I hear this term all the time now. What is a panic attack? Have I ever had one? When I was a kid I often heard of people having a nervous breakdown. Is a panic attack the same thing?

Panic attack is a short run thing and mostly from a specific or several overwhelming stimuli.

Sort of like an episode of claustrophobic panic if you get "bound up or stuck" in a tight place. Or if you are afraid of heights and find yourself in a precarious place. (sometimes adrenalin dump, the impression is often impending doom, it can be due to real or the mind taking a running leap off the reasoning train).

Closing your eyes and breathing very slowly can calm a panic attack.


Nervous breakdown is typically an inability to cope with everyday life.

It takes some serious effort to get someone "re-centered", and closing eyes and breathing will do almost nothing.

It is usually accompanied with depression, the inability to do normal things, confused thinking, being overwhelmed and it does not seem to be a "rational reason" from people you know, and they are often confused at your dilemma.

They feel very different.

(there is a lot more to be said about both)

A surge of anxiety, basically. An brief-ish sense of overwhelming worry/panic/anxiety.

Like an increasing sense of OMG-ness that one can't control.

It's the very antithesis of being cool under pressure, but for the affected the "pressure" can range from life threatening to things most would shrug off like it's nothing.

It's like having a broken meter that helps determine how big of a deal something is/isn't.

The very term Panic Attack aids in the misunderstandings, as it seems to imply a chaotic panic-y or otherwise overtly obvious state of being, like someone running around freaking out, but most of the time it's not like that and is subtle, like they're OMG-WTFing internally.

Source: two ex-girlfriends and three friends who have dealt with it for many years.

I have panic attacks when I have to speak in public. It's a strange sensation and totally involuntary. I'm a loud mouth type guy, outgoing, social. People are shocked when I say I can't speak in public. As soon as there is a formal setting with any strangers and I have to speak it happens almost immediately. I'm talking, literally, I could be in a meeting at work with new people where they go around and introduce yourself. I get the attack right then.

So what it is for me is an overwhelming sensation of not being in control. It's fear but more than that. I literally feel like I'm not in the room, a head rush sort of feeling. I start speaking and immediately feel my voice shaking. My head feels sort of how I feel if I smoke weed (haven't done that in like 25 years but I remember what I didn't like about it).

Anyhow, it's caused by an adrenaline rush. I take Propanolol when I have to speak in public. It basically blocks adrenaline. Works almost completely. I'm still nervous as shit when I have to speak in public but I don't get the panic attack at all if I've taken my med before hand. No other side effects from it either.

Skeptical of severity some folks described. C’mon just man up and power through!

I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles over last 38 years. Then, out of freakin’ nowhere a couple months ago I learned the meaning of Gephyrophobics.

Came completely out of nowhere and the sensation was overwhelming. I WILL crush it, but have had concerns of passing out at 70 over water. Not cool.

So, panic attacks while poorly named are for real and not just crazy folks.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Skeptical of severity some folks described. C’mon just man up and power through!

I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles over last 38 years. Then, out of freakin’ nowhere a couple months ago I learned the meaning of Gephyrophobics.

Came completely out of nowhere and the sensation was overwhelming. I WILL crush it, but have had concerns of passing out at 70 over water. Not cool.

So, panic attacks while poorly named are for real and not just crazy folks.

Are you saying you were skeptical but not anymore since you suddenly had an issue? I had to look up gephyrophobic. I'm not afraid of bridges, but I do have the same panic reaction with heights that I have with public speaking. Only that really depends on the sense of security I have. On a ladder I have a panic attack. In a building looking out a window, on a plane, stairway with solid railing, no issues. But if I am driving over a high bridge I can feel a panic attack coming on, if I look left or right. I do stay in the middle lanes if possible and look straight ahead.

But I will say that what I described in my public speaking post is very accurate.

As an ER doc, I have seen more than my fair share of panic attacks. Real ones generally involve a profound sense of impending doom - chest pains, difficulty breathing - real fight-or-flight stuffs. The cross-over to more simple anxiety reactions has increased over the years - concomitant with the increased acceptance of mental health problems as a disease (and not something people can deal with). Much the same as the acceptance of "emotional support animals". True panic attacks exist for people, and they are certainly very difficult and can be debilitating in certain situations. However, the label of "panic attack" has been muddled to include a lot of simple anxiety in my opinion, coupled with our society's desire not to deal with anything that is uncomfortable to us. I get anxious in front of an audience, at parties with people I don't know, and with heights - but as a young person developed control of my fear and anxiety to get the job done - and as a result, am now an emergency physician who deals with situations daily that cause others to go into mental vapor lock and not perform. It's not that I "thrive one stressful situations", but that I have consciously developed the skill to put my unconscious emotional self to the side to step in an act when it is required.

I have them. Out of the blue. Not when you think I would have them. Somebody point a gun at me, no panic, healthy fear but my mind clicks and works.

Sitting at home by myself and get a wave of vertigo, I literally don’t know if I’m dying. Become almost paralytic with dread and doom.

I can’t fly now. I used to fly all over the country for my job. Now the thought of having an attack at 30,000 feet keeps me off planes.

