Is there any relationship between allergies and panic attacks?
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. Our cortex brain and prefrontal cortex, in particular, are rich in serotonin receptors. Therefore, when our brain produces good serotonin, our prefrontal cortex takes many decisions.
Our prefrontal cortex is also our executive brain, which is responsible for higher functions like patience, courage, deep thinking, etc. Serotonin inhibits frequent amygdala-based stress responses. So, if one has good serotonin synthesis and reception, the brain will take thoughtful actions
in a stressful situation. A lack of serotonin would lead to a frequent reaction to stress and no response.
Hormone Serotonin also inhibits Histamine. Histamine hormone is released in response to a potential threat such as a pathogen.
You may already know that Anti-Histamine drugs are used to treat allergies because allergy is a condition where the body overreacts to even harmless bodies such as pollens.
When the brain repeatedly adapts the amygdala response to any stressors, it has to inhibit serotonin, so histamine overdrive is common.
In simple words, if the brain starts feeling threat in any stressful situation, which may not be threatening, it starts developing allergies. Because serotonin is also our consciousness hormone, one with low consciousness develops an allergy disorder. Allergy is a comorbidity of panic attacks.
Serotonin and GABA hormones are released in deep-sleep. So those who lack deep sleep may develop panic attacks, and one with panick attacks will have less and less sleep;
Hi Rupam da,
This is a great article packed with valuable information.
If someone is suffering from memory functioning not properly and that in turn causes panic, is that something curable? E.g., in a sudden actionable situation his/her memory doesn’t trigger in time to resolve the situation, and instead panic occurs. So, no action is taken and a disastrous situation is imminent, in turn, that causes more panic.
Dear Subhajit, thanks for your comment and for posting the query.
1. Panic is a reaction of the brain. Brain panics when it considers a situation threatful.
2. In my case, I am severely dyslexic. I can’t make sense of spellings, and because of severe brain information overload, often tend to forget small things when I try to remember them. It happens all the time.
3. When I forget and fail to recollect information, it becomes frustrating sometimes, and such frustration may irritate me.
4. Such forgetfulness is limited to forgetting memory and may result in carelessness and diversion of focus from our actions. For instance, over the past few weeks, several times, I have forgotten to turn off the gas after making tea, resulting in burning the utensil.
5. Such incidents resulted in kind of fear and over-alertness whenever I went near the stove.
So, I can completely understand and comprehend your question. Here is how I have dealt with the situation.
i) When such forgetfulness occurs, note down the incidents.
ii) This convinces the brain that you are not worried or frustrated about the situation but taking them as an opportunity to learn why they are happening.
iii) When you are not occupied, open the notes of all the situations and think deeply from the last evening of the day of the event till the evening of the day of the event about every incident.
iv) You will invariably notice that the forgetfulness is a result of poor sleep, relationship conflict, someone triggering you already in the last two days, or suppressed anger.
v) Now, when you correlate multiple such incidents, you will see similar patterns.
vi) Write down this pattern as “Cause of Forgetfulness.”
vii) Next time a similar event happens, just open your notes of the causation section and check if the events and patterns are the same as what you have discovered.
viii) After pattern matching, you will see that you are no more panicking. Now your brain will device strategies to overcome or avoid those patterns.
Final Thought:-
Panic is a phenomenon of the afraid subconscious brain. Whenever panic situations are appearing in life, bring them into your conscious brain and analyze them. Helps you overcome panic attacks.