Symptoms Of A Panic Attack
Knowing The Symptoms Of A Panic Attack Can Diffuse The Anxiety!
The symptoms of a panic attack can vary from person to person but they nearly always make the sufferer feel very distressed and frightened. Panic attack symptoms will usually come on with no prior warning, for no apparent reason and can do so alarmingly quickly.
Here are the main symptoms of a panic attack that may be experienced:
Chest pain, a sensation that your heart is beating irregularly (palpitations), sweating, trembling, hot flushes, chills, shortness of breath, a choking sensation, dry mouth, a need to go to the toilet, ringing in your ears, a feeling of dread, or a fear of dying, a churning stomach, nausea, dizziness, feeling faint, numbness, or pins and needles, a tingling sensation in fingers, shivering and also shaking.
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More distressing than these physical symptoms of panic attacks are the often terrifying thoughts and feelings that can accompany an attack. It is really these accompanying thoughts and feeling that ensure that the sufferer is in constant fear of their next attack. This is what is responsible for the nasty cycle of ‘living in fear’ which can trap certain people.
On occasion the symptoms of a panic attack can be so severe the at person involved thinks they are having a heart attack. This is where a bit of prior knowledge is required. It is important to be aware that symptoms such as a fast heart beat and a shortness of breathe do not mean that you are having a heart attack or that you are about to have one! In fact if you suffer these attack for any length of time you will learn to recognise these ‘symptoms of a heart attack’ and learn to react to them with a pinch of salt i.e. you will not need to buy into the panic and anxious thoughts surrounding yourself having a heart attack as you will now it not to be the case.
The symptoms of a panic attack most commonly peak at around the 10 minute mark with the majority of panic attacks lasting between 5 and 20 minutes, and in some exceptional cases attacks of an hour in length have been recorded although this is unusual and often believed to be two separate panic attacks merging into one. Either way remember, panic attacks do not kill people, sufferers live through them and come out the other side just fine.
On occasions when panic attacks are severe the sufferer can experience a sort of depersonalization of the event. As the symptoms have gotten so far out of hand and out of their control that they may feel it is as though it is happening to someone else, as though they are an observer of the situation where as actually they are the center of it. Again this should be noted as being a normal part of the process and prior knowledge that this is the case will often help.
People who have panic disorder generally have panic attacks on an ongoing basis. It can be anything from once or twice a month to a few times a week. It varies from person to person and overtime as the sufferer learns to deal with them more effectively. Sufferer’s tend to have ongoing feelings of underlying anxiety though, often related to when and where their next attack will take place.