Panic is sometimes called panic disorder with or without Agoraphobia. Anxiety is anticipation, or fear of fear. Anxiety is the mirror emotion to extreme pleasant expectation. Just as you might get recurrent images of upcoming happiness, feel flushed, have sweaty palms and a racing heart on the day of your wedding and think that this is positive or at least expected (wedding day jitters), so some people develop a fear that the anxiety they experience will get worse, accompanied by a variety of physical and psychological symptoms. People may experience several panic attacks which are very anxiety provoking. While some describe these attacks as anxiety and know they are not tied to an external event, others begin to avoid things they think trigger these attacks.
CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) for Panic is designed to help remove the connections between the feelings, the fear of worsening anxiety and any avoidance.
For more information, please contact Dr. Vermilyea.