How would you figure out if a Panic Disorder is caused by previous traumatic experiences or a chemical imbalance?

If a chemical imbalance is diagnosed then meds are prescribed. I personally hate taking pills, so I would opt for counseling first. If that does not help or begin to uncover underlying psychological reasons for the feelings then I would go to the next step which I guess would be a psychiatrist and meds.

Try reading Claire Weekes books, Hope and Help for my Jangled Nerves is one which is very good. They teach you how to deal with the panic feelings and that for me is preferable to medicating them or denying they exist.

I should add, I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to address this, you just have to find what works best for you. So explore the alternatives before you decide what route to take.

My suggestion would be ask a doctor

In general you would talk with a therapist or counselor. If they saw the need for you to talk with a psychiatrist (i.e. get meds for a chemical imbalance/get evaluated for one) then they would send you there. There are a lot of free or reduced cost counselors around so maybe that would be helpful. Just make sure you find the right one for you, remember you don’t have to accept the first one you see.

If it were me, the first question I would ask would be “Was there a trauma that might have caused the panic attacks? Did they start after it?” If so, I would probably assume that the trauma had caused them to start. If there is no correlative or causative trauma, then it would seem likely to be a chemical imbalance. In either case, the appropriate place to start dealing with them would be with a therapist who might refer you to a psychiatrist if meds are warrented.

Unless there is clear memory of trauma most current treatment focuses less on the “why” and more on controlling and/or mitigating the physical symptoms ( tightness in chest, rapid pulse, shallow breathing, etc.) simply because this has proven to be more effective.

Put it this way. If behavior modification alone, or with meds, succeeds in curing the problem then finding the cause is icing on the cake, so to speak.

It is also entirely possible that knowing the cause may not necessarily serve to short circuit the body’s learned panic response.

Focusing on controlling symptoms, if done properly, generaly alleviates the problem.

Mine are caused by stress they never happen when I am calm.

I disagree with @Buttonstc ‘s theory. I am a believer in solving the root problem and thus the symptoms. If you focus only on the symptoms then the root problem could always cause other issues or cause said symptoms to re-occur. But that is a soapbox for me that perhaps we shouldn’t open up here, lol.

You almost made me throw up, @Buttonstc. My poor stomach. Imagine: A tall man every day walks through a corridor with an overhanging EXIT sign and he bumps his head. He goes to the doctor and says: “Doc, I get headaches every day.” The doc prescribes T3’s and the man stops feeling the headaches.

Symptoms effectively handled.

Sometimes there is never a specific cause to panic disorder. I would see a psychiatrist and therapist, and work out the anxiety issue. If they deemed medication necessary for me to function (if the panic attacks were affecting my life) then I’d take the medicine. Therapy can do wonders though, with working through those panic attacks.

I knew mine were caused by a chemical imbalance because when I started having panic attacks, I was at a very happy point in my life.

@janbb – Yes, correlated trauma. Thinking about the trauma sets my panic attacks off immediately.

@Buttonstc – I agree with everyone else about your view. Completely ridiculous, I will not give an analogy of my own as somebody else already has which is very concise.

My mom believes that, even though I have had trauma that my panic disorder is a chemical imbalance as she has had trauma in her life as well and does not experience any mental illnesses. I believe that this is incorrect as everybody reacts differently to different situations. I wanted more opinions thogh.

Well I guess I can’t go by my personal experience then.

But let me clarify one crucial point here. I did NOT suggest to just swallow a bunch of pills to cover it all up as was implied.

I said behavior modification alone or WITH meds. I never said MEDS ALONE. There is a critical difference between the two.

In my case, finding the why did absolutely nothing to alleviate the situation. It wasn’t until I went through a systematic desensitization program which involved a series of exercises for progressive relaxation that anything was mitigated. I refused to take meds but I realize they may be valuable for others.

To imply that I was suggesting to swallow a high dose narcotic instead of dealing with the cause of pain is ludicrous. What does physical pain have to do with panic? ( or with the price of beans in China, for that matter)

Kindly don’t read more into my posts than what I actually wrote. Thank you very much.

lol, sorry @Buttonstc.. we all kinda jumped on you there. haha, it’s both hilarious and great to find out that you’re on our side after all. words are so tricky sometimes