A descriptive report of features of initial unexpected panic attacks in minimal and extensive avoiders

Emotion regulation and anxiety disorders

“…In individuals with anxiety disorders, this may effect may be heightened. For example, Craske, Miller, Rotunda and Barlow (1990) found that in a treatment seeking population, the level of reported agoraphobic avoidance after the first panic attack predicted the development of subsequent anxiety disorders. Specifically, high avoiders were more likely to develop anxiety disorders than were low avoiders.…”

“…In short, there is theoretical (e.g., Barlow et al, 2004;Mennin et al, 2003), experimental (e.g., Cambell-Sills et al, 2003;Craske et al, 1990;Feldner et al, 2003;Lynch et al, 2001;Roemer et al, 2001), and clinical (e.g., Schmidt et al, 2000) evidence generally suggesting the maladaptive nature of suppression, specifically in an anxiety disordered population. Suppression, while theoretically employed in efforts to decrease emotional experiencing, appears to paradoxically increase symptoms of anxiety and distress.…”

Measuring experiential avoidance: A preliminary test of a working model

“…Ruminative worry tends to occur because it functions to avoid greater arousal and distress (Borkovec & Roemer, 1995;Wells & Papageorgiou, 1995), even though it does not help worriers actually deal with the instrumental situation (Borkovec, Hazlett-Stevens, & Diaz, 1999). Agoraphobics who are higher in the use of avoidant coping strategies tend to develop more additional anxiety disorders over time than do less emotionally avoidant patients, even though no such outcome difference existed before the first panic episode (Craske, Miller, Rotunda, & Barlow, 1990). More than half of actual or attempted suicides involve an attempt to flee from aversive events (Loo, 1986), especially states of mind such as guilt and anxiety (Baumeister, 1990).…”

Anxiety sensitivity and CO2 challenge anxiety during recovery: Differential correspondence of arousal and perceived control

“…There is evidence suggesting that panic attacks that occur in less controllable situations are associated with more anxiety than panic attacks that occur in more controllable conditions (Craske, Miller, Rotunda, & Barlow, 1990). Among those that consider physical symptoms themselves to be dangerous (high AS), persistent concerns about having a future panic attack may be partially attributed to continuing to experience high levels of anxiety during recovery from previous panic episodes coupled with the appraisal that the experience of panic are uncontrollable.…”