For Those With Panic Attacks...

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I'm just kind of (morbidly) curiuos about this. I've talked to a couple of people who have had panic attacks, and quite a few mistook their first one for a heart attack. When I was a little kid I was into Madeline, and thought that it was appendicitis (I am now guessing that stabbing pain was a panic attack symptom, anyway). This is not a criticism nor a comment on anything. I'm just wondering: for those of you who have experienced or think you have experienced a panic attack, did you take it for what it was, or mistake it for somethine else?

Conversely, if anyone mistook a medical emergency for a panic attack, feel free to share that. I really hope I never do that; I've taken to assuming the vast majority of my physical ailments are stress-related or psychosomatic.

I've exprerianced only one panic attack in my whole life and I thought I was having an extreme asthma attack.

SpaceCase

I really don't know if I've ever had one. Does anybody have a link to information on them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_attack

That's a start, anyway.

And I found one here: http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/panic.html

SpaceCase

I experience some of those symptoms when faced with a social or OCD-related phobia. The most common is conducting buisnes with a stranger over the phone. There's usually only three things I can do about it:
figure a way around the situation without avoiding a resposibility, wait until I can relax a little, or suck it up so I can hurry up and get it over with.

I used to have them frequently and still have them from time to time. They started during my parents divorce and I had to see a doctor because of the chocking and almost fainting. The doctor told me they were panic attacks (do to me having on with her when she took me over to the hospital for xrays). She also told me not to worry my throat would tighten enough to make me pass out and then I would relax. Well with advise like that I soon learned other ways to control the attacks. I have not had a lot for the past three years.

I started having panic attacks about a year ago, and haven't had any more since about two-and-a-half months ago. They were mostly when I was having flashbacks of events from a couple of years back. In fact, I did not know they were panic attacks, nor did I think that it was a medical problem, as I couldn't think of anything but what I was remembering. So, I guess neither.

yoga breathing is great - it sounds complicated but is actually simple to do.

trouble is, i had to catch the attack early on to do it, otherwise remembering to do it was nigh on impossible.

A good definition my mother gave me for a Panic Attack was "a sudden spurt of anxiety which can have a known or unknown trigger." (Granted, these can come in their more extreme forms where they become debilitating such as the feeling of having a heart attack.) I find this definition helpful because for a long time I was trying to differentiate between panic attacks and anxiety attacks. My mother had said that panic attack is what people usually feel and anxiety attack is more a general term.

The physical symptoms which I experience during a panic attack are usually through my stomach and general abdominal area. A tightening in my abdominal area. This anxiety has also blessed me with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I am not always good at identifying the milder panic attacks and can instead know when one has hit by my abdominal muscles tightening up.

I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder along with Aspergers. And prolly some symptoms of Social Phobia. I have panic attacks, though granted, right now, my panic attacks are at a minimum and have only been occuring in a mild form while encountering new situations, especially involving people and unfamiliar environments. I usually can pinpoint what exactly is the cause of my panic attack-- although, as I said, I'm not always good at identifying when one is coming on.

Question: Have you ever had a panic attack related to your environment which has remained unchanged but feels foreign??? It is probably experiences of Jamais Vu (the opposite of Deja Vu where the situation is UNFAMILIAR rather than "I've experienced this before) which I am referring to. And since I have rushes of anxiety with new situations, this Jamais Vu really freaks me out. I hate this in places where I would normally feel safe and cozy.

I sure would like to know if deep breathing worked for other people having panic attacks because it sure didn't do squat for me. In fact, I think it only exacerbated the feelings of being out of control rather than having a calming effect on my nerves. The hyperventilating and pain don't accompany these attacks but the level of fear one arouses makes being chased by an axe murderer seem like having Sponge Bob Squarepants chase me with a fish net.

I've had social anxiety disorder since 7th grade (you have the entire class hate your guts and get emotionally tortured on a daily bases, you'd get it too.) Meaning suddenly being in the spot-light which includes innoctious situations like walking down a hall lined with people hanging out at the sides, asking me awkward questions or unexpectingly being forced to speak in front of a group cause me to freeze.

My mind, although I know it's irrational, believes everyone's staring at me just waiting for me to make one mistake and then pounce on me when I do. I would go into total overload since I was morbidly afraid of humiliation yet panicking itself was humilating, hence the vicious cycle. Although I'm currently taking medications to curve some of the paranoia, I still must be careful to remain inconspicuous in order to prevent encountering a trigger that'll bring about even the remote possibility of another panic attack.

After some time, the ritalen started triggering massive anxeity and panic attacks, such that I would be spending virtually the entire day in anxiety. it sucked big time, and is one of the reasons I am so glad to be off it. When the axiety did grow uncontrollable I did leave the room and lie down in the nurse's office, but normally I would be able to get a handle on the axiety and function in class. I get an occaisional one every now and then, but normally in "extreme" social situations that I don't have a hope in hell of processing.

Not quite, but I often feel like I'm not real, and nothing in life is real. Kind of like "It can't be real." Dissassociation, and depersonalization, to use psychobabble.

I can confirm that I had one yesterday when there was a little 2.x earthquake, which is basically like a harmless, low frequency vibration. That's unusual for me because normally I don't care about 5.0 earthquakes and if I'm sleeping, can get back to sleep before it's over.