Panic Disorder in Colchester, CT — When Anxiety Is Always There, and Panic Attacks Are Just the Worst of It

Maybe you've been anxious your whole life — the kind of anxious that shows up as worrying about every possible thing, trouble sleeping, a body that always feels slightly tense. And then panic attacks started. Or maybe you can't quite tell which came first: the general anxiety that never stops, or the panic attacks that hit out of nowhere. For a lot of people with panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is sitting right alongside it — and the two feed into each other in ways that make both harder to manage. The GAD provides a constant supply of worry and physical tension that keeps the nervous system primed. The panic attacks arrive and then become one more thing to worry about. It becomes hard to know where one ends and the other begins — and even harder to know where treatment should start. Sindhia Shyras, APRN has nine years of experience working through exactly this kind of overlapping picture with people across Connecticut, including Colchester.

Why Panic Disorder and GAD Often Appear Together

Panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder aren't the same condition, but they share a common root: a nervous system that's calibrated too high. In GAD, that shows up as persistent, excessive worry that's hard to control — about health, relationships, finances, work, things that haven't happened yet. In panic disorder, the same heightened reactivity produces acute episodes of intense physical fear. When both are present, the GAD keeps the baseline anxiety elevated, which lowers the threshold for a panic attack. And after a panic attack, the GAD has one more thing to worry about. Treatment needs to address both — not just one or the other — or you end up treating only half the problem.

How Sindhia Approaches a Dual Diagnosis

The good news is that the first-line medications for panic disorder — SSRIs and SNRIs — are also the first-line medications for generalized anxiety disorder. So a well-chosen medication can meaningfully help both conditions at once. The evaluation with Sindhia maps out the full picture: how long anxiety has been present, what form it takes, when panic attacks started, how the two seem to interact. That full picture is what determines the right starting point — and it keeps the treatment from being a game of whack-a-mole where you address one symptom while others flare. Follow-up appointments track both conditions, not just one of them.

You Don't Have to Untangle It Yourself Before You Call

A lot of people with overlapping anxiety conditions spend a lot of time trying to figure out their diagnosis before they seek care — reading, researching, making sure they have the "right" problem before they feel entitled to bring it to someone. You don't need to have it sorted. You just need to bring what you've been experiencing. Sindhia will ask the questions, draw the connections, and give you a clear picture of what's going on. Colchester is about 35 minutes from New Britain — in-person visits are available — and telehealth makes it possible to be seen from home if that's easier.

Frequently Asked Questions