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Originally Posted by ken_o
this all reminds me of some good analogy's
people/children r starving whats your problem again?
how many people in German prison camps committed suicide during ww2,
you've all failed to answer the main question why weren't people raving mad earlier in America's timeline cuz they didn't get their medication.
answer; they learned to deal with sht. people now r whining,fed by the meds and the unqualified head docs shoving such down their throats.
take this pill you'll be happy now.
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Mr. ken_o
You raise some valid points.
Panic attacks often happen to people who have been suffering high stress for long periods of time . . . and we know that the extreme high stress we see in people today is a modern phenomena.
Starving people, concentration camp inmates and people struggling to hack a lfe for themselves in the wilderness (say, 150 years ago out West) don't suffer the same type of stress that modern people do today.
But they did suffer stress of other types and dealt with the stress in dramatic ways: Starving people often will themselves to just lay down and die. Concentration camp inmates committed suicide in huge numbers as did frontier people. In fact, suicide rates in the past where much higher than they are today in many areas. Many out West also self-medicated with whisky and opium, or they abused their wives and children.
We also have to be careful to separate someone who feels a little anxious or afraid from someone experiencing a full-blown panic attack.
So, it is fair to say that
some people should just "deal with it."
But many can't. That's the problem in your argument. You're lumping the "whiners" with those who are ill.
What you're missing, is that a true panic attack is partially a medical condition. They're like a mental heart attack. Your body suddenly pumps out huge amounts of epinephrine (adrenaline) and you react physically. It's impossible to "get over it" or "deal with it" any more than it's possible to just "get over' a heart attack. People who are in the middle of a panic attack have tachycardia, the medical term for increased heart rate. They get less oxygen. They lose body heat from sweating and begin shivering, the carbon dioxide levels in their blood increases because they hyperventilate and the reduced oxygen levels changes how they think and act.
This is the real deal. These people need immediate medical treatment in the form of counseling and medication.
Many people who have panic attacks suffer from anxiety disorders . . . this can be anything from Obsessive-Compulsiveness, Social Anxiety Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress, and any number of "phobias" or fears. Many have agoraphobia which is a fear of enclosed spaces like the inside of a truck cab, elevators or even crowds. People with phobias are often unable to leave their homes.
A lot of drug users and alcoholics are actually suffering from panic disorders . . . they just use the drugs to self-medicate. Probably 30-40% of alcoholics (according to some estimates) are actually suffering from panic disorder.
So, I agree with you part of the way . . . but you need to open the door a little wider and see the problem in its entirety. For some people, this is as real (and bad) as it gets.
