Are These Panic Attacks I'm Having?

What are panic attacks?

A panic attack is the sudden onrush of physical symptoms that bring with them an intense feeling of fear or worry. The most common physical symptoms people experience in a panic attack is a racing heart and difficulty breathing, however people can also experience a number of different things, below we list all the possible symptoms of a panic attack.

Because of the intensity of these physical symptoms, people often confuse panic attacks with a heart attack or another serious medical condition. For that reason, people will often discover they are having a panic attack after they have been rushed to the Emergency Room by concerned family members - only to be told by the doctor on call that there is nothing wrong with them. In fact, if you ask a person who has experienced both, they would tell you the feeling is actually quite different! A good thing to remember is that if you are having a heart attack, your heart rate is actually slowing down, not speeding up!

Most of the time when you experience a panic attack it's during a time when you are under a lot of stress. However, the link between a trigger or a stressful moment may not be apparent to you at the time of the attack - that is normal. In fact, people will often describe their panic attacks as coming out of nowhere.

For every 100 people you know, 23 of them have had a panic attack.

In a room of 10 people, 2 of them will have had a panic attack.

Ok, so what is a panic disorder then?

Having a panic attack does not mean that you have Panic Disorder (PD) - most people who have experienced a panic attack will not go on to develop a serious concern or preoccupation over having panic attacks, which is a hallmark sign of PD.

Following a panic attack, a person with PD will be really concerned with the implications of the panic attack. People living with PD often find themselves worrying if the panic attacks mean there is something wrong with them physically, if they are going crazy, or if they are losing control. As such, a person with PD will start to worry a lot about having another PA again and would go to great lengths to avoid that from happening. For some people, this leads to them developing a fear of leaving their homes altogether, a condition called Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia or PDWA.

Living with PD often means you also experience an intense fixation with the physical reactions of a panic attack; a person with PD will learn to closely monitor themselves, making them really sensitive to any changes in their body (with a hyper-awareness that any change or symptom could be interpreted as the onset of a panic attack). For this reason, a person with PD will have panic attacks that really feel like they come out of the blue, as opposed to being triggered by a stressor or an incident, which could trigger a one-off panic attack.

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How different is an anxiety attack from a panic attack?

Panic attacks are generally much more intense and acute than an anxiety attack. In an anxiety attack, you will feel your stress intensify over a period of time rather than reach a sudden peak as it will in a panic attack. The stress may reach a level that is overwhelming, making it feel like an attack, and the symptoms may be persistent and long-lasting. Both can cause a major disruption in your day, but one of the hallmarks of a panic attack is that it happens fast and sometimes feels like it came out of nowhere. A panic attack will usually resolve fairly quickly (within 20-30 minutes) and can leave you feeling quite tired afterwards, like your body has “crashed” because of the intensity of the attack.

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How can I tell if I'm having them?

Signs and symptoms of a panic attack:

To meet the criteria for a panic attack you will have at least 4 of the following symptoms (taken from the DSM5):

Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate
Sweating
Trembling or shaking
Shortness of breath or feeling of smothering
Feelings of choking
Chest pain or discomfort
Nausea or abdominal distress
Feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or faint
Chills or heat sensations
Paresthesias (ie, numbness or tingling sensations)
Derealization (ie, feeling of unreality) or depersonalization (ie, being detached from oneself)
Fear of losing control or going crazy
Fear of dying

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Are these panic attacks I'm having?

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