Panic: How to Help Yourself and Others (31751). Symptoms of panic attacks

Panic attacks are present in 6-8% of people suffering from neurosis . This disorder belongs to the group of psychosomatic diseases.

That is, both the psyche and physiology of a person are involved in the manifestation of panic attacks. Below we will understand why panic attacks occur and how to overcome them.

Knowing the causes of a panic attack helps to quickly overcome it.

It is difficult for an ordinary person to understand why panic attacks and fear occur, as well as in their condition during such an attack.

To determine why a person experiences this condition, it is important to know how physiologically panic manifests itself, what the patient experiences during this period.

So, panic attacks are sudden state fear, panic, anxiety that cannot be controlled, suppressed or self-treated. It occurs without previous symptoms, does not last long, but intensely. Getting even into it a short time(5-15 minutes on average) significantly exhausts a person, affects his behavior, cognitive processes and well-being.

Since not everyone is subject to seizures, and those who have them note the frequency of such manifestations, the condition is defined as a disease and included in the ICD-10 (F41.0).

From a physiological point of view, this state sudden powerful release of adrenaline into the blood , which provokes the sympathetic nervous system.

And while the parasympathetic NS has not begun to act, a person feels an increase in anxiety. These two mechanisms of autonomic nervous system begin to act with the "feed" of the brain.

The main body in a collision with threatening danger gives signals to activate the NS.

In fact, a panic attack is a defense for our body. But with frequent manifestation, it prevents a person from fully functioning.

Causes of panic attacks and fear

What causes panic attacks?

There are several reasons for this condition, they are almost always psychogenic . They even exact reasons it is difficult to name, rather, these are events or changes in a person's life that lead to similar psychosomatic manifestations.

Frequent quarrels between parents contribute to the child's tendency to PA

The factors conducive to its occurrence are well known.

So what causes panic attacks?

High probability of occurrence with genetic predisposition . If relatives had mental pathology, a person may experience sudden attacks of fear and anxiety.
With the wrong upbringing childhood : too high demands of parents, inconsistency in requirements, criticism of actions.
Adverse emotional conditions in childhood : frequent quarrels between parents, children among themselves, alcoholism and other addictions in the family.
Features of temperament and work of the National Assembly , people with a melancholic and choleric type of temperament are susceptible to panic attacks.
Features of a person's character (stuck on experiences, impressionability, suspiciousness, and others).
Strong stress factor , it can be both positive and negative, but for the National Assembly it is a shock.
Long somatic disorders , diseases, surgical interventions, transferred infectious diseases with complications or severe course.
With neurasthenia a person can also be overcome by bouts of anxiety, fear, anxiety.

In addition to these factors, there are other physiological reasons why panic attacks happen. Sometimes panic attacks fear and anxiety accompany such diseases, like a prolapse mitral valve, hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism. In some cases, taking certain medical preparations leading to panic attack symptoms.

Why do panic attacks happen?

They appear when the central nervous system is stimulated by caffeine and chemical stimulants.
It is also a concomitant phenomenon with depression.

Manifestations of panic attacks

Episodes of attacks cannot be predicted, they are spontaneous.

Objectively, they are not preceded by a real threat to human health or life . But the brain "turns on" the protective reaction of the body.

Panic is a kind defensive reaction organism

You can recognize it by the following symptoms:

strong (deep) or frequent heart sounds;
the person is sweating;
there is tremor or tremor in the limbs;
dryness occurs in the mouth;
attacks are accompanied by shortness of breath;
often a person feels either suffocation or a "lump" in the mouth;
sometimes pain in the chest area may begin;
a state of nausea or burning in the stomach, not provoked by eating;
dizziness, faintness;
disorientation;
feeling that the surrounding objects are not real, unreal;
a sense of one's own "separation", when a person feels his own "I" somewhere nearby;
fear of death, going crazy or losing control of what is happening;
with increasing anxiety, a person feels a surge of heat in the body or chills;
insomnia, as a result, a decrease in the functions of thinking;
also in the limbs there is a feeling of numbness or tingling.

Knowing what causes panic attacks is good, but what to do with such a psychosomatic illness?

After all, an attack can overcome a person at the most inopportune moment, what actions should be taken to reduce the duration and reduce the number of its manifestations?

