Anxiety Panic And Stress

Panic and Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety is a physiological state that is caused by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). SNS is active on the sympathetic tone base level and stressful situations can increase it’s activity. A person will experience a reaction to either ’fight or flight’, the situation. However, people can have anxiety that is not triggered by outer situations. Anxiety is often based on irrational or illogical fears.

Panic is related to the "fight or flight" mechanism. Panic is generated from the sympathetic nervous system much like anxiety however, it is initiated by external situations. It is generally a unexpected rise of fear, that dictates to the brain on how to react. This is a stronger defense response the body has in place to help protect itself from a perceivably life threatening or harmful situation. Panic can result from an anxiety state, that a person starts to think about.

Stress symptoms are a psychosocial reaction. It’s influenced by the way a person filters nonthreatening external events. It can develop based on a person’s expectations, assumptions and ideas. These assumptions, ideas and expectations can be referred to as social constructionist, or social constructivism is a sociological and psychological theory of knowledge that considers how social phenomena develop in particular social contexts.

Panic and stress both play important roles in the natural survival instinct. The preparations for ’fight or flight’ are the body’s defense mechanisms. Preparing for which ever course of action is decided upon to preserve life, health or whatever is in danger.

Anxiety doesn’t always stem from fear or defensive action. Escaping situations that make us feel anxious may bring relief, but these feelings are intensified when we face similar situations causing anxiety. It is not healthy to work through a situation where anxiety is the byproduct of being there and you should be careful not to remain a that type of environment situation.