A regular weekday can turn for the worse if you experience the symptoms of panic attacks. The symptoms of panic attacks occur without warning. Symptoms of panic attacks also happen without any seemingly possible reason. Symptoms of panic attacks are harmless, but are still distressing nonetheless.

Intense period of discomfort

Panic attacks, which are characterized as sudden intense periods of discomfort, can reach its maximum level within minutes. Panic attacks can go on for an hour. In a month, one can experience subsequent attacks. The next attacks, however, are more severe than the first attack.

Most common symptoms

A typical panic attack would go something like this: First, you will experience lightheadedness. Smothering sensations will follow, resulting to labored breathing. Next, there will rapid heartbeat. This can lead anyone to think that one is having a heart attack. After which, you will experience profuse sweating and visible shaking.

Aside from lightheadedness, smothering sensations, labored breathing, and rapid heartbeat, symptoms of panic attacks also include hot flushes or sudden chills, tingling or numbing sensations, abdominal discomfort, skin blotches and chest pain.

After effects of an attack

The after effects of the symptoms of panic attacks are limited to body pains, muscle tension and physical fatigue. Visible shaking will subside after a short period. After a panic attack, the effects wear off, allowing you to revert to your normal state.

Manifestation of panic

Panic is not enough to describe the characteristic feeling of experiencing the symptoms of panic attacks. A manifestation of the symptoms of panic attacks can certainly be distressing. During panic attacks, sufferers would think that they are dying and going crazy, aside from the notion that they are experiencing a heart attack.

Frequency of panic attacks

More women experience the symptoms of panic attacks than men do. Panic attacks occur among adults as well as teenagers. The frequency of attack, however, among teenagers is rather minimal compared to adults. Among old people, it is quite uncommon for panic attacks to manifest for the first time. Experts believe that panic attacks affect those who have had separation issues during childhood. There are also experts who think that panic attacks also affect emotionally healthy individuals.

Causes of panic attacks

Sufferers would drive themselves to the nearest hospitals in their area, believing that they have a serious medical condition. However, a medical diagnosis would only later reveal that what they have experienced is a harmless attack induced by stress and anxiousness. Yes, stress and anxiousness trigger panic attacks by activating the anxiety response center in the brain, also known as amygdala. Amygdala is off during normal periods, but during periods of extreme stress and anxiousness, it becomes active.

Importance of diagnosis

Symptoms of panic attacks can be manifestations of a panic disorder. Therefore, a medical diagnosis is important. Symptoms of panic attacks can also be a part of another medical disorder or condition. Still, you do not have to worry about experiencing panic attacks. Symptoms of panic attacks are perfectly natural, affecting one third of almost all adults in a year.