Principles of treatment for spontaneous attacks of anxiety and fear

At acute attacks panic attack treatment for this condition is to apply pharmacological agents and accompanying psychotherapy.

Medicines for treatment the doctor prescribes.

He prescribes the regimen for taking drugs, the form of their release.

The patient can be administered drugs through droppers, it is also possible oral administration medicines.

In the latter case, improvement occurs much later (about a month later).

To stabilize the state after an attack of spontaneous panic and anxiety, psychotherapists prescribe drugs that improve metabolism in the brain, increase the level of serotonin in the blood, and restore the balance between inhibition and excitation of the central nervous system.

Regular communication with a psychotherapist can help in the treatment of the disease.

Main therapeutic effect in removing the causes of panic attacks has psychotherapy . In a conversation with a psychologist (psychotherapist), the patient is aware of the causes of such psychosomatic manifestations. Understands how to behave during an attack of fear and anxiety, learns to overcome them.

There are several areas of psychotherapy that help a person get rid of this syndrome.

All of them are aimed at identifying the causes of the disease, and teaching a person how to behave during such a phenomenon.

Classic hypnosis (directive setting to get rid of somatic manifestations).
Ericksonian hypnosis (learning to reduce the level of anxiety, fear).
Body Oriented Therapy (techniques are used that reduce the level of anxiety, work with breathing).
Family Psychotherapy (family relations are assessed, work with all family members to improve relationships).
Psychoanalysis (work with unconscious conflicts and childhood, not always effective method in dealing with panic attacks).
Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy (most effective in the treatment of this disorder, there is a gradual change in human thinking, work with the causes of fear).

Panic attacks make a person unbalanced and require treatment

Panic attacks cause a lot of inconvenience to a person.

A psychotherapist will help determine what causes panic attacks.

You should not delay visiting him with the symptoms described above.

People who have experienced a panic attack talk about it as the scariest moment in their lives. A person in these moments is in a state of extreme hopelessness, reaching despair.

Panic attacks

Numerous observations show that panic attacks most often last 10 minutes, and are also short-term - up to five minutes. Sometimes they "torment" a person for more than an hour or until outside intervention. About how they proceed, people who turned to psychiatrists about these conditions tell:

“In the subway, I suddenly felt terrible anxiety and paralyzing fear. It seemed to me that the train swayed and bounced on the rails more than usual. And a catastrophe is bound to happen. I broke out in a cold, clammy sweat. Immediately dizzy, and there was one single desire to break out. And, immediately."

“Suddenly, it became scary, so much so that my legs became numb and my hands stopped obeying. And this happened every day.”

“I was cooking dinner and suddenly realized that I was dying. Lost breath and darkened in the eyes. I was diagnosed with PA. Attacks start instantly, and hit so that life turns into a nightmare.

Psychological reasons

The first panic attack is usually caused by a lot of stress. So, at risk are people who tend to take on excessive responsibilities and who are characterized by high responsibility. Panic is also experienced by individuals with an impeccable reputation who have committed a misdemeanor for the first time. It has also been observed that patients with post-traumatic syndrome PA is much more common than in the average person.

Interesting data was given by Dr. Phil Berker, who reported that 63% of total number patients who turned to him in connection with PA, in certain periods of life, abused alcohol. But this does not mean that alcohol is the root cause, the doctor said. It is possible that panic, for example, in a conflict with a beloved woman, was simply “filled with rum or vodka.” Although alcohol initially relieves the symptoms of panic disorder, long-term alcohol abuse can develop even more severe forms of PA, especially during withdrawal symptoms.

Genetic background

Professor Junschild is convinced that a panic attack is caused by a chemical imbalance within the limbic system, located at the top of the brain stem. It is this system that automatically regulates emotions. The fact is that during stress, an exit mechanism is triggered. difficult situation- “fight or flight”. The choice is made by the cerebellar tonsils, which produce the symptoms of PA if no solution is found. In other words, panic does not arise if a person intuitively makes a certain decision: either “fight” or “run away”.

