Dianne,
I think you're right that there's a general tendency to view panic attacks as a female sort of weakness. This view is changing, but the general view has certainly dominated medicine for a long time. Don't forget, the word "hysteria" is based on the Greek work for uterus. This link - between a female organ and (god knows what they were thinking, so I won't even try to explain it) was still prevalent when Sigmund Freud came along and founded the field of psychology. Although he had a couple of crazy ideas, he was a very smart man and a careful thinker and he once gave a lecture entitled "Male Hysteria," to a group of his colleagues. He was pretty muched laughed off the stage. Nowadays, I think that anyone who still goes around with the view you describe is just sort of buying into old garbage that's trickled down over the ages.
Many men suffer from panic and other anxiety disorders - and it's probably the case that the statistics about men are very underreported. It's not macho to have a panic attack and certainly not something you'd go see a doctor for. So, bottom line, the burden is on men now to come out of the closet. Once they do, I believe the incidence of panic will no longer be linked to gender. Also, just because someone has a view (like the paramedic your friend ended up being seen by), doesn't mean that it's drawn along gender lines. I know a few female doctors who might have taken the same approach with your friend - not because she's a women, but because they're just humans too, doing the best they can (we hope) at the moment they're called to act. It's always a tragedy when someone with a problem gets "dismissed" by a "professional."

and my question?

jawjaw,

I don't know enough about the Yates case to comment, but, I would say that someone suffering with an anxiety disorder or mood disorder (panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, general-anxiety disorder, post-trumatic stress disorder, depression)in most instances violence against another is not an issue.

In most cases when someone commits a violent act,especially against someone they love, and they are dignosed as mentally ill, it is discovered they are suffering from schizophrenia. Occasionally someone with bi-polar disorder, left untreated, can spiral into delusional behavior. Most often the violence is linked to these dilusions.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there is an arm of obsessive-compulsive disorder known as "specific obsession" which basically is the "fear" that you will somehow lose control and commit some terrible act against a child or loved one. Or act inappropriatley or the recurrence of inappropriate sexual thoughts or imagery. It's a real drag...I know, I struggled with it terribly for a few years. I didn't even want to be alone with my children. But, this is not the same as delusional thinking.

Unlike the delusional thinker, the OCDer realizes that these thoughts (fears) are coming from their own mind, they do not believe they are being "sent messages" from somewhere else. Also, the OCDer finds these thoughts repugnant, and is terrified of acting on them. This is not true of someone experiencing delusional thoughts.

Unfortunatley, often people suffering with this type of OCD don't seek help, because they are afraid to say their fears outloud. I took me a long time. A real help was Claire Weeks book, "Hope & Help for your Nerves." It was the first time I saw an explanation of this type of disorder in a book and it was liberating. Because when there is a name, there is a treatment!

jawjaw, I hope this answers your question.

Diane,
The latest statistics on panic attacks and gender suggest that 2/3 of those DIAGNOSED with panic attacks are women. So, actually, that is a lot of men.

According to professionals, the most common form of self-medicating for those struggling with anxiety is alcohol abuse. It is believed that many alcoholics have been self-medicating an anxiety or mood disorder for years, sometimes a lifetime (as, I believe was the case with my grandfather).

I think slowly more men are seeking help ( I know almost as many men as women who are being treated for an anxiety disorder).

As I said earlier, we have come a long way in the last decade, but actually, the research on anxiety and mood disoders is still in its infancy.

Good Luck to all!
Jeanne

Jeanne,
Excellent input and yes, you did answer my questions. You are always so clear with your responses and make it easy for people like me to understand better. I know one thing, since people like YOU have given so freely of their time and knowlege, I have become so much more tolerant of people with anxieties different from my own, OR people who just seem different, for that matter. Things I didn't understand, (or take the time to?) have a name now, and explanations and you just wouldn't believe how this has helped! I have friends who I think may fall into one or more of these categories and now at least I can listen to them and understand a little better, be more compassionate. You've helped so much!

