Anxiety: Do you have Panic Attacks? A lot of people do. Millions. According to some data, over 40 million adults in the U.S. (roughly 20%) have an anxiety disorder, and approximately 7% of children aged 3-17. Some of the contributing factors are poor health, difficult relationships, unemployment, poverty, disadvantage, loneliness, work stress, exposure to violence, trauma, and conflict, plus, in the USA, we have the most expensive medical care on the planet, much of which is half-ass at best, and lousy as fuck at the worst. And millions of people go bankrupt, paying for that substandard care. Literally, millions of people go bankrupt.
Anxiety is often dismissed by society as a whole, and pathetically, doctors as well, as being some minor little thing. So what actually happens during a severe panic attack? A racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness, trembling and muscle tension, and that's just the beginning. You also may have nausea, heart palpitations, trouble breathing, digestive issues, sweating, syncope (fainting), trembling, as in not safe to drive, climb a ladder, use power tools, unsafe trembling. For some people, sounds sound different. They may feel as if they're in a tunnel and things are far away, colors seem different, more vivid, or muted. It may be described as an out-of-body experience, where people think they're going to lose control and go crazy.
Body chemicals are going crazy. Adrenaline levels skyrocket, the so called "fight or flight" chemical. Your amygdala sends a distress signal to your hypothalamusm which fires messages via the autonomic nervous system to the adrenal glands, prompting them to flood your bloodstream with hormones including adrenaline and cortisol.
It's a serious medical condition. Its not...as some people assume, something akin to a little girl frightened by a spider or some grown man who just needs to "Man up!" and all those other ignorant presumptions. And, most of the meds that doctors prescribe for it, simply do not work. Those meds were never designed for this to begin with. They found a small percent of people benefit from them, so Big Pharma and Wall Street starting pumping them as a "cure" when in reality, they are not. Benzos help, but due to the 50 year failed war on drugs, most doctors are afraid to prescribe them out of concern from catching "heat" from the DEA, or other flunky law enforcement related organizations.
So for the people that have this, beyond suffering from it and the negative impact on their lives, careers, education, relationships, they suffer the additional indignity of having to battle a medical establishment that in many cases is ignorant of it, take drugs that often exacerbate it, and in many cases have to deal with friends, family and coworkers who think they're just...emotionally weak. They are not weak. They're dealing with a very real, very serious, very challenging medical condition. They need support, not having their medical problem mocked or minimized. People should keep in mind, like every other disease, they didn't ask for it, don't want it, don't deserve it, they just got stuck with it.