Dr. Junschild believes that this mechanism helped people overcome dangers in the process of evolution, when there was no time for reflection. Since men were hunters and warriors, they more often than women had to respond to emergency situations. All this is reflected in the variation of the gene encoding galanin. “It's very simple,” Junschild writes, “the lack of galanin inhibits the work of the cerebellar tonsils, which, in turn, disrupt the functioning of vital systems. Hence the fear of death. Thus, women are twice as likely to panic disorder than men, as proven by statistics.

Breathe deep

“You are excited - breathe deeply” - isn't it a familiar phrase. Indeed, such a behavior model is a physiological moderator, with the help of which a person can cope with PA. If the tonsils of the cerebellum in case of panic knock down the rhythm of breathing and increase partial pressure carbon dioxide V arterial blood, then a person, breathing deeply, can indirectly affect the chemical imbalance within the limbic system.
In this regard, the psychiatrist Berrocal, calling hypochondriacal anxiety (excessive concern) initial stage PA claims that in stressful moments, correctly set breathing significantly reduces anxiety and thus prevents panic.

Children

The American Psychiatric Association found that 40% of all patients diagnosed with PA first experienced such sensations in childhood, at least before the age of 20. Despite the fact that children have the same symptoms as adults, post-panic depression in adolescents is much more severe. It renders bad influence on their behavior and provoke aggression. Psychologists are convinced that it is extremely difficult for a child to cope alone with the consequences of panic attacks that arose, for example, after a failed exam, on which high hopes were placed. “You can’t say that if you don’t go to university, it will be very bad,” advises psychologist Follet. “It’s better to identify an alternative that will help avoid panic.”

Treatment

The American Medical Association for the treatment and prevention of panic attacks has recommended cognitive behavioral therapy or one of a variety of psychopharmacological interventions.

In real positive result give only combined approaches. In any case, this is what practitioners say. As far as cognitive behavioral therapy is concerned, we are talking more about helping a person to himself. At the moments of attacks, he is ordered to do certain physical exercise or call support. As the results of observations have shown, this actually helps 87% of patients.

The most severely treated PA with agoraphobia (fear of the crowd) and other social phobias. In this case, the methods of muscle relaxation and breathing exercises ineffective. What's more, they can increase the relapse rate.
At the same time, pharmacological interventions, although they directly affect phobias, have been little studied. That is why the use of popular sedative drugs (benzodiazepines) remains in question. Despite quick effect, yet they are not recommended to take longer than 4 weeks.

Part 1. Etiology and phenomenology

Anxiety is the director
our inner theatre.
Joyce McDougall

Widespread in Lately panic attacks allows us to think of them not as a separate syndrome, but as a systemic phenomenon, and requires a more thorough study of the cultural context in which they “bloomed”. I offer my vision of this phenomenon, using systems approach and referring to its description to the metaphor of I as a territory.

dynamic world

The modern world for a person is becoming less and less predictable, stable, predictable. Social institutions, which previously performed the function of stabilizing the Self (family, church, profession), now have lost that. As for the institution of the family and marriage, here we are seeing the emergence significant amount alternative forms of marriage and family relations characteristic of the postmodern era:

separate marriages;

swinging;

modern forms of polygamy;

deliberately childless, or childfree marriages,

communes, etc.

The profession also ceases to fulfill the function of stabilizing the personality. If earlier the profession was “enough” for life, it was enough just to take advanced training courses, but now the age of many professions is less than human.

In general, the modern world is becoming more dynamic, limitless, diverse, multi-format and offers a person a lot of various options choice. This in itself is not bad, but there is another side to this coin. A modern person often turns out to be unprepared for such an abundance of proposals from the world, falling into a situation of confusion, anxiety, and sometimes panic.

Challenges of the World and Identity

The absence of an external stable world is reflected in the internal world. Today, in order to answer the question “who am I?”, a person constantly has to choose. The situation of choice inevitably generates anxiety. And since you have to choose constantly, then anxiety becomes constant.

Modern man is faced with a large number of choices in the face of increasing time pressure - the world is constantly accelerating. And his I just can't keep up with him. All this creates problems with identity. modern man. In order to keep up with the rapidly changing world, I must have paradoxical qualities - to be both dynamic and stable, to maintain this complex balance, balancing between variability on the one hand and stability on the other.

