The first time she had a panic attack she thought she was dying, or at least losing her mind. She was overcome with fear for no apparent reason, her heart racing, her palms sweating, and she wanted to run away.

Days after that attack, she was tremendously shaken. To avoid leaving her house, she made up numerous excuses for why she couldn’t see friends or even run errands. She needed to be in complete control of her life: If she absolutely had to go somewhere, she had to drive. She couldn’t travel very far away from home without feeling anxious about not being able to return quickly if she started to ‘freak out.’

It wasn’t so much the actual attacks that fueled her hibernation, but the fear that it COULD happen that caused her self-inflicted prison sentence. But the most detrimental thing was that she couldn’t talk to anyone about it. In part this was because she didn’t understand it herself. She believed that if she talked about it, someone might confirm her fears that she was indeed going crazy.

The reasons for panic attacks differ depending on the person -- some are brought on by stress, some are the result of heredity and there are even some biological causes for panic attacks. Even though panic attacks are mental, they bring about physical changes in the body. They create a "fight or flight" reaction in the body, which is your body’s attempt to protect you from harm. Although with panic attacks, that harm is only in your head.

Some of the symptoms of a panic attack are:

• Dizziness
• Sweaty Palms
• Tightness in the chest and/or throat
• Trouble breathing
• Fear of dying
• Fear of losing one’s mind
• Overwhelming need to escape
• Extreme fear
• Nausea
• Chills or Hot flashes
• Rapid heart rate
• Disorientation

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 3 to 6 million Americans have a panic attack in a given year. Women are almost twice as likely to be afflicted. And generally, panic attacks begin to surface around the age of 24.

The most debilitating aspect of panic attacks is the fear of having one. Once you have experienced the sheer terror of an attack, you will do anything to avoid it happening again. It is the "anticipatory panic" that causes people to limit their lives. As difficult it is to understand, it is not necessarily rush hour traffic that brings about panic attacks, but rather other issues in your life.

Just as the causes for panic attacks depend on the individual, so do the treatments. For some people it is simply a case of relaxation techniques to help alleviate the symptoms. For other people, medication is necessary to prevent attacks. There are a variety of therapies that can be used to deal with panic disorders. However, only a trained counselor can properly diagnose the problem and work with you to find the most successful cure.