Signs and symptoms of panic attacks are typically the most prevalent among patients in their mid-teens on up to about 40 years old. If they fall on the younger end of the age spectrum, attacks tend to start manifesting themselves by about 16 years of age, although for some they occur before then. One study in particular found that some patients could be as young as 4 when they ensure their first episode. Many have held the belief that panic attacks were exclusive to adult patients, but this simply isn’t true.

This study on children analyzed nearly three hundred children and teenagers, ranging in age from about four all the way up to 19 years old. All of the children were patients being treated for psychiatric problems who were being treated for an array of ailments that stemmed from overall issues with obsessions, compulsion or other anti-social behavior but not for panic attack episodes. Interestingly, however the study did reveal that 26 per cent of them, that is, over a quarter, had been experiencing panic attacks. This doesn’t mean that a quarter of all children have them, rather, it merely reveals that children are capable of experiencing them, and furthermore that they’re most likely linked to other psychological ailments.

Of course, not everyone in this field of study is a believer that children, especially very young ones, really do have panic attacks as such - or any kind of symptoms of mild anxiety attack for that matter. Still, it’s been proven that, while kids may not experience the same level of fear before or during an attack as adults tend to, kids do have the capacity to feel an overwhelming sense of panic during their episodes. An absence of fear shouldn’t be all that surprising. Children, in their innocence, often do things which adults wouldn’t dare, while adult panic attack patients have more experience with all of the potential dangers and tragedies in life.

Of course there are a great many parents that have pulled their kids out of harm’s way, followed by wails of confusion as their ‘innocent’ adventure (climbing out on the upstairs window-sill, for example) comes to a sudden end. Taking this into consideration, although children’s perception of what they experience may not be labeled by them as panic, the effects of the episode are oftentimes worthy of the label.

Understanding The So-Called Panic Personality’

Just as there are panic personality theories about adults, you’ll find similar schools of thought with regards to children and corresponding anxiety cures. Many have reported that they tend to be rather quiet, timid and nervous of speaking out. Like adults, many children with panic personalities lack self-confidence. They also tend to score low in terms of self-esteem.

Ideas they have about themselves are negative and self-critical. For example, they

might think they do very badly at school, when in reality, their grades are very high. Those standards that they put in place to achieve, in addition to the perceived expectations they believe other influencers in their lives have on them, to excel and achieve tend to be the root cause of their self-loathing and the like.

Due to such abysmal levels of confidence, these patients are also quite susceptible being rejected, social isolation and critiques, and might therefore avoid social interaction altogether as a precaution. Further, if they anticipate that they’ll fail at something, this fear will drive them away from trying altogether. Instead of doing what’s typical of a child, to explore, discover and take chanced in order to learn children with panic personalities often avoid risks altogether.

Reserving themselves like this because of their self-image issues, absence of confidence, and fear of failing, they sow the seeds for developing very high levels of anxiety.

Bottom line, there are many similarities among children and adults who suffer from panic attacks.

Tags

Diets, Fitness & Weight Loss News, Lose Fat, Muscle Building and Toning, Weight Loss Tips