What does it mean when I have panic attacks?

You might be re-experiencing traumatic events through your body and emotions. Seek a safe environment and therapist that can support you to re-visit those dark and painful places in yourself.

It simply means you have panic attacks. Try to find out if there is anything in specific that triggers them such as a situation or a person. finding the cause might make it easier to prevent them in the future.

There are many causes to a panic attack, or things that contribute to a panic attack, but the exact source as of why some people get panic attacks and other don't, is unclear. It is however a thing that can run in the family, or caused by several physical factors like low blood sugar, medication withdrawal, and cardiac problems. Often, with people who experience panic attacks, there is a pattern to be seen which is that you are going through a major change, such as moving, having a baby, or switching schools.

Panic attacks are unpredictable and random. It usually means that you're likely suffering from a mental illness, like panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, etc.

Imagine you're a car driving down a highway. Everything is going smoothly, and you're staying in your lane. All of the sudden, you must swerve to miss hitting an obstacle in the middle of the road. You swerve too sharply and your car starts spinning across the highway. Finally the spinning stops and you are able to resume driving, but you're in a different lane all the way across the road now. This lane is not smooth. It's bumpy and poorly maintained. However, after all that spinning, you can't remember how to change lanes properly: How do you use the blinker? How do you know when it's safe to go over? You can't remember how to change lanes, and you almost can't even remember what it was like to be driving in that smooth lane. So your only option is to keep going in this bumpy one. A panic attack is like the situation above. It not only means that something has intruded into our awareness that is distressing for us. It also means we have lost control of regulating our emotions while facing it. When we can't regulate -- return to a state of calm and control -- it feels like driving fast down a bumpy lane. Emotional regulation is a cornerstone of mental health. Since distressing situations are an unavoidable part of life, it is important to be able to return to a space where you feel safe and balanced, even if what's going on around you is negative.