Analysis Of The Article 'PANIC' By Emily Leventhal

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Popular magazines often include articles about mental illnesses. These tend to include a featured story about a person who suffered from a certain disorder and sometimes symptoms. The articles are usually based on one specific case, but they frequently make the mistake of generalizing the symptoms of one person to the public. This can lead to readers receiving wrong information and being ignorant about a condition. They may also diagnose themselves, basing their knowledge on a magazine and forgetting that each case is different. The article “PANIC!” by Emily Leventhal featured on Woman's Day and published in 2000 was not entirely the case. The article was close to accurate and helpful with the information provided, including symptoms, explanation …show more content…

The situation they present is a great example of a person with the disorder for several reasons. First of all, the fact that the story is about a woman is perfect, since it is clinically proven that more women experience panic attacks in the United States than men (Klerman et al., 1990). They do focus on the fact that this may be because more women report it than men. I thought it was great that they included such evidence in order not to produce bias or future misinformation. However, the example used in the article was a story of a 38 year old woman. It makes since that they used a female of that age since it is likely that they make up most of the audience for the magazine. Regardless, I think they should have mentioned that panic disorder is more common in young adults, usually in their 20s (Elkins, Pincus, & Comer, 2013; Klerman et al., …show more content…

So while their use of older women as their examples may benefit the magazine, it may influence readers to think that this disorder only affects such age group and not younger females and males. The scenario also includes several symptoms that actually occur to individuals. Throughout the article, professionals interviewed mention the most common symptoms. At the end they even provide a more extensive list. They correctly explain how many panic attacks a person must have for a certain period of time to be diagnosed with the disorder. However, they do not explain how many symptoms must be present in order to actually have a full panic attack. At least four symptoms must be present in order for a person to be diagnosed as having a panic attack (Cerny,

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