Anxiety Panic Attacks

Anxiety panic attacks

        Anxiety panic attacks are a normal and common reaction to stress. It helps a person to deal with tense situations at work, study harder for an exam, keeps focused on an important speech. It is usually keeps a person to face these kind of situations. But if the anxiety panic attack becomes an irrational fear of every day situations, it transforms in a disabling anxiety disorder.

       Anxiety panic attacks can be accompanied by physical effects like heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, hard breathing, stomach aches or headaches. The body physically prepares to deal with what it perceives as a threat. The blood pressure and the heart rate increases, sweating is also increased, blood flow increases and the immune and digestive system functions are inhibited. The external signs of anxiety panic attacks may include pale skin, sweating, trembling and more. A person who suffers from anxiety may also experience anxiety as a sense of fear or panic. Anxiety panic attacks are sudden surges of overwhelming fear which come without warning and without any real reason.

       Studies have shown that one out of 75 people in the world will experience anxiety panic attacks at one time in their entire life. These kinds of attacks are not dangerous, but they can be scary, due to the fact that you may feel crazy and with no control. Anxiety is a feeling of nervousness, apprehension, fear or worry. Some fears are justified like worrying about the persons you love, or preparing for a test or an examination. The anxiety can interfere with a person's ability to sleep or function well. It is remarkable that the adolescents are particularly susceptible to having irritability as a symptom of some emotional problems, including anxiety. Anxiety may occur without a cause, or it can happen based on a realistic situation but may be larger to what would usually be expected. Severe anxiety can have a serious impact on every day life.

Anxiety panic attack symptoms

       Anxiety panic attacks are separate and intense periods of fear or feelings of doom developing over a very short time frame, 10 minutes and they are associated with at least four of the following anxiety panic attacks symptoms: palpitations, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, sense of choking, chest pain, nausea and other stomach aches, dizziness, the feeling of being detached from the world which is called derealization, being unable to think, fear of dying, numbness, chills or hot flashes, restlessness, fatigue, trouble in concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, sleep disorders, re-experiencing a trauma, either when you are awake (flashbacks) or when you are asleep (nightmares), avoiding activities, places or people associated with a certain event, being hypervigilant, the feeling of general sense of depression, irritability, doom and gloom with diminished emotions such as loving feelings or aspirations for the future.

       Ask for medical care when your signs and symptoms of anxiety panic attacks are not easily treated and fast diagnosed.
In all these situations seek medical care:

• When the symptoms are so severe that you may need medications.
• If the symptoms are interfering with your personal, social and professional life.
• If you have a pain in the chest, hard breathing, headaches, palpitations, dizziness, fainting or unexplained weakness.
• If you are so depressed that you may feel suicidal or homicidal.

       The specialist will make a careful history, perform a physical examination and do some laboratory tests as needed.