It can be really difficult to explain how panic attacks feel to someone who has never had severe anxiety and panic attacks. So how do you explain these severe symptoms of anxiety to someone who just doesn’t get it?
Anxiety and Panic Attacks: What Are the Symptoms?
What are the symptoms of anxiety? What about anxiety and panic attacks? Anxiety attacks are the same as panic attacks. But you can have the symptoms of anxiety without having it crescendo into an “attack.” Anxiety and panic attacks reflect the changes in your body when you have an extreme response of fear. The often last about 30 minutes
You may remember an experience where you thought a large dog might attack you, or some other type of real danger. Your brain prepares your body for danger by dumping stress hormones into your bloodstream. Since your blood goes everywhere in your body these stress hormones are able to activate other physical responses: dry mouth, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, tense muscles. These are all normal symptoms of anxiety.
Now, when these types of symptoms of anxiety become so intense that you feel like you might die or at least go crazy, then you are in a state of panic. But being in a state of panic is not necessarily the same as experiencing clinical anxiety and panic attacks. Why not? Because if you really are in mortal danger, then it makes perfect sense to be in a state of panic. Let’s imagine together how this might look and feel.
What Do Anxiety and Panic Attacks Feel Like? Picture This Luxury Cruise!
You are on a cruise ship. You lean against the guard rail to take in the sunset. Suddenly, the guard rail falls apart and you fall over the side. But one part of the metal railing is still dangling from the deck. You have a hold of it and you are able to grab a metal pole just before the piece of metal you were clinging to snaps and falls to the sea below.
In a flash you realize that you just had a brush with death because you came within an inch of falling overboard. You feel your body flooded with emotion. Is this the feeling of anxiety and panic attacks? Your heart is pounding so hard you feel like it’s going to jump right out of your chest. You vividly see in your mind what it would be like to fall that great distance to the water below.
You are sitting on the deck of the ship gasping and trying to get your breath. You are so scared that you feel like you can’t get enough air in your lungs. Your stomach feels sick with fear as you picture the ship going on without you while you try to scream. At the very same moment, you imagine how you would not be able to yell for help because you would have had the wind knocked out of you by hitting the water at such a high velocity.
This short, overwhelming burst of fear might be called a panic attack by some. But actually, doesn’t it make sense to have all those symptoms of anxiety when you have been that close to death’s door?
The point here is that the intensity of your symptoms of anxiety fit the real danger of the situation. Your thoughts about dying are real and rational. You did almost die.
But now suppose that you had all those same feelings—the symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks—but with one difference: there is no real danger.
Let’s rewrite the story of you on the cruise ship. You are standing on the same place on the deck leaning on the railing. Suddenly, you start having all the same emotions that we described in the first story, but nothing is wrong with the railing. There is no danger. That overwhelming fear just ambushes you out of the blue. The fear, the anxiety, and panic attacks are quite real because your brain’s danger meter is giving out the wrong signals and the wrong time. It makes you feel crazy. How can I be so afraid when there is no problem?
That’s what a panic attack feels like for many people.
