Many people who have never experienced any serious bout of anxiety hear the term “panic attack” and can’t really grasp what a panic attack is. One of the best definitions appears at the website, Anxietypanic.com:

A panic attack is a sudden surge of overwhelming fear that comes without warning and without any obvious reason.

Symptoms of panic attacks vary from person to person, but some of the most popular symptoms include:

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  Sudden terror

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  Feeling you are about to lose consciousness, even die

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  Racing Heartbeat

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  Dizziness

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  Tingling in Arms, Hands, Fingers (and sometimes legs and feet)

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  Trembling/Shaking

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  Excessive Sweating (”Cold Sweats”)

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  Sudden Chills

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  Chest Pains

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  Shortness of Breath

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  Fear you are about to go crazy

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  Restlessness

So you now have an idea of how pleasant a panic attack can really be. But notice something key in the description above: “…that comes without warning and without any obvious reason.”

This is the key.

We all get stressed out from one thing or another. People who have panic and anxiety disorders have stress levels to the nth degree by comparison. But a panic attack can come on after a crisis has been solved: when most people without the disorder would begin feeling normal and “unstressed” again, one who suffers from one of these disorders could suddenly undergo one of these attacks out of the blue. They feel like a serious medical condition: a stroke or a heart attack, for instance. The reality of the symptoms and the seemingly lack of direct cause for such an attack is enough to convince the average anxiety patient that it’s not an anxiety attack but the “real thing.” Many rush to emergency rooms, convinced they are about to die, only to be sent home with anti-depressants and a lot of shame for having allowed themselves be fooled by their own psyhce. They have no real reason to be ashamed, of course, but when they realize their own mind has duped them, that is often the result.

What’s worse is that though most panic attacks only last for a couple of minutes on average, because the body can only maintain the high levels of brain chemistry that produce the “fight or flight” response, those levels can recharge several times over the course of an hour, which leads to multiple attacks over a period of time, putting the sufferer through sheer hell.

If any of these symptoms sound familiar to you, I would recommend that you visit anxietypanic.com for more information about Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. You should schedule an appointment with your doctor so that it can be determined whether you really suffer from the condition. There are many medications out there that can make a real difference in dealing with these terrible illnesses. You owe it to yourself to feel better.