What is Panic Disorder?

There are three key aspects of PD.  These involve:

•  Spontaneous panic attacks 
• Anticipatory anxiety 
• Agoraphobic avoidance

PD usually begins with a spontaneous panic attack.  The attack comes on suddenly and lasts a couple of minutes.  A panic attack is a rapid crescendo of intense anxiety or fear that develops suddenly and peaks within 2 to 10 minutes where-after the anxiety subsides.  It involves a number of cognitive and physical symptoms.

As attacks recur and become more frequent, you may develop intense worry about when the next attack might happen, and what its consequences might be.  This fear is known as anticipatory anxiety. 

Such pervasive worry may lead you to avoid situations in which a panic attack has occurred in the past or may occur in the future.  You may feel that escape from these situations may be difficult or embarrassing so you avoid them altogether.

Avoidance behaviour can become associated with several situations rendering you housebound, unwilling to travel outside the house unless you are with someone you trust.  This severe form of avoidance behaviour is agoraphobia.

You may try to avoid, for example, being in a crowd (especially in supermarkets), being outside your own home or using public transport.  If you don’t avoid the situations you are frightened of, you may endure them with significant personal distress and anxiety.