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Most everyone in today's society has gotten the feeling of being out of control, panicky or anxious about a situation. Sometimes those feelings become full blown attacks.

Remember Bob in the movie, "What About Bob"? Movie producers have jumped on the bandwagon showing how serious panic or anxiety attacks affect one"s life. Well, for Bob in the movie, it took baby steps to help him conquer all his fears, and he had plenty of fears. He went on to become a psychiatrist. Funny movie. But panic disorders are anything but humorous.

The same theme of panic disorder appeared in "As Good As It Gets," another comedy, starring Jack Nicholason, as the eccentric writer, and "Runaway Bride," starring Julia Roberts, who flees the scene when she walks down the aisle to be married for the fourth or fifth time. This movie was also a comedy.

I can relate to these characters because I have panic attacks ever so often. I am afraid of riding on an airplane, eating in crowded restaurants, going to a football stadium filled with 100,000 screaming fans or to a full auditorium to a graduation for a family member.

My palms get sweaty, the heart races. I feel hot and sometimes nauseous. The feeling that I need to flee the scene is overwhelming.

Panic disorder is a serious condition. About one out of every 75 people might experience it. It usually appears during the teens or early adulthood, and while the exact causes are unclear, there does seem to be a connection with major life transitions that are potentially stressful: graduating from college, getting married, having a first child, or retiring, etc.

There is also some evidence for a genetic predisposition; if a family member has suffered from panic disorder, you have an increased risk of suffering from it yourself, especially during a time in your life that is particularly stressful.

People with panic disorder are more afraid of the actual attack than they are of specific objects or events; for instance, their 'fear of flying' is not that the planes will crash but that they will have a panic attack in a place, like a plane, where they can't get to help.
Others won't drink coffee or go to an overheated room because they're afraid that these might trigger the physical symptoms of a panic attack.

You probably recognize this as the classic 'flight or fight' response that human beings experience when we are in a situation of danger. But during a panic attack, these symptoms seem to rise from out of nowhere. They occur in seemingly harmless

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