Panic Attacks Tips and Help Guide

The symptoms of panic attacks will vary from one to another. However, understanding them will reduce your anxiety and may even reduce the frequency of the attack.

Most sufferers will have a shortness of breath. Just like someone is squeezing your chest and you feel you can't take a deep breath. This in itself, will create an anxiety and can complicate your breathing. When this happens, immediately begin to take deliberate slow breaths.

Some sufferers have even reported having a mental disassociation with their immediate surroundings. They can see people talking to them but have a difficult time processing the information at the time. This can be attributed, in some cases, to the fact that the shallow breathing can make one light-headed.

One of the most common signs is a racing heart rate. This, in many cases, is the first warning sign that you are about to have a panic attack. It can feel as though your heart won't slow down and it seems to get faster and faster. You can even feel it pounding and the awareness of this can be frightening. Many people think that they are possibly having a heart attack.

Everyone has slightly different experiences with anxiety. I had the racing heart and an uncontrollable restlessness, whereas my wife, had just the racing heartbeat. We both used to try and not think about it but it is very difficult, as I am sure you have noticed..

It's a pretty common scenario for most first time panic attack sufferers to immediately think they're having a heart attack. After all, one of the most prominent symptoms of a panic attack is a POUNDING heartbeat. It is pretty terrifying. Plus, if you're unfamiliar with the symptoms of a panic attack, a heart attack seems like a natural conclusion to what you're feeling.

It's common to mistake the chest pains that normally accompany panic attacks for a life threatening heart attack, this article will clear up the confusion and differentiate between the two. Upfront, I just want to say that people don't die from panic attacks.

So even though it feels like your heart is going to pop right out of your chest during one of these episodes, the fact is, attacks like these are similar to intense levels of cardio exercise with one major safety net. Extreme cardio exercise may potentially lead to heart attack whereas a panic attack will force you to pass out or faint before any real damage is done.

That's because the physical symptoms of a panic attack are triggered by an offset in breathing (usually hyperventilation). Your heart isn't being strained. Remember, your heart isn't what's causing the panic attack, your mind is.

This fear combined with the physical sensation creates a natural sense of urgency.

Every year, thousands (if not millions) of people having chest pain, difficulty breathing, pain or numbness in the left arm and tingling throughout the body end up in a hospital emergency room because they believe they're having a heart attack. Typically, a few tests are run, and the patient is sent home because the nature of the attack he or she experienced is one of panic, not coronary.

Here, I'll outline the symptoms of both a heart attack and a panic attack so you can see their subtle differences.

The two share several common symptoms. For instance, the chest pain from a heart attack is focused in the center of the chest and is crushing, as if a heavy weight is sitting on top of the chest. It is usually persistent, may radiate to the left arm, neck or back and lasts longer than 5 - 10 minutes. Heart attack victims don't hyperventilate (unless the person's fear of heart attack triggers a panic attack), any tingling they experience is usually confined to the left arm, and vomiting is common.

During a panic attack, chest pain is localized over the heart and described as "sharp", and comes and goes. The pain usually intensifies with breathing in and out, and pressing on the center of the chest. Panic attack may cause nausea, but vomiting is very rare. If tingling is present, the entire body tingles. Hyperventilation almost always precedes a panic attack symptoms. If the location of the pain moves to the center of the chest, doesn't go away within 10 minutes, is accompanied by more than one incident of vomiting or diarrhea, or goes away and returns a few minutes later, you should immediately get medical attention.

Now, if you're having panic attacks, you may be inclined to worry about how these episodes are affecting your heart long-term.

Panic attacks don't cause heart disease, and some experts say that they actually affect the heart similarly to the way cardio exercise does, by causing the release of adrenaline, increasing the heart rate, and expanding blood vessels. On the same note, heart disease doesn't cause anxiety panic attacks, although a person with a history of panic attacks who is actually having a coronary may also panic for fear of worsening the heart damage, dying or being disabled.

That said, stress is NEVER good for your overall health, so it's important to start treating your panic and anxiety right away. You won't hear me say that stress benefits your health of course, but try not to think of stress as some terminal condition.

The truth is if you don't have traditional risk factors , you're not a smoker, you don't have high blood pressure, obesity, have a family history of heart attack, your risk should be very low.

If you're having panic attacks, chances are you have high levels of anxiety and this kind of constant stress can lead to obsessions about your health. I'm here to tell you that if you take care of yourself with exercise and proper eating (something you should be doing anyway), you don't need to worry about heart failure during a panic attack. It simply won't happen. The two scenarios (panic attacks and heart attacks) are completely separate animals and should be treated as such.

Now that said, just because you won't die from a panic attack, doesn't mean you should just live with the debilitating anxiety it creates. There IS help for you.

Using the right techniques and programs, you CAN learn to control and even completely eliminate panic attacks !

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There are some simple techniques that we can perform to help deal with anxiety and panic attacks. They are not difficult to learn and can be very effective, but that said if a persons condition is to severe then it is always advisable to seek medical help, whether that be through medication or therapy.
As medication is a short term solution and therapy can take time, it is well worth knowing some simple techniques that can help. If we look at breathing we will discover that if we are relaxed then our breathing is always slow and long, but if we are uptight and anxious then our breathing can be rapid and short. So it stands to reason that to learn some relaxation techniques will be an advantage and will help us to relieve anxiety. By learning how to relax ourselves we can calm down the whole body system.
We can slow our breathing down and therefore relax by consciously doing this for around fifteen minutes every day, that is all it takes. Sitting comfortably we would draw a deep breath in through our nose and the release it slowly through our mouth. Long slow breaths for ten to fifteen minutes will relax our whole system and done every day will help us to get into a pattern of being able to relax ourselves when ever we want to and especially if we feel we are getting worked up.
Another form of relaxation is to learn how to meditate, the art of meditation is in essence the art of well being. Meditation is an extremely beneficial relaxation technique and although at the beginning may be hard to master, if we persevere then it becomes easier and we can then meditate any where we want to without any distraction penetrating our minds.

Yoga is another great stress reliever and is great for mind, body and spirit. It will keep your mind as well as your body fit and there is easy access in all places to learn Yoga, there are also different forms of martial arts that work along the same lines as Yoga.

Even if a person has not learned these few simple relaxation techniques they can still calm their system down by just taking a few deep breaths when they feel they are getting anxious, it really does work, breathing is the key to relaxation. But to master these techniques will serve them well in helping to avoid an oncoming panic attack and they can chase anxiety out of their lives for good. How many people have you met that practise Meditation or Yoga regularly, that suffer from severe anxiety or panic. It is worth bearing these techniques in mind, they really can help in keeping the mind and body calm.

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My wife and I HAD been sufferers for many years. I had researched and read countless books and articles on the subject. Both my wife and I tried many 'so called' cures but to no avail. I was introduced to this technique by another sufferer and we have not looked back. This was exactly what we were looking for. You may want to read some of the success stories. I highly recommend it. It has helped us tremendously. I have provided a link for you.

I hope that you found this article helpful and I hope that you will get rid of your panic attacks once and for all. Good Luck !!

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