Etiology: Extreme nervousness, trauma, simple phobias, or to exerience numerous panic attacks.

Medical Treatment: Most effective drugs are xanax , librium, and valium. They bine to receptor sites of neurons associated with panic response causing them to fire at a greater rate.

• it disrupts and hinders daily life

Etiology: thought to be biological

•  because it is seen to run in families, many psychologists believe that it might be genetic (though it also may be due to environment in the family)
• research suggests that it is caused by dysfunctioning of the area of the brain that controls functions such as cleanliness, sex, and aggression
•  occurs across all races and socioeconomic backrounds

Treatment: psychotherapy to help patient control thoughts and cope with stressors

• anti-anxiety medication

Caused by an unbearable experience.  Develops after the evant but may take months to arise.

Symptoms include: increased heart rate,tensed muscles,short sense of focus, nightmares, obsessive thougths/flashbacks

, and increased anxiety levels.

Individaus try to avoid situations that remind them of the past traumatic event.

PTSD is also associated with lowered levels of neurotransmitters in the brain.

Treatments include psychological therapy and medication

The individual can have periods of high anxiety in the past or be involved in a stressful situation, the causes can be typically subtle. Panic Disorders

can be characterized by attacks of intense fear or anxiety with physical symptoms, like heart palpitations, rapid or shortness of breath, dizziness, 

blurred vision, racing thoughts. For example, if an attack occurred while driving on the freeway an individual could have another panic attack by just

thinking that that tpe of driving will cause them to have an attack again.   A treatment for this is psychotherapy, where the treatment is accepting the

panic attacks as psychological and not physical, practicing relaxation excercises, and working through underlying issues.