I had to spend a night in the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack with my first one.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
 Well, that's great. That's just fuckin' great, man! Now what the fuck are we supposed to do? We're in some real pretty shit now, man!

That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?

Not to diminish those with real experience, nice.

Few years ago I was home alone. My wife was out of town for the week and I was just chilling on the couch watching TV with the dogs. Out of nowhere my heart rate spiked to around 200, my world greyed out, and I KNEW I was gone. I'm not saying I was afraid I was dying, I KNEW I was a dead man and my wife would come home to discover that my dogs had eaten me.

Then as suddenly as it hit, it passed. I puked. Puked again. Then I figured I might want to get that checked out.

After a month of tests the diagnosis basically came back as "Huh, no idea." Wasn't a heart attack. EKG and stress tests were normal. Best guess? Lack of sleep and the stress of some ongoing issues had contributed to my body deciding it would fire a warning shot across my bow.

I'll never give someone grief for a panic attack or whatever they call it.

I can even point to the place in city hall when I realized I was short of breath, pulsing pain down my left arm and dizzy etc. I powered through, it got worse. The nurse at my dr office called me back "were dispatching an ambulance ..." Google returned with "myocardialinfarction"(sp) none of this helped me feel better
Later the ER Doc told me "good news is your not dying today, bad news is if you dont get control of your anxiety, it will kill you."
It was so frustrating, I could no longer trust my body. I came to think of it like an allergy but for stress.

I struggle with it to this day and I can even 'see' it coming and I can mostly head it off. But it was years before I reigned it in.

quote:

Originally posted by redstone:
I can even point to the place in city hall when I realized I was short of breath, pulsing pain down my left arm and dizzy etc. I powered through, it got worse. The nurse at my dr office called me back "were dispatching an ambulance ..." Google returned with "myocardialinfarction"(sp) none of this helped me feel better
Later the ER Doc told me "good news is your not dying today, bad news is if you dont get control of your anxiety, it will kill you."
It was so frustrating, I could no longer trust my body. I came to think of it like an allergy but for stress.

I struggle with it to this day and I can even 'see' it coming and I can mostly head it off. But it was years before I reigned it in.

That’s it! Mind losing control of the body for no reason at all.

I've always been a laid-back, roll with it kind of person. Nothing fazes me. Something bad happens. . .oh, well, nothing you can do about it now. Deal with it and try not to let it happen again.

But about a month ago--out of the blue--I had what I now know as a real panic attack. It was an intense fear that something bad was about to happen. I had no reason to feel this way. I kept telling myself this over and over. But the fear wouldn't go away. Increased heart rate, anxiety, the works. After a few hours it went away.

Next day, the same thing happened. And again, after a few hours it went away. I started analyzing what I was doing that might be causing this and realized the doctor had prescribed for me Nasacort to help with sinus infections. I had begun using this just a few days prior. I immediately stopped using the Nasacort and the panic attacks haven't occurred since.

Prior to this, I never knew what a panic attack was. I had heard about them, but never experienced one personally. But if people deal with these things on a regular basis, I honestly don't know how they function. I'm telling you, these things are real, and they are debilitating. I couldn't focus on my work. I was completely consumed with this unknown fear that I was convinced was imminent.

I'm sure what I experienced was mild compared to what I've heard others describe. But this experience has given me a better understanding of how bad mental illness can be.

A friend of mine has anxiety attacks and can feel them coming on. He’s cool as can be, level headed, rock solid guy, never backs down from a fight regardless the odds or anything. When he told me he suffered from anxiety I laughed. Would never have guessed. He said it’s like something in your brain shorts out and even though you can’t define the problem, everything is coming unglued and the world is going to shit and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Mine is much worse when I don't sleep.

I don't sleep well, or nearly enough. When I am especially sleep deprived I know the anxiety is going to be worse that day. I know the triggers now, so that helps, but sometimes there is no stopping it.

I'm sure my shitty sleep patterns will most likely kill me someday.

+1 copaup

Here's a panic attack on video, ( from an LEO's body cam as he experienced one )

I experienced panic attacks during my divorce. My ex pulled a Rommel-style blitzkrieg on me. I lost my house, my step-kids, my daughter for at least a month, my dogs and almost lost my job. I was humiliated at work in front of my co-workers.

I would be working in an Intel chip factory and would not be able to take a full breath. My heart rate would soar. I'd get heart palpitations. I'd break out into a sweat. I'd get tunnel vision and would be in a fog. My blood pressure would skyrocket. It would take everything I had to function and not let it affect my job. I'd still work but I wasn't there mentally.

This went on for a year or two and I'm still alive. I was in such despair that I figured if I keeled over, I'd be glad I was out of my misery. I kept waking up every day though and that was 15 years ago that it happened.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by ARMT Guy:
Here's a panic attack on video, ( from an LEO's body cam as he experienced one )

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="408" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LUrY38ZxEH0" width="725"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Dang, that was intense!

I have anxiety/panic attacks over needles.
Say I have to get blood drawn, I literally will not sleep for days before the appointment. The night before the appointment consists of vomiting and an upset stomach. And when it takes place, I'm like the kid in that video freaking out over a shot screaming. Then...I vomit again, and pass out. Happens every time.