Quote:
Originally Posted by amandalouise
Ive thought about asking the same thing many times but I have found in the list there is the words ....Panic attack, and panic disorder...which here in new york is another way of saying you are having ....an anxiety attack.... and have ....anxiety disorder...
So I just thought maybe where Doc John is the terms mean the same thing just that where he is (where this site is based) maybe they use the terms panic attack and panic disorder instead of using the terms anxiety attack and anxiety disorder.
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Panic attack, panic disorder, GAD, social anxiety and so forth are types of anxiety disorder. It's similar to stating one has a mood disorder; a perfectly valid class of disorders but it alone is ambiguous as to which mood disorder the person has (i.e. bipolar I, bipolar II, depression, etc...). The same applies for anxiety disorder.
Anxiety attacks are an alternative name for panic attacks, so they're used interchangeably. It's possible there also is a geographical dependency as you suggested. It's a bit of a murky term since the category is anxiety disorders and all such disorders contain the word anxiety, except panic attack and panic disorder. The only reason I can think of is to allow panic disorder to be a separate disorder because if it were changed to anxiety attack, then it would be awkward to have, "anxiety disorder" within an anxiety disorder class.