It is not surprising that a modern person is forced to be in constant tension: if you fixate on the pole of stability, you will fall behind the constantly accelerating world; adapt creatively, balancing along the entire length of the segment between the indicated poles, without losing a sense of integrity: "This is me."

And far from always, I am creative and holistic enough to cope with challenges. modern world. A person in such a situation can perceive the world as dangerous, unpredictable, and himself, his Self as weak, unstable in the face of this dynamically changing world.

alienation trap

Another feature of modern man is the loss of communication with other people. In today's world there is less and less social forms in which a person would feel his belonging, involvement. He is increasingly forced to rely on himself. Individualism is becoming one of the leading values of the modern world. Self-sufficiency, autonomy, the ability to independently solve problems, competitiveness - these are the priorities of modern man.

Attachment, emotional involvement, sensitivity, ability to human support in this situation are often assessed as weakness and even dependence. “Never ask anyone for anything” - the advice that Woland gives to Margarita often becomes the motto of a person of this world. Strong, independent, emotionally insensitive are the main features that make up the image of a modern person. Modern man is becoming more and more narcissistic and this inevitably leads him to loneliness, inability to intimacy and inability to rely on others.

In this situation of a dynamic world and stringent requirements it is difficult for a person to relax and trust the world.

Control as protection against anxiety

This is where Anxiety comes into play on the psychic scene. Anxiety is the result of a situation of distrust external environment and the inner environment - to your I.

Thus, the lack of stability in the outer world and the instability of the inner world gives rise to great anxiety. And anxiety, in turn, gives rise to the need for control.

Control is back side anxiety that is not recognized by the person. Control here is a way to deal with anxiety. Behind the anxiety are fears - "the world is unstable, and therefore dangerous, and I am too weak to be stable in this world."

It is unbearable for a person to be in a situation of anxiety for a long time. The only one for him possible option coping with such a situation becomes an attempt to control it. Control here acts as a defense, as an attempt to make alive, dynamic, fluid, and because of this dangerous world dead, stable, predictable and, most importantly, safe.

At the same time, both other people and split-off parts of one's Self can become objects of control.

Anxiety and the body

The body also becomes one of such objects of control of the I in the modern world. The body has ceased to be a support for a modern person, for his Self. In the process of development of the Self, the body is gradually alienated from the Self, the Self ceases to be perceived as the Self. Although initially, as is known, the Self appears precisely as the bodily Self.

However, as it develops, the Self becomes more and more identified with the mind and finally “settles” in the head. And the body is not the last refuge that I leave. Following the body, I am more and more alienated from the emotional sphere.

Having identified as a result with the mind, the I of a modern person begins to relate functionally to both the body and emotions, as to a kind of tools serving the I. What used to be the I originally formed its basis, base, becomes the territory of non-I. And now I can only control these alienated, abandoned territories, manage them. The body and emotions, in response to this, begin to take revenge on the I, ceasing to obey it.

Moreover, the higher the degree of this alienation, the more difficult I become to manage them. So I more and more loses touch with emotions and with the body, which perform, among other things, the function of contact with the world. I find myself in a situation of isolation from important funds contact with reality.

I, curled up to the mind, deprived of information and faced with a situation of disobedience of controlled territories, falls into a panic. And there is something! In the described situation, I look like a kind of tadpole - a little man with a disproportionately large head, a frail little body and thin legs. The function of support and stability becomes very problematic here. And the function of contact with the other and the world too.

Contact with the other can be through the senses, contact with the world can be through the body. In both the first and second cases, the head is not the best "tool" for contact.

"Betrayal" of the body

The words about “the betrayal of the body that goes crazy” in the title of the article do not seem quite correct. In fact, it is not the body that goes crazy, but the Self, faced with the situation of the inability to control the body. Yes, and the betrayal, as we have already found out, was originally committed not by the body, but by the I. The body rather takes revenge on the I for the betrayal committed earlier.

The "betrayal" of the body is manifested in the fact that bodily physiological functions are not subject to control by a reasonable, rational I. The body becomes alien to the I, uncontrollable and dangerous. Lost in the world, I receives a new blow - the body betrays it, not obeying it. For I, this is a rebellion, a revolution.

At this point, there is a large number of anxiety and I panic.

