For most of us, mild panic could result from locking our keys in the car when miles away from any help. You would feel a lot more panic if you and your spouse drove three hours in separate cars, only to arrive home and realize that neither of you had put your baby daughter into a car. Every day in the news, we hear about terrifying events that would cause panic in any of us. Usually, our fears are due to understandable things.
The panic experienced in an intense panic attack, however, is of a whole different order. During severe panic attacks, people may feel they are dying, losing control, or going crazy. Or they may feel that things around them are not real, or that some catastrophe is impending. With severe panic episodes, the person may even rush to an emergency room to get help.
Some panic disorder patients have particular triggers, such as being in crowded places or in a place from which they cannot easily escape. Quite a few panic disorder patients, for example, find going to the grocery store so stressful that they often must abandon their filled carts while waiting in the checkout line.
Panic disorder may be so severe that people avoid leaving their homes (a condition called agoraphobia, literally "fear of the marketplace") because they are afraid they'll have an attack in public or will find themselves in a situation that might cause them to panic. Some patients with agoraphobia are too anxious to walk down their driveway to get their mail.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that about 2.7 percent of adults have panic disorder at any time, and that about one-third of this group also have agoraphobia.
