[Juls]

Little Missy,

There are medications that can help, but ideally it is better to learn about what is happening when you are having a panic attack and what you can do to help yourself during one. The type of episode you describe that happened to your husband, if it starts to happen again give him a paper bag to breath in and out of. What happened to him feels scary but it is not serious or life threatening. I have suffered from panic disorder and have studied about it, and behavior modification methods can work very well. learning relaxation such as listening to a relaxatoin tape every day two times a day is a very crucial thing to learning how to control panic attacks. I don't even have them anymore. One thing that happens is a person has the first panic attack and since they don't understand what is happening to them they become very frightened of the feelings they are having such as rapid heartbeat, feelings of disorientation, breathing difficulties, all kinds of sensations. Then the next time they start to feel those feelings they become more afraid and this causes the body to realease diferrent chemicals such as adrenaline, coritcol steroid, etc. which causes the body to go into a flight or fight mechanism and it just increases the panicky feelings. Then the person feels more fear, more chemicals are realeased, and finally the person ends up feeling exhausted and tired. It can only last so long before this happens. Usually if it happens at a certain place such as a restaurant, movie, shopping, etc. that is when people get afraid to go places, and that is how the term "agoraphobia" came about. It means "fear of the outdoors." However, what is really happening is that a person is fearful of feeling those feelings again. It can be a debilitating disorder but with help can be very well dealt with.

I hope this was helpful for you.

Juls