Anxiety Attacks and Panic Attacks

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Anxiety attacks are often experienced as a feeling of dread, an intense fear that something terrible is about to happen like you might die or lose your sanity. These experiences can be extremely frightening especially since they can occur at anytime and anywhere.. maybe driving in your car, standing in line, lying in bed, or even just watching T.V. What's happening during a panic episode is that worries and fears lingering in your mind are interpreted as real danger by the subconscious, which in turn releases adrenaline into your body to help you deal with the threat. Since with anxiety the adrenaline can come to the surface at anytime, without any visual danger present, these feelings may not make any sense to you. And not seeing actual danger with your own eyes, you may not recognize the adrenaline burst for what it is - a fact which can make the sensation a frightening experience in and of itself. As a result, you may become fearful of the adrenaline response itself. That additional fear causes the adrenaline to increase further, which in turn just escalates your fear again. As these two feed each other, a full panic attack occurs. You may feel like you're losing your mind or that your heart is about to explode. A panic attack not going to hurt you or cause you to go crazy, but it can feel like dying a thousand deaths when you're having these episodes regularly.

Once you've experienced the terror of a first panic attack, it's likely that you'll have more as you become more sensitive to the symptoms that precede it. A slight malaise or stress may get you fearful that another attack coming on. And ironically, it's that very fear that gets the adrenaline flowing and starts the cycle over again.

As with other anxiety symptoms, an excellent first step to recovery from panic is to know that what you are experiencing is a normal reaction to persistent worry and fear. Think of a time when you were really frightened, maybe when watching a scary movie, or after nearly getting in an accident. Now remember what types of sensations you had at that time. Maybe a rapid heartbeat and adrenaline? Did you get fearful of those feelings? No, because you knew they were normal. In fact, if you're having trouble remembering what you felt, it's probably because you didn't even think about it since the sensations were nothing out of the ordinary for the situation.