Anxiety automatically "carries out" a person to another level of functioning - borderline and even psychotic. This disorganizes the personality and behavior of a person, greatly narrows the boundaries of his adaptive capabilities. The usual, habitual level of response becomes impossible for him. “Everything is gone!”, “End of the world!” - most typical emotional condition person in a high-intensity anxiety situation.

Why panic? Panic is essentially a psychotic reaction.

In panic, the level of anxiety is so high that the zone of control (as a means of protection against it) expands and begins to include bodily physiological reactions - breathing, heart activity - something that is not controlled by consciousness.

Faced with the inability to control what cannot be controlled by the Self (anxiety increases even more), the Self panics - up to the loss of contact with reality. Symptoms of neurotic and even border level there is not enough here to cope with this level of anxiety. Since here, as I wrote above, the basic human need- the need for security.

And what is very important - this state occurs suddenly! A person suddenly finds himself in a state small child thrown into a huge world, a world that turned out to be dangerous, and you do not have the strength to survive in it, and there is no one around. And this is equivalent to the state of unlife: physical - "I'm dying" and mental - "I'm going crazy."

Describing their condition at such moments, people say that “the earth is slipping away from under your feet”, “support is lost”, “as if you are falling rapidly into a deep abyss”, “It is as if you are going down the stairs in the dark and there is no step” ...

More often, people with an initially impaired need for security, with impaired attachment, fall into this state. However, it can also be people who are in a situation of life crises.

These are the moments when a person needs to make an important decision in his life, when he needs to radically change something in his life (work, study, place of residence) and the usual ways of life that previously stabilized a person become inaccessible to him, and support from outside the outside world is not enough.

For example, when you need to move to another city, finish school and go to university, get married when a child is born. In general, when you need to change something in your identity.

This acts as a trigger for the development of a panic reaction. But this is not enough. Personal readiness must also be formed - the presence of certain personality traits, which I wrote about above. And such features in the man of the modern world are already present as a typical attribute of a man of this time. If they "meet" in one person - there is an instant reaction!

And here a person would turn for support, ask for help. However, it turns out to be impossible for him to ask - this contradicts his identity as a strong, independent person. In his picture of the world, turning to another, asking for help are qualities weak man. So he falls into a trap - the trap of individualism and alienation from the other.

The symptoms of panic with anxiety, for all their severity and intolerance, are quite stable, as they allow a person not to face their fears directly, not to make a choice, not to change their identity. They distract a person from his real problem, translating his thoughts into another plane.

In the case of anxiety disorders with panic attacks, he solves the question "What should I do with a rebellious body?" instead of asking, “What should I do with myself and my life?”

As a result, it becomes almost impossible to get out of this situation on your own. Panic attacks further increase the anxiety and defenselessness of a person in the face of an uncontrollable world. The circle closes and more and more drags him into a funnel of hopelessness.

It turns out that it is difficult to withstand such a level of intensity even for those people who are in close relations with such a person and want to help him in some way. The partner does not always manage to contain the overwhelming emotions that arise literally “out of the blue”.

The work of a therapist is also quite difficult here. More on this in the next article.

The fact that there are bouts of severe anxiety, people living in our time, learned quite recently. Many, suffering from panic attacks, are still not aware of the causes that cause painful reactions. But 10% of our contemporaries suffer from sudden attacks fear, that is, every tenth of our acquaintances is subject to such painful phenomena.

Symptoms of panic attacks.

Fear usually arises for no reason, sometimes under the influence of minor events. They can become loud sounds, the cry of people around, and sometimes ringing silence.

Panic attack starts immediately and is accompanied by unpleasant sensations, such as:

Increasing or decreasing pressure
Feeling hot or feeling cold
Heart pain, tachycardia
Great weakness, sometimes it seems to the patient that he will faint

Typical panic attacks are trembling, loss of orientation in space and time. The patient realizes that he cannot concentrate on anything at all, except for his own sensations. Anxiety is constantly on the rise. At such moments, the processes of our body that are not controlled can appear - vomiting, uncontrolled excretion of urine, feces. Those suffering from vegetative crises describe their condition as a feeling that their body and head are empty. People feel like they're leaving physical shell and feel like incorporeal beings. A feeling of fear, panic accompanies all these symptoms. The urge to hide and run becomes irresistible.

