Prof. Nevzat Tarhan: "People who experience panic attacks are governed by their fears"

President of Üsküdar University, Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan was the guest of the program "Dr. Feridun Kunak’la Evlerinize Sağlık” (Health to Your Homes with Dr. Feridun Kunak) broadcast on Kanal 7. Tarhan made evaluations on the subject of "Panic Attack". Stating that panic attack is a disorder that has been defined and found in the brain, Tarhan pointed out that panic disorder comes at unexpected moments, even when everything is fine. Giving suggestions to people who experience panic attacks, Prof. Tarhan stated that the disorder may increase more in people who try to be their own doctor.

"Panic attacks are a symptom of panic disorder"

Stating that panic attack is a disorder that has been defined and found in the brain, President of Üsküdar University Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan expressed that "A panic attack is a symptom of panic disorder. Panic disorder is a disease. It is a defined disorder and a disease that has a counterpart in the brain. There is the hypothalamus part of the brain. The hypothalamus section of the brain is the part that governs the autonomic nervous system. In other words, we have a brain region that says fight or flight in case of danger. In case of danger, the brain secretes excessive stress hormones and acidic chemicals. When those chemicals are secreted, the shoulder, neck and back muscles contract. Heart rate increases. The pupils are dilated. Blood circulation to the frontal region of the brain increases. Attention and focus increase. This happens under the influence of hormones. Hormones are seriously triggered in the body. As soon as it is triggered, the body pumps all the energy sources into the blood, pumps fats and sugar into the blood, because it requires a lot of energy. If there is a war in that position, blood pressure rises and vascular resistance increases. In the flight position, the blood pressure drops, the person faints because of the explosion..."

It comes when everything is fine...

Pointing out that panic disorder comes at unexpected moments, even when everything is fine, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan stated that "Patients with panic disorder say, 'My psychological integrity is impaired. I am losing my mind, and I feel like I am going to die.' It is the same feeling you get when you suddenly lose control of the steering wheel in a car that is going 150 km/h, 200 km/h. Patients with panic disorder experience that feeling. It is a terrifying feeling. You lose control over your life, control over your psychology. Muscles and joints are stretched, and when they are stretched, there is pain. He also feels that psychological integrity is impaired in panic disorder. They say, It is like I am losing my mind, I am losing control, I am going to fall, I am going to faint, I am going to die, I am going to have a heart attack....' As soon as this feeling happens, the body is extremely alarmed. It sounds the alarm of danger. It feels like something bad is going to happen. The interesting thing is that panic disorder is normally upset about something, the human heart beats, there is excitement. There is a concrete danger. At that moment, it is fight or flight, but in these people it comes at an unexpected, unforeseen time, even when it is very calm and everything is fine. It comes to people even in their sleep at night, as a nocturnal panic.”

Fear that the same thing will happen again...

Drawing attention to which people are more likely to have panic attacks, Prof. Tarhan made the following remarks: "These are people who care a lot about their physical health. People who are extremely meticulous, extremely concerned about health, and have high health concerns. There is a panic and agorophobia scale, the most important thing we look at there is whether the person has health concerns. Excessive anxiety about the disease. Apart from that, there is a sense of loss of control in these people. There is also anticipatory anxiety. In other words, one experiences that emotion, that terror once, and then they have anticipatory anxiety with the fear that the same thing will happen again. There is a worry about anticipation. If this feeling happened on the plane, one starts not being able to get on the plane. If it happened in a closed place, it starts to not be able to enter the closed place. If it happened on the street, one starts not being able to go out on the street. The person cannot go into the tunnel by car."

Modernism triggers it!

Stating that panic disorder has increased with the effect of modernism, Tarhan said that "We define these people as people who have invested in their body as narcissists. In this era, people who invest a lot in their bodies have increased. Thus, panic disorder multiplied in this era. This is a disease triggered by modernism. There is a sense of immortality in human beings. Everyone has it. It is a universal feeling. Just as the existence of the feeling of hunger in our stomach is certain, there is a causal link between it and the existence of food. Thus, in the same way, the desire for immortality, the desire for eternity, and the expectation of a life after death in our human beings are very closely related. In fact, this is proof of the existence of life after death. If there is this feeling, it has also responded to this feeling that created human beings."

People who experience panic attacks are governed by their fears...

Giving suggestions to people who experience panic attacks, Prof. Tarhan stated that the disorder may increase more in people who try to be their own doctor. Tarhan stated that "People who experience panic attacks are governed by their fears. There are extreme fears about health. There are unfounded fears. There are irrational fears. Under the influence of these fears, they themselves are engaged in an internal struggle. These people will pay attention to their sleep and food. They do not need to stop contacting their doctor. Of course, there will be treatment, so they cannot be their own doctor. If they try to become a doctor on their own, the disorder will increase more. It gets worse. Because this disease is not in their hands. So, we are already finding stressful areas in the brain when brain imaging takes brain mapping. We show the cause of the disease. One part of the brain is different from the whole brain, it works malfunctioning. It generates excessive alarm. Depending on that, their disorder appears. Therefore, you leave the treatment of this to medicine. We say you go about your daily routine. Panic attack is one of the disease groups that we are most successful in treating."

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)