Anxiety Attack Versus Panic Attack
Sunday, July 12th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Panic And Anxiety Attacks can be an incredibly scary thing for anyone to deal with. Not only do they occur when least anticipated, they tend to mimic heart attacks and other serious health problems, which leaves the individual to wonder if they will even live through it.
This article will discuss what causes panic and anxiety attacks, the most common symptoms related to them, as well as the most effective treatments available.
In the world of healthcare, panic and anxiety attacks are actually classified as a psychological problem, with the terms anxiety attack versus panic attack being interchangeable. But this is actually not 100% true, because this problem is actually more of a problem with the nervous system than it is psychological.
Stress is the most common trigger, but panic and anxiety attacks actually occur due to how the individual’s nervous system reacts to that stress.
Basically, an individual who suffers with panic and anxiety attacks experiences a much more intense reaction to what would make most of us nervous. In order to understand this, we need to first have an understanding of the parts of the nervous system that are involved when we experience stress.
They are called the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). Instead of making this boring like a text book, let me share a story to explain how this works.
Let’s say that a bear enters the room as you’re reading this article. Your brain will identify the bear as stress, because it threatens your life (and I don’t know about you, but I’m a little on the chunky side, so I’d make a pretty good meal for that bear).
Your brain is hard-wired for survival, so at this moment, it has to make a decision – do you run from the bear or fight it? Either way, the body needs to be ready for this extra activity, so your brain will turn on the Sympathetic Nervous System.
This part of your nervous system prepares your body to either fight or flee – so your blood pressure increases (you need plenty of oxygen to the muscles so they can make you run fast or fight), your heart beats faster, you breathe more deeply, and many other things.
Once the bear is gone, the brain turns on the other part of the nervous system that I mentioned (the Parasympathetic Nervous System), which does the opposite – it relaxes you.
When an individual experiences panic and anxiety attacks, this response is intensified – so, there may only be 1 bear in the room, but your brain thinks there’s actually 5 bears. This is where the problem exists.
So, with that said, what are the signs and symptoms of panic and anxiety attacks? Well, the symptoms of a panic attack are different for each individual, and they can be experienced to different degrees.
Some individuals will have very minor panic and anxiety attacks, so may not even realize what is occurring. Others have full-blown, very intense attacks that make them feel like they may be dying.
Click here (panic and anxiety attacks) to continue reading this article, where you’ll discover the most common symptoms associated with panic and anxiety attacks, as well as the most effective treatments available for relief from this health problem.
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