The state of severe anxiety can last for several minutes, and sometimes for half an hour.. Upon completion of this, feelings and sensations stabilize, the heart hurts for a short time, muscle pain and nervousness persist, and sleep is disturbed.

Often a person is afraid of what others see external manifestations panic, and opinion about him does not change in better side. It seems to him that people consider him cowardly and useless. Thoughts that he looks stupid fill his entire being, provoking re-development panic state. This is how the emergence vicious circle- fear that fear will arise again.
Each person who suffers from panic crises experiences them differently. And it is not at all necessary that the above symptoms will appear in you.

The symptoms of panic attacks, which are described above, usually occur in patients with a special warehouse of the nervous system, who have a suspicious, disturbing character. It's in these people's blood high level stress hormone.

The disorder of the nervous system develops according to this type:

Solitary manifestations of severe panic →
Attacks that occur more often, but with new symptoms →
Panic fear for one's own health, present all the time →
Rituals are formed that help to avoid frightening actions (patients stop riding the elevator, leaving the house) →
Accession (sleep is disturbed, appetite is lost, mood decreases).

Attacks of severe anxiety tend to disguise themselves as some other disease. A person who has recently fallen ill and does not know about his diagnosis often goes to the hospital, referring to different doctors. But only a psychiatrist can distinguish the disorder mental state from some other diseases, for example:

Neurological disorders (organic brain diseases, disorders of the vestibular apparatus).
Somatic diseases ( atypical manifestations some diseases).
Mental disorders (neurosis, hypochondria, sluggish schizophrenia).

Causes of panic attacks

For a strong anxiety disorder a sharp impact of any one factor or the accumulation of several is enough. The first attack attack is caused by such reasons:

Stress.
Difficult life situations.
Chronic.
The use of psychoactive substances.
Many mental and somatic diseases.

Very often the first attack occurs in adolescence, in pregnant women, as well as after the birth of a child, in menopause (against the background of changes hormonal background). These are external conditions. In order for a panic state to manifest itself, internal prerequisites are needed. These are somatic diseases, alcoholism, drug addiction, neuropsychiatric disorders.

Panic attacks do not appear on their own, their causes are in the occurrence of any deviations in the state of health, which gives the prerequisites for the occurrence of anxiety attacks. No wonder in old times such conditions were considered a manifestation of vegetovascular dystonia.

Panic attack treatment.

Stages of treatment and diagnosis:

Reception and further treatment psychiatrist doctor.
Receptions by specialists: neuropathologist, endocrinologist, therapist, cardiologist.
Seizure Prevention alarm attacks, as well as hypochondria, depression.
Prevention of recurrence of the disease.

For treatment, it is necessary to choose an adequate drug therapy. You can take antidepressants, tranquilizers. They are used not only in emergency assistance but also for long-term therapy.

Panic attacks, treatment:

Psychotherapy (hypnosis),
Physiotherapy,
Physiotherapy.

If the diagnosis is made correctly, then the cure for anxiety attacks gives good result and prevents useless going to the doctors. At right approach to treatment in 90% of cases there is a stable remission.

Psychologists advise people who have known the effect of anxiety attacks to focus on their positive qualities Oh. Each of us has many positive qualities. For this you need to value yourself, respect and love. Keep working on accepting yourself for who you really are. Change negative thoughts on positive and over time unpleasant symptoms will go by themselves.

A special situation where influence is increased due to contamination is panic.

In psychology, panic is a type of crowd behavior, a certain emotional state that occurs in a mass of people as a result of a lack or excess of information.

The term "panic" itself comes from the name Greek god Pan, the patron saint of shepherds, pastures and herds, who caused by his anger the "fury of the herds", which, under his influence, rushed into the fire or the abyss. The immediate cause for panic is the appearance certain situation, a shocking stimulus, interrupts habitual forms of behavior.

For panic to arise, this stimulus must be either very intense or completely unknown before, that is, such as to cause attention to be focused on oneself. The first reaction to such an incentive is shock and the perception of the situation as a crisis. Shock usually causes embarrassment. In such a situation, the individual makes unbalanced and hasty attempts to interpret the event in terms of own experience or recalls similar situations from the experiences of others.