JJ

Always such nice words! I'm glad I could help.

As the month draws to a close, I want to thank everyone for their contributions to these discussions. This is not an easy subject.

I hope we have helped at least a few who are suffering, or who have friends or loved ones suffering with panic attacks or mood disorders.

Always remember, courage doesn't mean you're not afraid...it means being afraid and doing it anyway.

You can always contact us through our website at: www.panicdiaries.com.

Still one more day for chatting, so fire away!

Jeanne

I can't help but be interested in the male/female comment about panic attacks.

Do you know if women have more panic attacks since our generation entered the work force in droves? There may not be any statistics on this because I don't know if panic attacks were defined prior to that time. I wonder if panic attacks are more prevalent now because people are so darn busy and often have way too much going on. Any thoughts on this? Are they caused by overload?

I'm a little confused (what's new?) about the difference between an anxiety attack and a phobia. Does the anxiety cause the phobia? And, if so, why so many different phobias?

Dotsie,
I don't know of any specific studies correlating panic attacks (in women) with the fact that women have 24/7 jobs. But it's clear that there's a general link between stress/overload and incidence of panic attacks. Panic attacks did not become an "official" diagnosis until 1980, and boomer women entered the work force long before that. But stress is a definite and recognized trigger for panic attacks, so, study or no study, the fact that women often have to balance so many things in their day certainly takes it toll on anxiety levels.

Dianne,
An anxiety attack is a specific, so called "discrete" event that last for a certain length of time and has several symptoms associated with it. A phobia is a particular fear - of an object (like spiders), an act (like public speaking) or sometimes even of people in general (called "social phobia.") It may happen that a person who experiences increasing anxieties might go on to develop phobias, but from a diagnostic point of view, the current thinking is that it's the other way around - that a phobia causes anxiety: a person who has a strong phobia, one that interferes with their daily living (like driving, for instance), might experience anxiety attacks because of the great fear they carry around inside of them. If you have a phobia of bridges, and live in Nebraska, you probably won't develop anxiety attacks because you probably don't have to cross bridges (not literally, anyhow) everyday. But if you lived in Bridgetown U.S.A., it'd be tough times on a daily basis, and the phobia of bridges would be assaulting you everyday and probably result in your developing panic attacks.

As to "why so many different phobias?" - it's a mystery. There's like thousands and thousands of phobias listed in the Encyclopedia of Phobias. But (aside from obvious cases) no one knows the exact reasons why one person develops phobias and another lives a phobia-free life.

Julie,
This interesting for me on a personal level. In 1983 my mother all of a sudden experienced a panic attack. It happened while she was visiting family in Greece. She was becoming scared about her trip back home on an airplane. Before this incident she was weary about flying and everytime she flew she would get a little nervous but it would pass once the plane took off. This time I don't know if this just got the best of her. Anyway, my father gave her some meds so she could sleep throughout the trip back. Then she started seeing a councelor about this incident. He was trying to explain to all of us what had happened and that she did indeed experience a panic attack. With continued treatment she did recover. Now when someone asks her if she is afraid of flying. Her answer is, hey, if this is my time to go, then this is how I'll go.

On another note, I think it would be a good idea to give someone a copy of your book that is experiencing these symptoms. Not only to the person, but to the persons Husband, children, mother, sister, etc, That way when they read it, they can come to the understanding of what their loved one is going through. This is my opinion.

I have really enjoyed meeting both you and Jeanne. I have also forward your web-site to some of my friends.

Thank you and Cheers,
Cathi

Dear Dotsie

You asked if I would say something with regard to panic attacks.

First of all ladies...I've read all of your posts and am humbled by the hearts of courage that live within you all.

With regard to the understanding of panic...we have to understand the nature of energy. Energy is the underlying fundamental aspect of who we are.

There are many different vibrations of energy within us. There are 12 meridiens, actually 13 if you count the energy that moves through the blood.

