Panic disorder tends to run in families, suggesting a biological component to the disorder. There are also several psychological theories regarding the causes of panic disorder. One view stresses the idea that significant childhood stressors, such as the death of a parent, can predispose a person to phobic reactions. There are different degrees of panic and panic attacks. Most of us feel bouts of anxiety or disturbing fear on occasion and become tense and nervous in unfamiliar situations.
Panic attacks are much different.
Some people who have one panic attack, or an occasional attack, never develop a problem serious enough to affect their lives. In panic disorder, brief episodes of intense fear are accompanied by multiple physical symptoms that occur repeatedly and unexpectedly in the absence of any external threat. These panic attacks, which are the hallmark of panic disorder, are believed to occur when the brain s normal mechanism for reacting to a threat, the fight or flight response, becomes inappropriately aroused when there is no danger. Typically, a first panic attack seems to come out of the blue, occurring while a person is engaged in some ordinary activity like driving a car or walking to work. Initial panic attacks may occur when people are under considerable stress, from an overload of work or from the loss of a family member or close friend.