Five Facts about Panic Attacks

If you’ve ever had a panic attack, you would know that it can be an intensely uncomfortable experience as well as pretty terrifying. Panic attacks are actually really common, and are experienced as a sudden surge of bodily sensations including heart palpitations, tightening in the chest or shortness of breath, choking sensations, dizziness, fainting, sweating, shaking/trembling in hands and feet. Psychological reactions that often accompany these changes in the body during a panic attack can include feelings of unreality, a desire to run away, and feeling like you are dying. Panic attacks can occur “out of the blue” meaning there is no direct trigger, or they can occur in response to something you are scared of.

The fact that panic attacks include such a strong physiological reaction is what makes them so scary, as during a full fledged attack it can actually really feel like you are dying or having a heart attack or can’t breathe. However, as frightening as it seems, it is important to understand that a panic attack is absolutely not dangerous and is actually an entirely natural bodily reaction related to the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight response is a built-in instinctual response that all mammals have to allow them to survive in a life-threatening situation. So all of those scary and uncomfortable bodily sensations are actually your body’s way of preparing itself to fight or run away from danger. Sometimes though, this built-in instinctual response gets set off even when there is no obvious threat, a bit like a false alarm.

When panic attacks occur without any apparent real-life threatening situation, your mind might misinterpret what’s going on inside as being life-threatening. It’s very common to start inventing dangers in response to the physical sensations, for example when experiencing heart palpitations you may start thinking “I’m going to have a heart attack” or “I’m going to die”. This kind of thinking causes an upward spiral of becoming more anxious and getting more intense bodily reactions. To avoid this vicious cycle, it’s important to understand that what your body is going through is not at all dangerous. The following facts explain why and can hopefully give you some reassurance about why you feel the way you do when you panic.

Fact #1 A Panic Attack will NOT cause heart failure

Your heart is made up of very strong and dense muscle fibers and can stand a lot more than you think. A healthy heart can beat 200 beats per minute for days or even weeks without sustaining any damage. It has also been shown that during a panic attack there are no abnormalities on an EKG. So while feeling your heart pounding inside your chest during a panic attack is scary, it’s important to remember that this is not hazardous to your heart and is not a sign of heart failure.

Fact #2 A Panic Attack will NOT cause you to stop breathing or suffocate

During a panic attack, it is common to feel as though your chest is tightening and that breathing becomes more difficult, you may even start to worry that you’re going to suffocate. These sensations happen because when you’re under stress, your neck and chest muscles are tightening. However, there is nothing physically wrong with your breathing passage or lungs. Your brain has a built in reflex mechanism that will eventually force you to breathe if you’re not getting enough oxygen. (E.g. try holding your breath for up to a minute and observe what happens. At some point, you will feel a strong reflex to take in more air.) The same thing will happen in a panic attack if you’re not getting enough oxygen so no need to worry that you will stop breathing.

Fact #3 You can’t faint when having a panic attack

It's common to feel a sensation of light-headedness during a panic attack, and people often fear that they will faint as a result of this. What is happening when you feel this way is that the blood circulation to your brain is slightly reduced, most likely because you are breathing more rapidly. This causes a sensation of dizziness but is not dangerous. Because your heart is pumping harder and actually increasing your circulation, you are very unlikely to faint as fainting is caused by a drop in blood pressure, which is the opposite of what happens during a panic attack.

Fact #4 A panic attack will NOT cause you to lose your balance or fall over

During a panic attack you may experience a sensation of weakness or “jelly legs”, which you may misinterpret as meaning that you might fall over or won’t be able to walk.This feeling is caused by the surge of adrenaline released during a panic attack that can dilate the blood vessels in your legs, causing blood to accumulate in your leg muscles and not fully circulate. Don't worry, this sensation is just that – a sensation – and your legs are as strong and able to carry you as ever. They won’t give way! Try riding out those trembling, weak sensations until they eventually pass.

Fact #5 You cannot “go crazy” during a panic attack

First of all, no one has ever gone crazy from a panic attack and, people do not “go crazy” in a sudden or spontaneous way. Mental disorders involving behaviors that are labeled “crazy” (e.g. schizophrenia or manic-depressive psychosis) develop very gradually over a period of years and are not caused from panic attacks. When you are having a panic attack, the blood flow to your brain is slightly reduced because of rapid breathing. This can result in sensations of disorientation and a feeling of unreality that can be frightening but does not have anything to do with “going crazy”, no matter how eerie or strange it may feel.

If you are experiencing panic attacks it can help to seek treatment from a psychologist who would be able to provide you with tools and techniques to help you manage them better.