![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carbon dioxide crisis
Apr. 24th, 2006 09:51 pmThings you don't need on a Monday morning: waking up having a panic attack.
The mechanism of panic attacks is interesting. In summary, what happens is that the sufferer's basal blood carbon dioxide level drops too low, which causes their body to produce a massive surge of adrenaline in response. As adrenaline is the "fight or flight" hormone, getting a massive surge of it out of nowhere and for no (apparent/conscious) reason makes you start to panic. So if you're not able to shut off the part of your brain that starts squeaking "oh my god we're[*] dying" by telling it "no, it's just panic, we're[*] ok", you then have a panic attack.
Most people have panic attacks caused by disturbed psychology. Being anxious for a long period of time increases your breathing rate imperceptibly, causing the basal carbon dioxide level to slowly decrease. Just a tiny change from the normal 10-15 breaths/minute at rest to 15-20 breaths/minute is enough to cause the CO2 disturbance. The surge of adrenaline kicks in when the level drops below a certain threshold. The most interesting thing about it is that it's a vicious spiral - there is so much feedback in the process that every iteration gets worse. Being anxious increases your likelihood of hyperventilating, which increases your chance of having the adrenaline surge, which increases your chance of having a panic attack, which increases your baseline anxiety level. Rinse, repeat. This is the well-known phenomenon that "panic breeds panic". It's also why someone with PTSD, faced with the situation that is most triggering for them, might be absolutely fine while it's happening - then come home, collapse in a chair with beverage of choice and have a panic attack then. Because while they were hyperventilating during the stressful event, their blood carbon dioxide level was still ok - but the sigh of relief as they sat down at home was enough to drop their CO2 level below that threshold point.
( And the whole special way in which I'm broken... )
Anyway. Not looking for advice - really not looking for advice, I've been dealing with this thing for so long that most advice would seem patronising; and if I did happen to need any more I'd go back to the breathing retraining physiotherapists and my textbooks. This is mostly just moaning accompanied by a bit of an explanation for anyone who's ever wondered how anxiety and panic work. Sympathy is welcome, especially from people who also have to deal with broken bodies and/or brains (and the denial about them) on a daily basis. Yay denial!
[*] I live in my conscious brain. There is "me", in my conscious brain, and then there is my hindbrain, which isn't exactly part of "me". It just bimbles along shoving random emotions in at inconvenient times. Thus plural.
The mechanism of panic attacks is interesting. In summary, what happens is that the sufferer's basal blood carbon dioxide level drops too low, which causes their body to produce a massive surge of adrenaline in response. As adrenaline is the "fight or flight" hormone, getting a massive surge of it out of nowhere and for no (apparent/conscious) reason makes you start to panic. So if you're not able to shut off the part of your brain that starts squeaking "oh my god we're[*] dying" by telling it "no, it's just panic, we're[*] ok", you then have a panic attack.
Most people have panic attacks caused by disturbed psychology. Being anxious for a long period of time increases your breathing rate imperceptibly, causing the basal carbon dioxide level to slowly decrease. Just a tiny change from the normal 10-15 breaths/minute at rest to 15-20 breaths/minute is enough to cause the CO2 disturbance. The surge of adrenaline kicks in when the level drops below a certain threshold. The most interesting thing about it is that it's a vicious spiral - there is so much feedback in the process that every iteration gets worse. Being anxious increases your likelihood of hyperventilating, which increases your chance of having the adrenaline surge, which increases your chance of having a panic attack, which increases your baseline anxiety level. Rinse, repeat. This is the well-known phenomenon that "panic breeds panic". It's also why someone with PTSD, faced with the situation that is most triggering for them, might be absolutely fine while it's happening - then come home, collapse in a chair with beverage of choice and have a panic attack then. Because while they were hyperventilating during the stressful event, their blood carbon dioxide level was still ok - but the sigh of relief as they sat down at home was enough to drop their CO2 level below that threshold point.
( And the whole special way in which I'm broken... )
Anyway. Not looking for advice - really not looking for advice, I've been dealing with this thing for so long that most advice would seem patronising; and if I did happen to need any more I'd go back to the breathing retraining physiotherapists and my textbooks. This is mostly just moaning accompanied by a bit of an explanation for anyone who's ever wondered how anxiety and panic work. Sympathy is welcome, especially from people who also have to deal with broken bodies and/or brains (and the denial about them) on a daily basis. Yay denial!
[*] I live in my conscious brain. There is "me", in my conscious brain, and then there is my hindbrain, which isn't exactly part of "me". It just bimbles along shoving random emotions in at inconvenient times. Thus plural.
