Guest Author - Jim Lowrance

If you have thyroid disease, you may have experienced some co-morbid (related) anxiety along with it. This can especially be true if you have autoimmune thyroid disease, which includes Graves' Disease/hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which can cause Hashitoxicosis (intermittent hyperthyroidism).

A very unpleasant type of anxiety reaction is one called "panic attacks" and if you experience them frequently, it is referred to as "Panic Disorder". These are very unpleasant anxiety attacks that cause anxiety symptoms to escalate suddenly. When people experience them, they will often hyperventilate and experience a racing heart and an extreme fear emotion. This article is intended to show you that you are far from being alone in experiencing these.

Panic Disorder description and statistics:
"Panic Attacks" are what you might describe as the "climax of anxiety" and are truly unpleasant, to say the least, as we who have experienced them know! They can occur with just about any other anxiety disorder, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) but when the panic attacks themselves are the feature-manifestation, it is referred to as "Panic Disorder" (PD). They can hit extremely hard and a person first experiencing them will commonly believe they are having a heart attack! Many people new to the experience find their selves in hospital emergency rooms, only to be told everything physically checks out normal, once they return to a calmed state. Many new to the panic experience will also believe they are going mad/insane or that another attack will cause them to completely lose control.

Approximately 6 million American adults ages 18 and older, or about 2.7 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have panic disorder. Panic disorder typically develops in early adulthood (median age of onset is 24), but the age of onset extends throughout adulthood. About one in three people with panic disorder develops agoraphobia, a condition in which the individual becomes afraid of being in any place or situation where escape might be difficult or help unavailable in the event of a panic attack (statistics by the National Institute of Mental Health, reprints allowed for public education).

Make sure to browse through my articles in the "Related Emotional Conditions" area, for tips on coping with and overcoming anxiety disorders.