What is a Panic Attack? (4 min. read)
Take a deep breath, in and out. As you relax into that breath, you are most likely experiencing a tiny bit of calm that you weren’t aware of before. A bit of grounding and being present in the moment. We often lose this sense of peace throughout the day, if we ever even had it to begin with. That’s because stress and anxiety affect our bodies in a very physical way.
A panic attack is something that happens at the crossroads of your brain and your body reacting to your environment. Your thoughts influence your body which plays a role in your behaviors, and the cycle continues in what can be a terrifying experience.
Panic Attack Symptoms
Here is the official definition of a panic attack (taken from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM5 for short): See if anything sounds familiar:
An abrupt surge of intense fear or intense discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes, with 4 or more of these symptoms:
Abnormal/accelerated heart rate
Sweating
Trembling/shaking
Sensations of shortness of breath or smothering
Feelings of choking
Chest pain or discomfort
Nausea or abdominal distress
Dizzy, unsteady, light-headed
Chills or heat sensations
Numbness or tingling sensations
Derealization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (feeling detached from oneself)
Fear of losing control or going crazy
Fear of dying
So there it is. Some are minor and some are more intense, but if you have experienced this before, you have had a panic attack. However, you might still be asking why they happen.
Why do Panic Attacks Happen?
I first want to say that sometimes a physical condition can cause many of these symptoms. So if you haven’t had a full check up at the doctor recently, that would be a great place to start. Having an accurate diagnosis of the problem will lead to better results in treating it. What I’m addressing in this post deals with panic attacks that are psychological in nature.
Panic is a completely normal bodily response to a perceived threat. It’s a function designed to save your life when you encounter a true life-or-death scenario. So if you stepped out into oncoming traffic, your body would kick on this response and you would experience many of these symptoms as you quickly got back to safety.
This happens so fast that you don’t even have to think about it. Your brain bypasses the cognitive problem-solving functions and switches on your instinctual functions because to take an extra second to think could be fatal. Pretty cool, right?
However, this is where you might run into trouble if you have encountered panic attacks. Because they happen involuntarily, they can feel out of control and occur at the most inconvenient times.
Think about a smoke alarm that goes off at the wrong time. It goes from being a life-saving device to the most annoying thing in your house. I was once woken up in the middle of the night by a smoke alarm, only to find out later that there were probably some cobwebs in the alarm which made it go off. Not the most restful night’s sleep.
When an alarm system is overly sensitive, it becomes disruptive and unhelpful. And that is exactly what is happening if you experience frequent or unwanted panic attacks.
Your body is interpreting a thought or situation as threatening and sending you into fight or flight mode, though no real threat is present. Even though you are completely safe, it feels like death could be upon you.
So now what?
Are Panic Attacks Dangerous?
There are many helpful things to know about panic attacks which will prove helpful to you, but for starters, know this:
You are not going to die, and you are not going crazy.
Of course, stepping out into traffic like I mentioned above actually could be a life or death situation, so what I am referring to are the situations when a panic attack occurs but you are actually in a normal and safe setting.
The fear of death is part of the normal response your brain has to what it perceives as a severe threat. This would be useful if you were actually in danger. However, giving a speech or driving on the highway is usually not a life-threatening situation. Even if your body ramps up to a panic attack in these situations, it will calm down again.
There’s a cyclical process inside you called your autonomic nervous system. One part ramps you up, the other part calms you down. They always work together, so your body literally cannot stay in a state of panic forever.
It’s normal. It’s natural. You are not going to die.
Now to address the “going crazy” fear. You are not alone if you have ever thought this in a moment of panic. Turns out, as part of your fight or flight response, certain parts of your brain aren’t going to function at full capacity. This means you might not feel fully oriented in space and time. Things might seem to move slowly or you may feel as if you are in a dream. You have trouble remembering things and feel frazzled. This leads to the thought that surely you are losing it.
However, it’s all part of the process trying to keep you alive. Blood is being allocated to other places momentarily to help you survive. It will return and you will be able to think straight again. You’ll get through it.
It’s normal. It’s natural. You are not going crazy.
Panic attacks are not dangerous. If you can believe this, you are off to a good start.
And now that we have a foundation, this next blog post addresses how to break free from panic attacks.
Written by Nicholas Hunter, MA, LPC
Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash