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The responsibility of caring for five teenagers, the death of an uncle and a money crunch overwhelmed Lynn.

The 40-year-old Oklahoma wife and mother, who asked that her full name not be used, figured she could handle it. She dealt with stress on the job and at home every day. She tried to explain away her feelings, and things got worse.

Her resolve to get over it crumbled on a hot August day as she was driving home from work. She experienced a rush of adrenaline, a feeling she describes as electricity from her head to her feet.

Lynn would eventually learn that her affliction is among the most common but also most misunderstood and misdiagnosed of psychiatric illness. It would be longer, however, before she would accept that she was suffering anxiety disorder — panic attacks.

On that August day, Lynn called her husband and waited for him to get home to drive her to the emergency room.

"I was super-scared, and I thought I was having a heart attack,” she said. "My mouth was dry, and my lips were tingling. I had small episodes the week before, and I just blew it off,” she said. "My chest was heavy, my pulse rate was high, and I thought it was my blood pressure.”

The doctor prescribed blood pressure medicine, but she still didn't feel good. The medicine was changed, but it didn't help.

At the emergency room, she was given Valium and was admitted to the hospital for monitoring. The doctor told her he thought she was having an anxiety attack, a diagnosis he had mentioned previously. He suggested antidepressants, but Lynn resisted his advice and requested additional medical tests.

"I was thinking the doctor was wrong,” Lynn said. "I had an EKG, an ultrasound and a heart stress test. I wanted a diagnosis that wasn't panic attack. I just kept saying I didn't feel good.”

She underwent numerous medical tests in a search for a different answer.

The next time she visited her doctor, she brought along a list of things that were going on in her life. The doctor listened and pointed out how fearful she sounded and how fast she was talking. She said she just wanted it to go away so she could get on with what she had to do. Yet, in the back of her mind she knew that wasn't going to happen.

Her mother encouraged her to take a short trip, and Lynn and her husband took a few days off to visit out-of-town friends. During the trip, Lynn rested and she began to think about the events of the past month.

"I tried having an open mind and agreed to give the antidepressants a try,” she said. "Finally, I thought about what I could change in my life that would help me. I didn't want my health problems to be attributed to a panic attack because it meant I wasn't in control. If it was a heart problem, they could fix it.”

The National Institute of Mental Health defines panic disorder as an anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness or abdominal distress.

There may be a sense of unreality or fear of impending doom or loss of control.

Lynn denied the diagnosis she received, but Carolyn Archer spent years searching for a diagnosis.

Archer, 49, of Oklahoma City went to the emergency room 37 times in two years. She underwent every heart test available, and as her panic attacks increased, she began to withdraw from life.

"I can't tell you how many carts of groceries I left sitting in the aisle at the grocery store,” Archer said. "I had to get out of there immediately at the first sign of a panic attack. And if I didn't, I would pass out. I always had to park my car where I didn't have to back up so I could drive away fast if I felt threatened.”

She thought she was losing touch with reality, and for nearly a year she stayed inside her house. She said her teenage son did the grocery shopping and nearly everything else that had to be done.”

She was thinking of suicide when her son intervened and took her to a crisis center, where she was finally diagnosed. Through counseling and medicine, she started on a long road to restoring her life.

"It was a relief to finally have a name” for her affliction, Archer said. "If somebody had sat me down the very first time to explain what a panic attack was, I wouldn't have gone through what I did. If you have a name for something, it is not as scary.”

The Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to informing the public, health care professionals and legislators that anxiety disorders are real, serious and treatable.

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric illnesses affecting children and adults, and may develop from a complex set of risk factors including genetics, brain chemistry, personality and life events, according to ADAA information.

A study commissioned by ADAA based on data gathered by the association, and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, states that misdiagnosis and undertreatment of anxiety disorders costs the nation $42 billion annually.

Jeff Dismukes, public information director at the state Mental Health Department, was diagnosed with acute panic/anxiety disorder in 2001.

He said he was the kind of guy who loved extreme sports and wasn't afraid of anything. He learned it wasn't that kind of fear, and when he experienced the panic attacks, he felt as if it were branded on his forehead.”

"I thought that I was alone, and it was a horrible feeling,” Dismukes said. "There are a lot of people out there going through this. When an unfounded fear comes over you, Boom! It's there, and it inhibits your ability to function the way you want to. People avoid getting treatment because of the stigma, but the panic attacks become more frequent and intense. Then people at work and at home start to think something is wrong.”

He said people should talk to their family physician, and if there is a diagnosis of panic disorder, they should accept the fact it is a very real problem. A combination of medicine and therapy is the usual treatment.

Dismukes urged people not to wait until there is a crisis to seek help. He said Oklahomans are "pull your selves up by the bootstraps” people. But telling yourself to snap out of it won't work. He said he is now happier and calmer, and looks at life differently because he got help.