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All About Anxiety Attack Versus Panic Attack - What Causes Them, Symptoms and Treatments

Panic And Anxiety Attacks can be a very scary thing for anyone to experience. Not only do they happen when least expected, they tend to mimic heart attacks and other serious health conditions, which leaves the sufferer to wonder if they will even survive it.

This article will cover what causes anxiety and panic attacks, the most common symptoms associated with them, as well as the most effective treatments available.

In the world of healthcare, anxiety and panic attacks are actually classified as a psychological condition, with the terms panic attack, anxiety attack being interchangeable. But this is actually not completely true, because this condition is actually more of an issue with the nervous system than it is psychological.

Stress is the most common trigger, but anxiety and panic attacks actually occur due to how the person’s nervous system reacts to that stress.

Basically, a person who suffers with anxiety and panic attacks experiences a much more intense reaction to what would make most of us nervous. In order for this to make sense, 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 tell you a story to explain how this works.

Let’s say that a bear walks in 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 to survive, 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 raises (you need lots 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 discussed (the Parasympathetic Nervous System), which does the opposite – it calms you down.

When a person experiences anxiety and panic 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 anxiety and panic attacks? Well, the symptoms of a panic attack are different for each person, and they can be experienced to different degrees.

Some individuals will have very minor anxiety and panic attacks, so may not even realize what is happening. Others have full-blown, very intense attacks that make them believe they may be dying.

Click here (anxiety and panic attacks) to continue reading this article, where you’ll learn the most common symptoms associated with anxiety and panic attacks, as well as the most effective treatments available for relief from this health condition.

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