Preventing Panic Attacks, and Other Anxiety Issues
Plus: Why it Hurts to Think Hard
When Wise & Well tackles a topic, we do it in a big way given our team of talented professional writers, which includes journalists, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, physical trainers, nutritionists and other scientists and topical experts. This week we wrap up our series on anxiety causes and remedies with these three pieces:
Only You Can Prevent Panic Attacks
If you’ve never experienced a panic attack, yet, count yourself among the vulnerable. We all have a panic center in our brains, and as this psychiatrist and neuroscientist explains via two case studies, the “challenging physical symptoms, extreme agitation, and worry” can last for hours. Learn his strategies that any of us can use to avoid having one in the future—or dealing with one if it strikes. And just look at how complicated it can be:
It’s easy to misdiagnose panic, despite, or in some cases because panic produces such extreme physical symptoms. Often doctors fail to identify panic, and blame the symptoms on other physiologic problems. But the reverse happens as well, when genuine medical emergencies are dismissed as panic attacks.
—John Kruse MD, PhD
When Anxiety Is Actually Depression: A Case Study
Anxiety had started to derail this writer’s life, he thought. “I blush at the barista when I order my morning Americano. Sweat pours from my hands when I drive my car,” he explains. “My heartbeat is never not rapid. I can’t stop thinking about worst case scenarios.” But his psychiatrist made a completely different diagnosis.
He sits back in his chair, removes his spectacles, and sighs. “You’re wrong,” he tells me. “You’re not anxious. You’re depressed.” And then he tells me why.
—Niall Stewart
How to Master Anxiety Around Water
I have a totally irrational fear of deep water, even though I’m a good swimmer. If I can’t see what’s down there, even in a freshwater lake, anxiety wells up and I want out. The writer of this story has also dealt with water anxiety, and she’s on a mission to help others understand that the fear is exceedingly common—half of us struggle with it—and for good reason: It can actually save your life. She also explains how to cope.
Whether fear of water keeps you from learning to swim, or you’re a pool swimmer afraid to swim without a black line to guide you, anxiety around water is problematic for swimmers and nonswimmers alike. Ironically, having no anxiety and overestimating abilities, especially among males, contributes to drownings. In unfamiliar conditions like open water for a pool swimmer, panic can set in and lead to drownings.
—Chris Arestides, RN MPH
Here’s an unrelated piece that everyone who cooks will want to be aware of:
The Silent Threat in Your Kitchen
Cooking fumes, both from gas stoves or other fuels as well as from the actual frying of food and cooking oils, release all sorts of harmful and deadly chemicals. We should cook, but knowing how to protect yourself and your family is, well, healthy. When the writer realized cooking with her beloved new wok raised her risk of lung cancer, she dug into the many ways to lessen or eliminate harmful kitchen fumes.
Deep frying and pan frying are more likely to produce aldehydes and compounds that are harmful, compared to more gentle cooking methods or low-temperature stir-frying, according to research. Frying is the most particle-emitting activity that can contribute to more than 50% of the total harmful fine-particulate matter emissions during cooking. In addition, oils that are high in unsaturated fats like sunflower oil, create fumes that are higher in toxins compared to oils that are low in unsaturated fat, like palm or rapeseed oil.
—Annie Foley
And if you do much thinking, here’s something I think you should know:
Why it Hurts to Think Hard
Faced with TMI (or just about any math problem) I look like the woman below, and I think (or say): “I can’t think about that right now. It hurts too much.” New research vindicates me, and my story offers the perfect remedy. Here’s the setup:
Brain overload may not feel the same as physical pain, but depending on how you define “hurt” and “pain,” the serious discomfort of challenging mental tasks is real, and it’s something we subconsciously shy away from, new research confirms. The finding adds to other evidence that when we overwork the brain, we risk blowing a synaptic fuse, a warning sign that the mind needs a break to rest and recharge.
And finally, from our sister site, Aha! Science:
Walk vs. Run: Which is Most Efficient?
Our resident “this vs. that” writer, who is also a runner and a backpacker, crunches the numbers —from the scientifica literature and from his own tests — on the efficiency of walking vs. running. Either is great exercise and excellent for health and fitness, but there are notable explainable efficiency differences.
The literature says that a long-distance runner burns around 30–50% more calories each mile than a typical walker. So if you’re in no hurry and you want to conserve your energy, walk, don’t run to your destination. If you’re concerned that longer activities burn more calories overall, I’ll get to that…
—Matt Traverso