Causes of Anxiety and Panic Anxiety Attack in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine

The causes of anxiety: In my acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine practice, the following factors have been recognised as sources of anxiety:

• an unconscious conflict regarding essential values or goals of life
• threat to self concept
• threat of death
• threat to or of change in health status, the environment, or interaction patterns
• situational or maturational crises
• interpersonal transmission of contagion, and
• unmet needs.

Any one or more of the abovementioned can trigger an anxiety attack.

You should also know there are medical conditions that mimic anxiety disorders and they are:

• alcohol withdrawl
• hypoglycaemia (reduced amount of glucose in the blood)
• hyperthyroidism (hyperactive thyroid gland)
• paroxysmal arrhythmias (episodic severity of disturbed electrical rhythm of the heart)
• temporal lobe epilepsy (convulsive seizures arising from malfunctions in the temporal lobe of the brain)
• phaeochromocytoma (a tumour, quite rare, of chromaffin tissue which secretes catecholamines that causes high blood pressure)

Anxiety attack or Anxiety panic attack

For many people, an anxiety attack or an anxiety panic attack can occur at any time. An anxiety attack is described as an acute, psycho-biologic reaction manifested by intense anxiety and panic.

The symptoms you can experience are:

• palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, faintness, profuse sweating, pallor of the face and extremities, GI discomfort and a vague feeling of imminent doom or death.

Attacks usually occur suddenly, last for a few seconds to an hour or longer, and vary in frequency from several times a day to once a month.

One way to help a person with an acute anxiety attack is to reassure the person or separate the individual from the anxiety-producing situations.

If necessary, a western medical doctor could administer a sedative. For severe anxiety disorder, it is suggested that the individual receive appropriate psychotherapy to identify the stresses that are perceived as threatening. For more information, please read Treatment of Anxiety Disorders.

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