There are 12 chakras, which are actually areas where the electric energy that comes from the air and the electromagnetic energy which comes from the earth, and the sensory energy that we encounter, (ie a loud voice hits the solar plexus energy and upsets our digestive system, someone else's anger can do that as well) are all regulated.

Energy defines who we are...how we react to things and different levels of consciousness.
With regard to panic attacks...one aspect of their cause is the energy in the adrenals has created a monopoly on the body's systems which means that the adrenals are the holder of the truth of all of your actions.

The adrenals control the stress levels in the body. When the mind has overused pain, emotion and the past which means, the energy of the thoughts and emotions of the past have gone into a place of energy that depletes the energies of the adrenals and the spleen.

You see the spleen is the seat of the mind, and the energy of the spleen rises upward. When a panic attack appears and is often mistaken for a heart attack it is because the energy that rises upward normally becomes a filtered prospect of past light, which means that the light within you that was damaged by pain and memories has become
twisted or filtered wrongly.

This probably sounds like Greek, but we are all light beings, energetic beings existing in physical mass. When you understand the physics and quantum properties along with the elements and the energetic properties of the body, you become divorced from the past and pain...one step at a time.

The knowledge of energy and all of the ramifications with regard to it bring peace and harmony, eventually.

Panic is the extraordinary response of the energy to a past situation which means that the energy that normally flows through us and which is regulated by the chakras has become a wild force that is sometimes uncontrollable..that is why we panic.

With regard to the need for serotonin uptake meds, that is in direct relationship to the adrenals. When you take the meds and supply the serotonin to the brain in proper dosage...the adrenals can rest.

Remember ladies...I am not a doctor. I just write what I've lived.

From 1989 until 2001 I spent every waking moment working to be well, a body totally diminised of all nutrients living through willpower and anger.

Totally living in the spirit world...which means a very high vibration...that was divorced from the pain of my physical body. I studied energy and the mind...my own mind and every dark corner you could access. For one year I just stared at the floor, wouldn't take my eyes off the floor...because when I did all I saw was death.

I have lived an extraordinary life and wouldn't change it for anything. Why? Because I realized that death was a fallacy. I found that the truth of light and love are a frequency that death cannot touch...not the kind of love that worries or the pain you feel for anyone else or for oneself, because that's really fear and worry, two energies that exist on this earth...and believe it or not...many of these worries exist in a plane of consciousness...

Thoughts live in different planes of consciousness, thoughts of love live in a plane of consciousness where the speed of the vibration is extremely fast.

Thought of fear and death live in a consciousness where the speed of the vibration lives at a slower speed.

If we could all understand that we all vibrate to specific frequencies, sometimes very complex frequencies and that those frequencies can be affected by other frequencies we would have a better understanding of who we are and where our thoughts actually come from.

All of your experiences are so real and heartbreaking but with a further understanding of energy and thoughts and their connection to the mind and emotions I guarantee you that you can live happier and fuller lives. Why? Because pain lives at a frequency of energy that lives on a viberational level all by itself. Joy lives on another vibrational level of frequency.

Here's a little something to explain this. Look at colour...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The colours of the rainbow...Each colour has a vibrational frequency which means that the energy of each colour vibrates at a different speed, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see the different colours. Each colour operates in a vibration that carries different consciousness and feelings.

Remember everything is quantum, frequencies of energy that graduate in speed like a ladder. The slower frequencies of energy become mass, like our bones and our bodies.

RE PANIC ----our energy becomes distorted by trauma, mental trauma caused by events in our lives.

Why does the energy become distorted...because the mind believes that it has to have the answers...not understanding that the vibration of energy within most people's minds cannot now or ever run the show...or give us the answers we need. And so the mind panics...because it searches the files within the mind and cannot come up with an answer...I'm talking about the egoic mind which has not yet fused with the higher vibration of the the spiritual energy that exists within us.

