Almost every person undergoes panic attacks in his/her life. Although these attacks are not very dangerous, they may get serious next time around. The problem with such attacks is that many people just don’t understand why they’re having them in the first place.
The symptoms of panic attacks are not easily understood by most people, as they might experience them any time around when something out of the ordinary happens. Not understanding the symptoms means people frequently mistake panic attacks as some other medical illness.
These attacks might even be confused with a heart attack, which can further cause plenty of worrying. Mistaking panic attack symptoms as heart attack are not entirely wrong, as the symptoms of both conditions are similar.
Some of the more common similar symptoms related to both diseases are given below:
- Weakness or faintness
- Tingling or numbness in the fingers or hands
- Sweating
- Chills
- Dizziness
- Feeling a loss of control
- Sense of terror
- Impending death or doom
- Chest pains
- Breathing problems
One distinction that can readily distinguish between panic attacks and other medical illnesses is the duration of any symptom. Any of the above listed symptoms might persist for 10 to 15 minute maximum in case of panic attack, whereas, it will persist for much longer period in case of heart attack or any other disease. The presence of extreme fear and danger is another symptom that can distinguish between panic attack and other diseases.
With all those distinguishing features, it is important to remember that these symptoms varies from person to person. The persistence and severity of these symptoms also vary from time to time, depending upon the number of attacks one has undergone in the past. Symptoms listed above are not always obvious, and there can be many other which you might be unaware of.
So you should be aware of all potential panic attack symptoms. Knowing them might help you properly recognize and diagnose a panic attack. Even fever can be a symptom and may be regarded as panic attack in some cases. It is also possible you can go through some sort of extreme anxiety event; this can not be explained technically as panic attack, but nonetheless it is one type of panic attack.