Panic attacks are sudden, brief periods of intense anxiety, fear and discomfort that are usually abrupt and may have no obvious triggers and/or causes.

Sufferers of panic attacks often report a sense of dying, feel like "going crazy" or experiencing a heart attack, feeling faint, experience heavy breathing or losing control of themselves.

Panic attacks are distinguished from other forms of anxiety by their intensity and their sudden, brief nature. Although panic attacks are not always indicative of a mental disorder, the panic attacks are often experienced in conjunction with anxiety disorders and other psychological conditions.

The effects of a panic attack vary from person to person. For some first time sufferers of panic attacks, they usually developed fear that they are having a heart attack or a nervous breakdown.

Below is a list of symptoms that are associated with panic attacks. Though may not be complete, the list has nevertheless given us an idea of some of the most common symptoms.

* Racing or pounding heart
* Sweating
* Trembling or shaking
* Shortness of breath
* Feeling of choking
* Abdominal distress or stomach upset
* Feeling dizzy, lightheaded or fainting
* Fear of losing control or going crazy
* Fear of dying
* Cold or hot flashes
* Numbness sensations

On surface, the terms "panic attacks", "anxiety attack" and "panic disorder" may sound like similar conditions. Nevertheless, there is key difference between them.

For panic attacks, sufferers experience sudden and intense symptoms over a brief period of time.

As for anxiety attacks, although the symptoms are similar to that of the panic attacks, intensity associated to anxiety attacks are typically grown over a period of time, usually a result of excessive stress or worry.

Finally, for panic disorder, this condition is developed when sufferers of panic attacks experience repeated panic attacks. This could due to the after-effects of the experience of first panic attack which resulted in emotional instability and hence affects the sufferer's self-confidence.

Panic disorder can be effectively treated with a variety of treatments such as psychological therapies, medication and self-help techniques.

Evidence has shown that cognitive behaviour therapy has the longest duration of effect, followed by specific selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Cognitive behavioural treatments are considered the first line of treatment. First part of therapy is informational whereby many sufferers are helped by simply understanding exactly what panic disorder is.

Many people who suffer from panic attacks and/or panic disorder are worried that their panic attacks could make them "going crazy" or that the panic might result in a heart attack.

'Cognitive restructuring' or changing a person's way of thinking could help people replace those thoughts with more realistic, positive ways of viewing the panic attacks.

For sufferers of panic attacks who prefer the self-help approach to overcome panic attacks, one great resource that could help them is Joe Barry's successful online course Panic Away.

Revolving around the One Move Technique(TM), the Panic Away program is a completely natural approach to eliminate anxiety and panic attacks.

One main benefit of the Panic Away program is the teaching of how to curb impulsiveness in the brain without the use of prescription drugs.