The feeling of acuteness, the need to make a quick decision interferes with the logical understanding of the crisis situation and causes fear. If the first fear is not suppressed, then the reaction of the individual intensifies. The fear of some affects others, in turn reinforcing the fear of the former. In this case, especially great importance has the character of the first movement, when all the attention of the participants of some event is concentrated on it, everyone is ready for action and waiting for the development of events.

Panic refers to such psychological phenomena that are difficult to study. It cannot be directly fixed, since, firstly, the time of its occurrence is never known in advance; secondly, in a situation of panic it is difficult to remain an observer - this is its formidable strength, that any person, having fallen into a situation of panic, is subjected to it to one degree or another.

During a panic, several socio-psychological mechanisms of influence on human behavior begin to operate simultaneously. The mechanisms of communicative, perceptual and interactive influences are triggered, such as fascination, mental attitude etc. The situation of panic is always accompanied by infection and suggestion. It can occur both in a small group in a situation of direct communication, and in a crowd, a large region or in society as a whole.

Very often, panic is initiated by rumors, the media, social, political events. Indicative in this respect is the example of the outbreak of mass panic in the state of New Jersey in the USA on October 30, 1938.

On this day, a dramatization of the novel by G. Wells "The War of the Worlds" was broadcast on the radio. The transmission was carried out in the form of a report from the landing site of warlike creatures that sowed death and destruction around. Prior to this broadcast, listeners were introduced to reports allegedly received from well-known astronomers that "Martian objects" were approaching the Earth.

Immediately after the transfer, a great panic began in the state of New Jersey, in whose territory the war allegedly began. People tried to get out of the dangerous area as quickly as possible, seizing cars and buses.

In this situation, the mass of radio listeners of various age and educational strata (1 million 200 thousand people) experienced a state similar to mass psychosis, believing in the invasion of the Martians on Earth. Although many of them knew for sure that a dramatization was being broadcast on the radio literary work(an announcer announced this three times), almost 400 thousand people personally witnessed the "appearance of the Martians." This phenomenon was specially analyzed by American psychologists. Their conclusions emphasized psychological features propaganda and the media, in particular radio, as well as the behavior of people who succumbed to panic.

In explaining the “phenomenon of October 30, 1938”, other, no less important factors- social and political.

Let us recall the international circumstances that preceded the events in New Jersey. A month earlier, the Munich Treaty was signed, placing Czechoslovakia under the rule of Hitler. The whole world was waiting for the outbreak of war. Newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, people's conversations boiled down to when the Nazis would start a war with England and the USA. German landing and submarines were expected to appear off the coast of the United States. There were calls for mobilization. Attention to the reports of newspapers, radio was increasing.

Therefore, it is not surprising that when people heard on the radio that someone had attacked the United States, “they” were occupying more and more territory, there were already dead, many listeners had no doubts about who the war was going on with. As the survey showed, six million Americans listened to the program, of which more than a million were seized with baseless panic. Mostly these were those who turned on the receiver after the start of the transmission and did not hear the preface to it.

In this situation, the personal qualities of those who were exposed to the broadcast also played a role. The first to save themselves were people with low education, lonely, who were in conflict with others, dissatisfied with something, anxious, annoying, and the like. These are the people who are more inclined to emotional manifestations than to rational analysis, critical appraisal situations.

Ukrainian psychologist V.O. Molyako, considering psychological consequences The Chernobyl disaster indicates the conditions for the emergence of panic - the presence of a shocking stimulus and a lack of information about the event, especially reliable information, at the same time an excess of unverified information from unofficial (mostly rumors) sources.

Causes of panic

The reasons that contribute to the emergence or intensification of panic are quite diverse, and despite this, they can be combined into three groups - physiological, psychological and socio-psychological.

The first group includes phenomena that cause the emergence of conditions for panic, physically weaken people. These are, in particular, fatigue and depression, hunger and intoxication, prolonged insomnia or mental shock. Each of the reasons mentioned seriously impairs a person's ability to quickly and correctly assess a situation that arises suddenly.

The second group includes such psychological phenomena as great surprise, great uncertainty, sudden fear, a sense of isolation, awareness of powerlessness in the face of danger.

