I was talking to one of the teachers of mine; “This illness increased too much” I said. What I meant was Panic Attack. “It did not increase” he replied. “It just becomes fashion and the usage of the word is liked by many people” he pointed out. When we look through the past, it is a correct approach.

When the word “stress” began to be used in Turkish, everybody was in stress and then, “depression”, “panic attack” and “social phobia” became widely-used.  The words were both attractive and easily-likeable and acceptable in one thing to be lived by anyone. “I used to like the words ‘Pharyngitis and ‘Laryngitis’, whenever anyone asked to met he question what is your illness, I would say that i got Pharnygitis” said one of the friends of mine said one day. Therefore, the words are important.

By making such foreword I of course do not want to mean that such illness do not exist; however, I just thought that it is good to know what will come out when we look at this subject from a different point of view. In last days, “My son is not getting out of his room these days, he is having Social Phobia; I also had Panic Attack last month, fortunately I got recovered from it” an educated- over middle age woman said to me and I said nothing about that. So, these illnesses are known as something such as influenza which comes as sudden and goes by and which is in fact unknown. It happened and went by; actually nothing is going by unless you get the necessary treatment.

However, it is true that the usage of these words is fashion,; human types of calling itself as excited, anxious, hyperactive and having panic attack are day by day increasing in movies and shows.  After a busy-rush and dense day, one says that “I had panic attack today”. I cant help smiling, he/she just wants to express his/her excitement in the said day, he/she believes that the best emphasis of this situation is this kind of definition. The wrong usages in Turkish!

On the other hand, I often come across that many people advising to consultation department or asking a question to this department certainly mention of their past about Social Phobia or Panic Attack. We are in the age of speed, information is transported very fast; when the symptoms of an illness are told, people find at least three articles suitable in themselves.  It is quite natural, too. We always have three symptom of every illness.

They did not warn us in vain when we were student, they mentioned about many illnesses and we thought that we had them all; however, in order that symptoms can indicate an illness, it should be associated with each other, should be repeated and should be in a level preventing life to be lived.  Therefore, we were told not to live every illness we read. So, do not learn by imitating. This is the first rule.

As for the second rule, it is to learn the different symptoms. When people learn some symptoms of illnesses and if they have one or more of these symptoms, they live the other symptoms and choose the mentioned illness, they live it because they chose it. As some illnesses have “Secondary Gains”. It is difficult for the person to distinguish these. It is of course reasonable and practical to name these avoidances which can be explained with many concepts such as avoidance, being different, not doing what is not desired and staying away. 

A different mechanism can be mentioned for Social Phobia, Panic Attack and similar things; these are lived, learnt and repeated. No matter what the exit point is, these illnesses can be mentioned if the person is constantly having these symptoms. This is not very trustable too, because the person can live them by learning as I mentioned just before and can make some gains it its subconscious. According to the surveys conducted, there are not these kinds of problems in the people living in rural areas and having a low cultural level.  As they don’t have opportunities to learn and live this illness, they also do not have personal tendencies. In another word, they have not yet learnt that the meaning of saying “I do not want this” is not Panic Attack, Social Phobia or Valetudinarianism or they do not need this. Yes, the educated and knowing people of today know that is easy to claim an illness instead of opposing it.

According to other opinions, this is a syndrome dependent on virus. Researches are made on this subject; according to those adopting this approach, a virus which has not been named yet manifests these symptoms in these people and it is said that the people under the effect of this virus live “Social Phobia, Panic Attack or others” as the situation is unclear.  There are different statements about the fact that it is as common in our country as those in developed countries. Although it is thought that this situation is dependent on social pressure, human character and education in our culture or cultures similar to ours, this illness is also very common in countries having a very liberal education system. Moreover, it is difficult to explain this with cultural pressure when we think that the youth of post-80s which have socio-economically high cultural level had not been subject to this kind of pressures. 

However, it could not have recovered with hypnosis and cognitive treatments if it was an illness caused by a virus. So, it is a situation possible to be treated, it does not look like a virus at all.

Consequently, learning the illness can be a factor, the virus can be a factor as well. Nevertheless, I think that the personality and social alienation and loneliness provoke this kind of illnesses rather than the reasons above. In a life dependent on machine system and where there is no human factor, while sharing, touching and relations are decreasing can it be possible that the symptoms which people show in order to stay away dependent on reasons rather than shyness.? Except this shyness and hesitation, cant it be physical reflection of I can not share with you and “I am bored”?

Many data indicates that common points of those having this illness combine with matters such as positiveness and the level of culture-education and personal awareness is high.

It may initially seem strange that well-educated, knowing people whose social relations are good and standards are high may experience this kind of things.  It is asked why a grown and social person can have various illnesses. The worry of being perfect, feeling lonely in the world because of being misunderstood and the most importantly, having a structure of making solutions including psychological problems…  

After a while, the person get tired of carrying all this qualities, he/she knows himself/herself so well that he/she can cope with all problems. This tiredness is sometimes reflected in the body; actually, the mind wants to say that “I don’t want to carry all these burdens, I have right to be ordinary”. The symptoms reflected in body become another problem for someone whose self-control is already strong.  He/she has always been as perfect, he/she has no right to cry, shout, get mad, fall and faint. The conscious knowing that it has no such rights resists much more and this makes emotions live constantly. Against various situations, it wants to have reactions such as getting angry, shouting and expressing like a human being. Its aim is warning. In fact, the conscious wants to say that I have right for every element of life.  

Living all these is not so easy; it is hard to pretend as a normal person when you have symptoms of a heavy illness.

The common saying of those having Social Phobia- Panic Attack and others is same: “I wish I could faint, could fall, could not walk and even could die so that I can get rid of this”.  This clearly indicates how serious the situation they are in. The surveys indicate that the physical pain of those having actual physical problem is much less than those having this kind of illnesses.   In other word, the pain of those having a heart attach includes certain seconds but the trouble of those having a panic attack can last much longer.

However, the compelling part of this situation is the fact that nobody can understand this. Moreover, the people trying to make empathy assume that the situation is controllable. The sentences such as “If you want you can beat, fight with it” make the person having this kind of illness much weaker.  

However, the situation is very different in Social Phobia and Panic Attack; these people have already the capacity of being social-active and are tired of its burden. They feel indisposed because of getting rid of chain of being perfect, expressing themselves, not being lonely or secondary gains which they can not name. They have learnt that they have some gains in avoidance attitude which indisposition brought. Even though the gains are very unimportant beside the illness being felt, it has been learnt once. In fact, the solution is very simple but the reason of not beating this by a person knowing his/her situation and having made many researches is hidden in fighting against him/her for this.  There will no winner or loser as long as the record in subconscious stays in its place.

In addition to gaining awareness in Social Phobia or Panic Attack, it is possible to correct wrong learning with Cognitive Approaches or Hypnosis. As the person can not get more solution by fighting with itself, the problem can be constant and settled as time goes by. 

If the fashion of wrong illness and wrong usages is put aside, the number of people knowing Social Phobia, Panic Attack and others is not low and these people will have great troubles as they can not manifest their situations and are not understood by others.