What Causes Panic Attacks

What causes panic attacks? If you’re a sufferer, it’s a question you may have asked yourself thousands of times. You want to be proactive, but from each new specialist that you consult for advice, you receive a different answer, leading to even more confusion and despair. Sadly, nobody seems to be on the same page regarding this topic.

It can be frustrating trying to get to the bottom of what causes panic attacks, especially if you’re one of the many who have experienced one. And while there is no clear consensus regarding the root cause, most experts in the field seem to agree on certain criterion, or situations in which panic attacks seem to thrive. Before we get into that, though, it’s important to differentiate between the two distinct types of panic attacks: single episode or recurring panic attacks, sometimes called panic disorder.

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Single Episode or Intermittent Panic Attacks

The causes of an initial panic attack a person experiences can be cloudy, but there are usually some signs that become evident after it was experienced. Sudden life changes such as a death in the family, graduation from high school or college or a change in employment can cause a lot of stress. Even when a person feels like that they are handling it well, the body and mind may disagree and the result is a panic attack. What makes diagnosis so difficult, however, is that most panic attacks don’t seem to occur as a direct result of these events, but rather show up later when a person least expects them. Panic attacks in this class will usually be single episodes or may occur several years apart in response to stressful, life-changing events. In some people, however, the initial panic attack can trigger a cycle of similar episodes, a condition explained in the next section.

Recurring Panic Attacks or Panic Disorder

The causes of panic attacks for people in this category, at least the first panic attack, are similar to that above. Usually a life-changing event or undue stress will cause the initial panic attack to surface, but it is in what follows that makes this next category very different. For some, that first panic attack is so frightening that the worry over experiencing a subsequent episode becomes so profound that it actually causes additional attacks. Clinically termed anticipatory anxiety, the fear of additional panic attacks becomes pathological, triggering a cycle of panic that can be difficult to break.

Phobic avoidance is also evident in this stage, a condition in which people begin to avoid places, people and situations in their lives for fear of experiencing a panic episode. Sometimes this avoidance becomes so pronounced that people shut themselves in and they can become agoraphobic—afraid of any public situation.

Heredity

Heredity is a primary cause of panic attacks that cannot be overlooked. More than 60 percent of those experiencing a single panic attack report a family history of similar attacks. In panic disorder, the family link can be as high as 80 percent.

Finding out what causes panic attacks, while certainly not wholly agreed upon can usually be traced to one of the three root causes mentioned above. Although certain medical conditions have also been known to cause panic-based episodes the majority of cases seem to stem from one of those outlined here. Stressful, life-changing events, anticipatory anxiety and family history all play a significant role in the onset of both panic attacks and panic disorder, and when symptoms arise they should be taken very seriously and proactively addressed.

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