Nurseboy,
I collaborated with a doctor on staff and he suggested the following:
One of the biggest myths about panic disorder is
that people believe that it means that they are "going crazy." This is simply not true. Panic attacks do often go with other kinds of serious
problems such as depression and OCD but if you have another serious problem, you probably know about it. For example, people with schizophrenia may also
suffer from anxiety but the symptoms of schizophrenia are quite distinct from the symptoms of panic disorder and there is no evidence that panic disorder can "cause" schizophrenia. In short, having panic disorder is not good and early development of panic disorder may go with other serious problems further down the road. However, the risk seems fairly
non-specific. Early anxiety seems to be a predictor of other problems in general and not especially predictive of schizophrenia. In short, research
to date suggests that panic disorder "does not" drive people "crazy".
Hope this was the answer you were looking for?
Take care,
Melanie and The Panic Center Support Team
This message was edited by melanie on 5-27-04 @ 12:53 PM
