Who could live without coffee? Now that would be hell! Molly's got the right idea- your sympathetic nervous system coordinates your fight or flight reaction-> Increasing heart rate, shuting your salivary glands down, constricting your blood vessels. So having a disorder of the same system that does all of these things can make these functions go haywire. The way that the brain oversees all of these activities is by increasing norepinephrine (adrenalin) levels. And so you start getting an increased heart rate and feeling nervous and shaky. If your body feels like you're having a panic attack, your mind is likely to agree and put in the emotional 'panic' element. And then once you are emotionally panicked, the body will have a physical reaction too. This will increase the symptoms that are already there, that started randomly as a result of sympathetic dysfunction.

Have you ever looked into meditation? This was one of things that really helped me control my panic attacks. When you start learning to be able to control your breathing and heart rate through meditation you can learn to do so in other situations. It has really helped me. I rarely have panic attacks anymore, and when I do they aren't as bad as they used to be. And I don't take Ativan anymore. I used to make sure that I always had one in my purse, just in case, and now I don't even think about it. So check out the meditation thing- it can really make a difference. Hopefully it will help you too!

Linnie