Naa
The brain runs on sugar in some form. Too much or too little has an effect.
Information overload. This is a major cause for panic and why Benzodiazapenes work. In your brain is an area like a freight yard for trains. It is a sorting area referred to as a cluster. There are other areas but this is the main one. Information gathered through the senses passes through a number of receptors before getting to the brain. It doesn't go there in a straight line. Think of these receptors as being shaped like your hand with information going in your finger and exiting your wrist to be passed on to the next. Each one of these fingers has a gate or guard that is operated by previous memory. It controls whether what is at the gate is important and should be passed on. During heightened anxiety more are open and more information is passed on. Caffeine opens them, Benzo's close them. This is why the temporary need to stop coffee. It is temporary. If too many open it creates confusion. You literally are pulled too many directions trying to decide what to do. Usually in an attack it is run, but where. Where do you run when you don't know what is getting you. So your body increases these normal defence mechanisms referred to as panic symptoms. You will have noticed panic has a limited time it will stay panic but not a limited amount of times it can happen.
So since this is all based on previous memory and everything becomes previous memory you want to build useful positive memories that will control these gates. See what I mean, simple in theory but not so simple to do. We are still at, "change negative to positive". In actuality CBT is exactly what its components say it is. A changing of thought processes so you can do this. But if you are in a heightened anxious state all the time you can well imagine what you are putting in your memory and what you will draw on. Positive breeds positive. Like being pregnant. You start off small and months later you get a surprise that is pleasant or not depending on your attitude, because negative also breeds negative.
An important thing to remember is that all survival skills are negative so you need to be able to draw on them in a crisis. The thing you aim for is to keep everything from becoming a crisis. Balance in other words. Before stepping off the curb you want to be able to say what if that car speeds up, what if he doesn't see me. Okay so the guards open up and let information through so you can make a decision but when it is made they close again because you no longer need that much information. Not so in an attack. If this makes sense then we can move on to why it happens but there is no rush. You will not cure this overnight but information is power. And you can not fix something if you don't know why it is broke.
As for addiction. Addiction is chemical where a drug replaces another so you need it. Dependence is where you need a drug because your mind can't work without it. Teaching your mind to work gets rid of the dependence. There is a difference and this is why as you progress you find you don't need the drug and are actually not taking it. But this brings rise to fear and panic so for a year or more you will carry it with you and not use it. Just in case. And this just in case prevents panic.
Benzo's are not addictive where alcohol and drugs like T3's are. You become dependant on them if you don't have something to replace them.
Another thing is that right now you are using up seratonin in a big way. It is referred to as the happy drug but is in fact a chemical necessary for clear thoughts. When it works it works well but when it doesn't it is hell. SSRIs are something that will be suggested to you at some time.
Going outside to work for a bit.
Davit.
