What are the main symptoms of panic attacks?

Physical symptoms during a panic attack, such as a pounding or racing heart, sweating, chills, trembling, breathing problems, weakness or dizziness, tingly or numb hands, chest pain, stomach pain, and nausea. Panic attacks can be very frightening. When panic attacks occur, you might think you're losing control or having a heart attack. Panic attacks begin suddenly, without warning. They can strike at any time like when you're driving a car, at the mall, sound asleep or in the middle of a something. You may have occasional panic attacks, or they may occur frequently. Hope this gave you some insight about the symptoms of a panic attack!

Physical symptoms during a panic attack, such as a pounding or racing heart, sweating, chills, trembling, breathing problems, weakness or dizziness, tingly or numb hands, chest pain, stomach pain, and nausea. An intense worry about when the next panic attack will happen.A panic attack is a sudden episode of intense fear that triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent cause. Panic attacks can be very frightening. When panic attacks occur, you might think you're losing control, having a heart attack or even dying. Many people have just one or two panic attacks in their lifetimes, and the problem goes away, perhaps when a stressful situation ends. But if you've had recurrent, unexpected panic attacks and spent long periods in constant fear of another attack, you may have a condition called panic disorder.

Panic attacks come in many shapes and sizes. When I have a panic attack, I feel like I can't breathe. My limbs go numb and I feel like I can't speak. It feels like I'm drowning above water. My heart races and I am confused and scared. I don't even know quite what's going on. For other people it's different. I have a friend who doesn't get any physical symptoms except shortness of breath. However, she says she feels like the entire world is so far away that even if she tried to reach out for help nobody would see or hear her.

In the very beginning of a panic attack, there is a trigger that will start it. You have to realize your triggers. You will begin to get shaky and its gonna get really bad. Then once your shakiness gets bad, you will start crying and it depends on how longs it lasts. Your chest will start to hurt. You may lock yourself in your room when this happens that way no one will see you, but if you are in public, you will most likely find a quiet place. The main symptoms are shakiness. chest pains, crying, and it gets hard to breathe.

From personal experience: - Pounding heartbeat that can sometimes be heard in your head/ears - Fuzzy sensation in extremities, almost like buzzing - Nausea (main one for me) - Stomach cramps - Sweating or chills - Trembling, especially in fingers - Chest pain, a tight feeling right in the centre - Feeling of intense fear or impending danger - Fear of loss of control (also big one for me) - Breathlessness - Light-headedness - Paleness - Trouble focusing on anything else The main attack usually lasts from about 5 mins to half an hour. Some other symptoms I had, I felt before or after the attack and sometimes they would even cause it. For me, they were nothing like shown in movies. They weren't loud and they weren't obvious when in a room full of people, unless you really looked at me. Whenever I had one, I withdrew into myself. The most obvious symptom for an onlooker was probably the paleness or the shaking since I very rarely hyperventilated (I was mostly just quietly breathless.)

The symptoms for panic attacks can differ majorly from person to person experiencing them. Most of the time, I have experienced feeling really lightheaded or overwhelming dizziness which can lead to confusion, my legs and hands starting to feel rather 'fizzy' like static and go numb, and my chest feeling incredibly heavy to the point where it makes it difficult to breath. On top of all these physical symptoms, you'll get the usual mental notions of anxiety -- just more heightened than normal. If you ever find yourself or a friend having a panic attack, breath work can really help depending on the scenario. Always make sure they feel comfortable and reassured that they are safe.

Panic attacks are scary, but they are different for everyone. For me, I often cry uncontrollably, have a hard time catching my breath, thinking irrationally, and even thinking so far ahead into my future about things that I don't need to worry about yet. It is important to take this with a grain of salt because symptoms of panic attacks are so so different for everyone. If you think you are experiencing panic attacks, it is important that you seek help and care from a doctor. They can help!! It may be scary, but it will be worth it in the long run!!

Genetic and environmental factors are two important components in the development of the disease. The genesis of panic disorder is usually related to the binomial: genetic predisposition + traumatic event that serves as a trigger for the appearance of the disorder. Among the risk factors for panic syndrome, we can mention: Positive family history. Adversities in childhood. Have other psychiatric disorders. Have an anxious personality. Persistent family, social or professional stress. History of personal traumas, such as robberies or car accidents. Typical signs and symptoms of a panic attack include: Palpitations or racing heart. Sweating. Tremor. Feeling of shortness of breath or not being able to breathe properly. Rapid breathing. Pain or discomfort in the chest. Feeling of difficulty to swallow. Nausea. Abdominal pain or malaise. Headache. Dizziness. Depersonalization (feeling separated from yourself). Fear of losing control. Fear of going crazy. Fear to die Tingling sensations on the face or limbs. Chills or heat waves The symptoms described above appear suddenly, peak in a few minutes and can last up to 1 hour.

Everyone may experience different symptoms. For me, when I am anxious I get really sweaty hands while simultaneously feeling extremely cold. My hear rate goes up and I get really antsy and alert. Sometimes my anxiety goes beyond this and I get panic attacks. I begin to breathe too quickly and my brain races. Breathing too quickly causes me to hyperventilate and sometimes I cry. I have passed out or almost passed out in the past from lack of oxygen. I have even hallucinated during a panic attack. Sometimes the walls move and it feels like the world is closing in on me. Sometimes I see bugs flying around me. I rock back and forth and attempt to hide from the world because I view everything around me as a threat. I get irrational thoughts about a variety of things and my reality is completely distorted. I sometimes lose touch with reality and myself and believe everything around me is fake. It is a very scary experience for me . But as I mentioned, people experience symptoms of anxiety in different intensities , common ones are racing thoughts, breathing issue, loss of balance , getting sweaty etc .

When a person is having a panic attack, they are experiencing the activation of their sympathetic nervous system, also known as fight or flight. There's a 3rd F too that is lesser known. it stands for freeze. So what happens when the sympathetic nervous system is triggered by fear, either imagined or real, the heart begins to pump more blood, increasing the heartbeat. The lungs taken in more oxygen, in anticipation of needing to flee. There may be tingling in the extremites as the result of hyper (over) ventilation (breathing) which puts too much oxygen into the body at once. Additionally, as the body prepares you to respond to the threat, digestion slows or stops, which sometimes will force elimination of waste which could slow us down. The mouth is dry, the brain starts working overtime to keep us alert, and the muscles tense. These are the main symptoms. Because of all the increased activity in the cardiovascular system, a person having a panic attack might also feel dizzy or faint, or like they are about to lose their mind. when I have them, my stomach feels like it suddenly fills with adrenaline and I have smothering sensations in my chest. Interestingly, the system that calms us down is called the parasympathetic nervous system and it produces hormones that cause the opposite symptoms, so the heart rate slows down, the breathing rate slows, the muscles relax, and a greater sense of ease comes over the person. Learning how to trigger your own PNS is the key to recovering from a panic attack. You can do this in several different ways. Some of the easiest include, smiling, distracting yourself by counting things in the room you're in, distracting yourself in other ways, laughing, diaphragmatic breathing and many more. The reason it works is that by triggering the PNS, the alarms going off in your body will stop and after 3 minutes or so, an all clear signal will be sent and you'll start to feel better again, unless you trigger the SNS before the PNS has had a chance to do its job. Hope that helps!