I'm back with a ?....the med student with Panic..

My question is are there degrees of Panic disorder or do some people just face it differently?? Basically I'm living my life the same as I always have, a lil less comftorably but the same none the less. Any situation in which I feel an attack could come, i challenge myself to do it. I dont see this gettin anyworse, bc I'm becoming less frightened of it. This is like a disorder of the imagination gone bad, so why believe any of it??? Anyhow I hope you all are doin better, and remember....youre never alone....Jesus is always with you!

This is an interesting question.

As a med student, you obviously know that no two people are the same in their chemical make-up - so I guess it's completely feasible that there are varying degrees just like there are with any condition.

Furthermore, everyone's perception of any given experience is unique to their own consciousness - so, even if the physical causes/factors are the same, our experience of the condition will differ from individual to individual. This can be compared to two people who catch a cold. One gets up and goes to work, determined to get on with life, the other languishes in bed feeling terrible.

Anybody else got a view?

Chris

From the literature I got, it all seemed to suggest that either you have panic & anxiety disorder or you don't & that it affects people in different ways.

In my case I was intensely claustrophobic. Some people don't get claustrophobic when they suffer.

I'll never fully understand what's in my make-up that made me claustropobic & not agrophobic.

I also was very sensitive to temperature flucuations. I went on holiday to the Gambia 3 years ago & I could not stop sweating. My friends couldn't understand it.

From what I read I really don't think there are varying degrees of anxiety & panic disorder, but I may be wrong. If you continue your studies you'll probably be able to understand why people get affected in different ways, because I don't understand.