than you would experience with normal everyday anxiety. Most people describe panic attacks as an intense and sudden feeling of dread and coming disaster that takes place for no apparent reason and is very hard to control. This is usually accompanied by different physical and psychological symptoms. Panic attacks in most cases are caused by the imbalanced work of amygdale, a small portion of our brain that is responsible for the fight/flight response. In normal settings this response is triggered by exceptional situations that pose a potential threat to the individual. But when amygdale doesn’t work properly, the same response could be triggered by just any setting and even a simple thought. When the reaction is triggered, a large amount of adrenaline is fused into the bloodstream, resulting in fast heartbeat and changed perception of reality. Usually, anxiety attacks reach their peak of intensity within the first minutes (anything from 5 to 30 minutes) and wear off gradually. The symptoms, although quite unpleasant ones, do not pose real danger to the body and health. However, the spectrum of feelings and emotions a person experiences during panic attacks can make it very hard to perform everyday activities, especially communication and socializing.
If you have experienced such panic attacks, you probably know how unpleasant they are. Most people who have had panic attacks chose to use Valium or any other anti-anxiety medications right away without their doctor’s concern. And this can make the matter even worse. Valium and other prescription drugs should be taken only under a physician’s supervision with regulated dosage to achieve the right treatment effect. People often make the mistake, choosing to buy drugs they have heard of without knowing how to use them and whether they can use them at all. The same thing happens with Valium. People have heard that it’s a good anti-anxiety treatment and get it right away after experiencing a panic attack. Take your time, go to a doctor, and see what a real professional can suggest, rather then relying on common beliefs.