Panic attacks are sudden episodes of almost uncontrollable and
inescapable fear or anxiety, and are characterized by sweating, a rapid
heart rate, shortness of breath and the feeling of choking, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Each year, six million Americans experience at least one panic attack. It has been described as being trapped and suffocated, urgent and frightening.
Scientists have found evidence that panic attacks are not due to "weakness in character," but caused by a brain abnormality in which a chemical messenger that deals with emotion doesn't work properly, according to an article in the New York Times.
According to Scientific American, the brain's regions that are sent into high gear are the amygdala, which deals with fear, and some of the midbrain, which deals with how pain is felt. In particular, the periaqueductal gray — a region in the midbrain that initiates the body going into defense mode, which includes freezing up — is hyperactive during panic attacks, a scientific study found. When our defense mechanisms malfunction, this may result in an over exaggeration of the threat, leading to increased anxiety and, in extreme cases, panic.
Stress and anxiety causes the nervous system to flare up, and in attempts to calm down, the parasympathetic system goes into action. However, if it fails to do so, the person will continue to feel revved up.
We have always felt that the LOST island was a panic attack factory. Each week there were some daunting task, dangerous missions, or attacks from the Others and the smoke monsters.
The smoke monsters thrived on the characters' fears, anxieties and panic attacks. Each time it attacked the survivors, their power would increase. That is why Jacob continued to bring human beings to the island, in order to have a supply of emotional high level brain activity to feed upon.
One way to look at the smoke monster's conduct was that it needed people's fears in order to gain energy and survive. Once the main characters overcame their fears of the island and its inherit dangers, the smoke monster became mortal.
We were told that Jacob and MIB were immortal beings having been on the island for centuries. They could not kill each other. So what happened to change their immortality.
For Jacob, it had to have happened when Ben no longer feared him - - - and struck out and stabbed him with a knife. That led to the slow collapse of Jacob's smoke monster power since fear was waning against him.
For Flocke/MIB, his demise happened when both Jack and Kate no longer feared him during their final battle. Jack struck him and drew blood meaning that the smoke monster's energy field or barrier was weak. Kate's bullet that killed MIB was only caused by the fact that MIB was no longer immortal.
But there is still a contradiction on the island's immortality. Dead souls could still appear on the island, as Horace did to Locke. Also, another immortal, Alpert seemed real - - - was he an ghost or was he another smoke monster? Probably the former, but we don't know if a ghost could leave the island. In a reverse context, Alpert began to age when he no longer feared Jacob or MIB since they had both had been defeated and gone.
Each year, six million Americans experience at least one panic attack. It has been described as being trapped and suffocated, urgent and frightening.
Scientists have found evidence that panic attacks are not due to "weakness in character," but caused by a brain abnormality in which a chemical messenger that deals with emotion doesn't work properly, according to an article in the New York Times.
According to Scientific American, the brain's regions that are sent into high gear are the amygdala, which deals with fear, and some of the midbrain, which deals with how pain is felt. In particular, the periaqueductal gray — a region in the midbrain that initiates the body going into defense mode, which includes freezing up — is hyperactive during panic attacks, a scientific study found. When our defense mechanisms malfunction, this may result in an over exaggeration of the threat, leading to increased anxiety and, in extreme cases, panic.
Stress and anxiety causes the nervous system to flare up, and in attempts to calm down, the parasympathetic system goes into action. However, if it fails to do so, the person will continue to feel revved up.
We have always felt that the LOST island was a panic attack factory. Each week there were some daunting task, dangerous missions, or attacks from the Others and the smoke monsters.
The smoke monsters thrived on the characters' fears, anxieties and panic attacks. Each time it attacked the survivors, their power would increase. That is why Jacob continued to bring human beings to the island, in order to have a supply of emotional high level brain activity to feed upon.
One way to look at the smoke monster's conduct was that it needed people's fears in order to gain energy and survive. Once the main characters overcame their fears of the island and its inherit dangers, the smoke monster became mortal.
We were told that Jacob and MIB were immortal beings having been on the island for centuries. They could not kill each other. So what happened to change their immortality.
For Jacob, it had to have happened when Ben no longer feared him - - - and struck out and stabbed him with a knife. That led to the slow collapse of Jacob's smoke monster power since fear was waning against him.
For Flocke/MIB, his demise happened when both Jack and Kate no longer feared him during their final battle. Jack struck him and drew blood meaning that the smoke monster's energy field or barrier was weak. Kate's bullet that killed MIB was only caused by the fact that MIB was no longer immortal.
But there is still a contradiction on the island's immortality. Dead souls could still appear on the island, as Horace did to Locke. Also, another immortal, Alpert seemed real - - - was he an ghost or was he another smoke monster? Probably the former, but we don't know if a ghost could leave the island. In a reverse context, Alpert began to age when he no longer feared Jacob or MIB since they had both had been defeated and gone.