In the spiritualized mind, the mind ceases to panic...and ladies do not judge your minds, I'm talking physics here...it's not about a hierarchy of good or bad....good thoughts or bad thoughts...its just about the speed of the mind and the consciousness that connects with a specific speed of vibration of the energy within your mind.

The spiritualized mind has touched the consciousness where pain does not live...where the energy is clear and vibrating at the level that is above fear and trauma. This is where miracles and prayer are alive and created.

The problem with the egoic mind is that it makes us think we are in a trap because it doesn not have any answers for us and it cannot have any answers for us because it lives in a vibration where the answers we need do not exist.

You see we are vibration...but we believe we are pain. If we can disassociate from the old knowledge we have that personalizes memories we can move to a higher speed of vibration, a speed of vibration that has a different consciousness. You see pain lives in one vibration, a health vibrant life lives in another vibration...Disease lives in a specific vibration.

We are controlled by the energies of thoughts and old feelings ladies...but the energy can be beat when your mind connects with the spiritualized vibration that exists within all of us.

Your light and love are the real truth ladies and they are guiding you out of some of the darkest forces that live on this earth.

You see energy governs everything and until we understand this we will think we are the pain when in fact we have just been affected by a level of energy that exists within people, experiences and events.

We are not the pain ladies, just a vibration visiting a vibration of pain...we are truly the vibration of love and light.

And Dotsie I fought with the fear you have regarding fear of death re family members...I still fight it sometimes...took me a long time to get over it....what you are fighting is an energy Dotsie an energy that is looking for a place to roost and it comes when you are tired...when your energy goes down a few notches....Another adrenal response.

Eagleheart...your depression,,,the dark days of the soul...are the precursor to finding the light within you. There is no separation from God...you are loved and well in the core of who you are....you are beautiful. Remember that what you experience is just the dark days before the dawning of light.

We all go through it ladies...half this planet is going through it. Why? Because we are all clearing out old vibrations....we are becoming more spiritualized which just means in this lifetime we all decided that we would go to the core...to the beauty where the power is.

The spiritual journey begins with a wish, with a dream, with a thought but what we don't realize is what we have to face to get there...to get to that pure inner core.

The energies of dark and light....evil and goodness, negative and positive live in the earth plane. These energies we personalize and believe that they are us...who we are inside. Ie Catholic knowledge re exorcism of evil spirits...they understood about dark energy and how it exists within a plane of energy...and how to exercise it with a spiritual force...ie energy, spiritualized energy.

It's just energy ladies...the understanding of it and how it affects us all. You can get to the point where you see the pain but don't become it and eventually it's gone for good. AND THE REASON WHY! Because you have finally moved out of the level of energy that vibrates at the specific speed where the energy of pain exists.
IT'S SPIRITUAL LAW LADIES.

I hope this helps...I have lived and experienced many energies to understand them and get well.
What I have written here is a mini primer to give you a bit of knowing with regard to energy.
However, true knowledge comes from within and all of you have that.

Whatever you want to know and are ready for will occur because of the love of God...and the reason healing seems to take so long is because we are dealing with an exquisite human body that has a radius of energy that is phenomenal...and that energy can sometimes take a long time to clear. We are dealing with many layers of consiousness within the human body.. Remember ladies we are all really light that has become physicalized..Did you know that your blood is really a crystal...that is its composition but it hasn't yet crystalized.

Crystals are conductors of light.
I'll leave you with one thought!

I AM LOVE, I AM LIGHT, I AM BEAUTY, I AM ALL THAT HAS EVER EXISTED, I AM ALWAYS , I AM WITHIN AND I AM THE HEART OF EVER EXPANDING JOY! WALK IN PEACE! THERE IS NO OTHER FORCE ON EARTH BUT THE FORCE OF LOVE...ALL ELSE IS A VIBRATION THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN THIS FORCE!

With that I give you all that there is...love, the beauty, the mystery and the understanding!

To all of you ladies who posted and I haven't mentioned may God be with you and may your light forever become joy!

With love
Leigha