Have you ever experience a panic attack? I don’t want alarm you, but the average person will experience at least one panic attack in the course of their lifetime.
This doesn’t mean you are caught in a panic disorder, however it’s important you know what the main panic attack symptoms are and be able to recognise if you are having one.
What is a panic attack
A panic attack is the triggering of the so called “fight or flight” mechanism, i.e. is your body’s reaction to a situation your mind perceives as stressful and requiring immediate action and resolution (i.e. you have to leave it by solving it or by flying away).
If this reaction triggers in real high stress times requiring an extra level of action, then it is healthy and is going to help your survival (this is the so called “eustress” or “good stress”).
When this reaction triggers at inappropriate moments, becomes a panic attack. If a panic attack is triggered frequently in your daily life it becomes a panic disorder.
Panic attack or heart attack?
One of the main symptoms of panic attack is tightness in your chest, that could lead you to believe you are having a heart attack. In fact, panic attack and hearth attack can have surprisingly similar symptoms.
If you experienced a panic attack and have the doubt, see your doctor and go for a check with him, He will assure you that the two are different and that can be distinguished for sure and will help you to identify if you are taking hearth risking by direct check or, if needed, with some medical exams.
Are you having a panic attack?
So how can you tell if you are having a panic attack? Together with tightness in your chest, there are just a few less common symptoms related to panic attacks, each varying from person to person in frequence and intensity. In fact most chronic panic sufferers tend to have a unique set of symptoms that mark uniquely their panic attacks.
Here are a few more distinguishing factors behind panic attacks:
- Increased heart rate.
- Quickness of breathing.
- Overwhelming feeling of dread or fear (panic).
- Unfounded fear towards random objects or events.
- Increased body temperature.
- Tingling in one or both arms and/or the tips of the fingers.
- Dizziness.
- Profuse sweating.
- Lightheadedness.
- Nausea.
- Minor delusions.
Panic in your mind, not in your time
Even if symptoms can be daunting, a person who experiences any combination of the above panic attack symptoms has to remember that the feelings will not last very long.
The fact is that panic attacks are very limited in time and the body can only maintain this reaction for, at most, 15 minutes.
So the panic is in your mind but is not in your time. It’s overwhelming but it won’t last forever in your day. It’s hard, but you won’t die and you are going to experience a relief short after.
About anxiety
When you have a panic attack, you often experience a feeling of anxiety about new attacks that could follow.
This is natural and a confirm that you experienced a real panic attack and not something else. This fear lasts from a few days to a week in most people.
If this fear lasts more (and this will happen probably if you are going to experience more than a panic attack in a week), then there is some evidence for a panic disorder, and a professional medical advice is mandatory. In this case seek help with a medical physician, or psychiatric doctor in order to control your attacks; and things will improve.
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