What are Panic Attacks?
A panic attack is a physiological response to fear or sudden anxiety. Sometimes the object of fear is physical (like a spider) or an event (fear of flying, fear of heart attack or dying). Other times the panic attack occurs without an apparent trigger, and may just ‘happen’. The symptoms of a panic attack include the following: shortness of breath or feelings of suffocation; vertigo or faintness; heart palpitations; chest pains; trembling; sweating; chills or flushes; nausea; tingling sensations in hands, feet and face; feelings of de-personalization or de-realization; fear of dying, collapse or ‘going crazy’; an uncontrollable desire to run away or escape. If you look closely at these symptoms, you will agree that they very closely resemble the body’s reaction to a frightening or life-threatening event. The experience of a panic attack is no different in symptoms or intensity to the experience of being threatened with a knife in a dark and lonely alley, or coming face to face with a d
