Panic Attack Could Strike When You Are Not Looking!

If you experience intense fear or discomfort over period of time apart from having physical inconvenience, then it could be panic attack. Prolonged panic attack could lead to hyperventilation, a condition where you cannot in enough oxygen. Panic attack medication can alleviate the symptoms. Learn more.This article cover

• Do panic attacks cause more serious problems?
• What are the symptoms of a panic attack?
• What causes an attack?
• How is a panic attack diagnosed?
• How is panic attack treated?

A period of intense fear or discomfort with marked physical symptoms such as trembling, rapid heart beat, sweating, and nausea is called a panic attack. Panic attack medication focuses on understanding and overcoming the stressors if they can be identified. Panic attack symptoms present rapidly and often with no clear causes making this both a frightening and at times mysterious disorder.

Do Panic Attacks Cause More Serious Problems?

Panic attacks often lead the individual to hyperventilate, which is a terrifying sensation of not being able to take in enough oxygen. Hyperventilation presents with chest pain, tingling around the mouth and fingers, and gasping breaths.

Since panic attacks themselves are often mistaken for a coronary incident, it is not unusual for someone with panic symptoms to be rushed to the emergency room. Rarely however does real damage result from one of these incidents although the fear the attacks cause is overwhelming.

What Are The Symptoms of A Panic Attack?

Symptoms of panic attacks appear suddenly and with no clear cause. They include a racing heart or palpitations with chest pains and sweating. The individual may feel dizzy or light-headed and have difficulty breathing. The hands, face, feet, and mouth will go numb or tingle. The face will flush and the person will feel as if they are losing touch with reality.

Sufferers may also experience a sense of disassociation with unreasoning terror and an overwhelming fear of losing control and doing something out of character, crazy, or embarrassing. A feeling of doom pervades the individual who is convinced something horrible is about to happen.

The person may have the feeling that they are about to die. They will tremble or shiver and will often times burst into tears. Their minds will race, their senses will be painfully heightened, and, by the end of the attack the individual will be utterly exhausted. These symptoms will normally last anywhere from two to eight minutes but can last as long as half an hour.

What Causes An Attack?

No one knows for sure what causes panic attacks although they do seem to run in families. However, people with no family history of such incidents can also suffer from these attacks. Physical illnesses often provoke the first attacks as do stressful life situations and even some panic attack medications.

Often times when the source of the stress has been removed the panic attacks will subside but many times people have to take panic attack medication to get a handle on this distressing and often disabling disorder.

How Is A Panic Attack Diagnosed?

In the absence of other medical conditions, principally a heart problem, diagnosis of a panic attack is made based on the patient's description of the incident or on a medical record of an attack. For instance if an individual has been rushed to the emergency room with chest pains, EKG records will exist to show that no cardiac irregularity occurred.

Continue to: How Is Panic Attack Treated

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