The third group includes the lack of group solidarity, the loss of trust in the leadership, the lack or excess of information that increases tension. This also leads to a decrease in the ability to rationally and correctly assess the situation.

Classification of types of panic

There are classifications of panic according to various criteria.

By scale distinguish between individual, group and mass types of panic in psychology. In the case of group and mass panic, the number of people covered by it is different: group - from two or three to several tens and hundreds of people (if they are scattered), and mass - thousands or more people. In addition, panic should be considered mass if, in a limited enclosed space (ship, house, etc.), most people are covered by it, regardless of their total number.

By depth of coverage you can talk about mild, medium and full panic.

Light panic is noted when transport is delayed, with an unexpected strong signal etc. At the same time, a person retains almost complete self-control, criticality. Outwardly, this manifests itself in bewilderment, anxiety, muscle tension, etc.

Average panic is characterized by a significant deformation of conscious assessments of what is happening, a decrease in criticality, an increase in fear, and pliability. external influences(for example, buying goods in stores when there are rumors of price increases, in case of minor traffic accidents, various natural disasters).

Complete panic - a panic with a blackout of consciousness, affective, characterized by incapacity and occurs when you feel a big mortal danger. In this state, a person completely loses conscious control over his behavior - he can run in an unknown direction, carry out various chaotic actions, actions that exclude their critical assessment, rationality and ethics (a classic example is the panic on the ships Titanic and Admiral Nakhimov, in the latter case, the speed of events did not allow the panic to unfold fully, as well as during wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, etc.).

By duration allocate the following types panic: short-term - from several seconds to several minutes (panic on the bus, lost control), quite long - from ten minutes to several days (earthquake), prolonged - from several days to several weeks (panic during the blockade of Leningrad, after an accident on Chernobyl). IN. Molyako introduces the concept of "continuous panic", which characterized the state of affairs after the Chernobyl accident.

People who were panic-stricken exhibited the following behaviors:

Inadequate assessment of the situation, exaggeration of danger, the desire to flee;
Increased fussiness, chaotic behavior, or its lethargy;
Decreased discipline, performance;
Search for sedatives (drugs, alcohol)
The desire to obtain information, increased interest in all messages, rumors, news.

Panic Prevention

The reaction of people to various catastrophes, emergencies, as in ancient times, very often ends in panic. Therefore, the answer to the question is so important: how to prevent and stop panic if it has already begun?

One of the main preventive methods is the organization effective leadership while building confidence in this leadership. No less important for the prevention of panic is the knowledge by the members of the group of their functional duties, the circumstances, the reasons for the current opportunity to obtain reliable information about them. Lack of information always breeds uncertainty, and under such conditions, panic is more difficult to distract.

Knowing the dynamics of panic makes it possible to develop recommendations and techniques aimed at stopping it, preventing it.

Dynamics panic looks like this.

First, a stimulus is needed for panic to occur (the cry “Fire” is reinforced by the smell of smoke).

Secondly, panic begins with the reactions of individuals who make up the crowd. These are, as a rule, anxious people, whose disorderly movements activate a feeling of fear, despair. Further, the panic state under the influence of infection covers all large quantity of people. Then it all starts panic movement without a thoughtful plan and predicting the consequences.

The climax comes at the moment of mental overstrain in people. The turning point is accompanied by the screams of those dying in a stampede or stampede. The crowd thins out and peace gradually sets in.

At the first stage, when the panic is just beginning, it can only be stopped by loud and powerful persuasion. On the second - the planned and confident orders of those individuals who did not succumb to panic. On the third - the use of a super-strong stimulus that takes people out of a state of shock or shock. So, in army practice, a warning shot is used, in a movie theater it can be a loud order to stop the panic, transmitted through a megaphone, with the following instructions on where and how to move to the exit. There are cases when in theaters during a fire the entire troupe went on stage and performed the national anthem or a well-known choral song. In this situation, people at least for a moment, but stop, switching all their attention to the scene. This is enough to establish contact with them and organize an evacuation. Let's say a command is given: "Stand still!", "Lie down!", "All back!" And others, the first one to execute the command becomes a role model.

Thus, panic is an important socio-psychological phenomenon, the study of which makes it possible to explain some of the processes occurring in social groups or society in special periods of their life.