Laid Off? Can It Cause a Panic Attack?

by Chris T. Crawley

Anxiety attacks are unpredictable, sudden, often discrete or not and are characterized by a feeling of fear, discomfort and different other cognitive or somatic symptoms. In most cases an anxiety attack appears with no apparent reason although one always exists. The one suffering might or might not realize what happens but his subconscious knows it all. In most cases an anxiety attack will last around ten minutes but can be even shorter, lasting only around 5 minutes. On the other hand, we also have severe cases of anxiety attacks that are caused by a cyclic series of episodes and can even last for hours. Anxiety attacks will affect people differently and some individuals can even ride out one when they feel it is about to appear.

Causes of Anxiety Attack Experience

Anxiety attacks can be triggered by many different reasons. High school and college years can develop panic attacks for younger people as there can be several different events causing stress. Young people might experience even humiliation during these years and that can trigger panic attack symptoms.

Persons suffering from anxiety become more highly to develop a second attack after this first episode as they get worried that this particular moment will repeat itself. One of the most common fear and reason for most panic attacks with teenagers is the fear of public speaking. Actually, public speaking is perhaps the most common reason for panic attacs, in all age groups. On a positive note, anxiety and panic attacks are quite easy to treat.

Surprisingly, some studies suggests that heredity plays quite a large role in anxiety and panic attacks. Inheritance can play a role in determining who gets an anxiety attack and it seems that panic disorders do run in the family. Some biological causes can also lead to panic attacks, among them obsessive compulsive disorders, post traumatic stress, vitamin B deficiency and the list can go on.

Life changes, stimulants like caffeine and nicotine and many short term triggering causes like significant personal loss and phobias can cause person anxiety and even panic attacks. These days when layoffs can be a very common, person can develop a panic attack if she/he is laid off from work.

When you get laid off it can be a huge shock. Without realizing, you can connect it with several aspects of your life. All sorts of negative and frightening things pop up in your mind, like possible lack of money and also how difficult it might be to get a new job. If you happen to be over 40, there seems to be a common belief that you won’t be hired anymore.

The one problem that is the most disturbing stands in the lack of money just mentioned, especially when there is a spouse and children involved. Money makes the world go round and we all realize this, whether we want to or not. By getting laid off you unwillingly start to think of the fact that you will eventually have serious money problems in the future and this fact alone can stop you from getting another job.

Keeping a positive mindset in these kind of events can be very difficult. On the bright side, you’ll find that there are specialists that can help you, unfortunately these cost money, which you might not have. This is a nasty circle and anxiety can take over. Evebtually this might lead to panic attacks, which can be very strong and can even cause long term psychological effects.

The Layoff Process

In most cases a layoff means that the company needs to cut down costs and needs to fire people in order to survive. There are also remote cases where other reasons for laying off an individual can be a reality but we are not going to talk about that now. Smaller companies will rarely have the means to offer valuable compensation to the individual that is laid off.

This can lead to the above mentioned situation of possible anxiety attack. When a larger company lays off people, they usually offer an amount of money as a “gift”. This “gift” is not much but can be a difference as it will offer some kind of certainty to the individual that he/she still has something to hang on while looking for another job.

The best thing an individual can do when laid off is to talk to friends, family and ask for support. It can make a huge difference. The people that are close to the individual can aid him get back onto his feet and can bring a huge element in that can prevent the appearance of an anxiety attack. If one of your friends or family members has been laid off, be sure to contact him and offer as much support as you can.

Human beings have the quality of being able to both aid and destroy each other. In such a situation it should be aiding what comes to mind. An anxiety attack is not something easy to deal with and the individual that suffers from it needs all the help he can get. It is as simple as that: we need to help our friends and family members when they go through rough times like getting laid off. They might help us out too when the time comes for us to need help.

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Can Layoffs Cause Anxiety Attacks?? Find more about that and other articles on how to Solve Panic Attacks.