Symptoms of Panic Attacks

Extreme anxiety can make a person suffer from a panic attack. Its onset is sudden and the symptoms of a panic attack are immense. Some people who suffer from panic attacks believe that they are experiencing a heart attack or believe that what they are feeling can lead to a heart attack. In some extreme cases, some people might even think that they are dying. People do not actually die from panic attacks, but the symptoms that they experience are very intense.

Panic attack symptoms can appear suddenly without any real cause. Its symptoms can be felt within the body as it reacts to an uncontrollable fear like pounding or racing heart, chest pains or difficulty breathing, stomach upset or nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, tingling or numbness in the hands, hot flashes or chills. The symptoms can also be felt within the mind by experiencing a dreamlike sensation, the feeling of terror, a need to escape, the fear of loosing control or doing something embarrassing or the fear of dying.

One of the key symptoms of a panic disorder is the fear of having future panic attacks. Most people who have had one panic attack are likely to have others. The fear of experiencing an attack again can cause the person to avoid places and situations where an attack has occurred in the past or where they believe an attack may occur. This might cause them to develop a phobia about these situations. Panic attacks are different from other types of anxiety attacks because they can happens so suddenly and unexpected. They can occur without being provoked and are often times disabling. The panic attacks themselves can be a symptom of an anxiety disorder. Once in a pattern of anxiety and avoidance, the person is said to have a panic disorder. A Panic disorder can have a serious impact on an individual’s daily life unless the person receives effective treatment. Around 3 million adult Americans suffer from panic attacks at some point in their lives, making it a serious health problem. The peak age at which an individual might experience their first panic attack is between the ages of 15 and 19.

Panic attacks usually lasts for several minutes and will probably the most distressing condition that a person can experience. And because the symptoms of panic attacks closely resemble that of a heart attack, the person who suffers from a panic attack fears what is happening to him or her by believing that what's happening to them might lead to death. Panic attacks can take place while an individual is sleeping as well. These are nocturnal panic attacks but they occur far less often than panic attacks during the day. 40%-70% of individuals who suffer from daytime panic attacks will also suffer from nocturnal panic attacks. These attacks tend to cause sufferers to wake suddenly from sleep in a state of sudden anxiety through no apparent cause and can have all the other symptoms of a panic attack. Although nocturnal panic attacks tend to last less than 10 minutes, the time that it takes to fully calm down after such an experience can be much longer.

While typically, individuals tend to suffer in certain different ways when it comes to panic attacks, the symptoms for all individuals fall into the dame state of mind; an uncontrollable fear.