Panic Attacks vs Anxiety
In my last two posts I discussed about panic attacks.
Since then some of you have written to me asking me whether I can help differentiate between anxiety and panic attacks, so that we can be better prepared for a panic attack.
So today, I will try to differentiate between anxiety and panic attacks, so that we can be more informed of what the differences are or whether there really is a difference between these two.
Anxiety is generally what we experience when we perceive something as stressful or threatening. It can be mild or severe.
For example, let's say a loved one is in hospital. If their condition is not too serious, it may still cause feelings of mild anxiety as we go about our day to day activities.
If their condition is serious, then, we may have a more severe anxiety which may even restrict our focus on our day's activities. Whether the anxiety we are experiencing is mild or severe, it builds up gradually and we are always aware of it.
Panic attacks on the other hand, don't give us a clue as to why it is happening nor when it is going to happen. It may be caused due to the severe anxiety we are experiencing because a loved one is critical in hospital. It may also be due to a collection of anxieties that we have been dealing with over a period of time.
These anxieties could be due to a stressful job, social situations and memories of traumatic experiences, chronic illnesses or death of a loved one, conflict in the family or divorce, financial difficulties, phobias or by simply being an anxious personality.
With a loved one critical in hospital, these may add to the level of anxiety that we are already dealing with and may get to a point where it becomes too overwhelming - that the body suddenly reacts with a fight or flight mode.
Hence, it appears most often abruptly and out of the blue.
The symptoms are also very scary, intense and seen as life threatening as discussed in a previous post.Since it appears out of the blue, it generally will trigger the fear of having another attack. This may cause us to restrict our movements outside of our comfort zones.
For example, we may want to avoid places or situations which we consider will be difficult for us to attend to ourselves; just in case we may need to take the necessary emergency decisions such as calling for an ambulance. This may be the case even after we have had a couple of panic attacks and now know that these are only panic attacks. This is due to the fact that the symptoms are so similar to a heart attack or stroke - that one can never really be so sure to rule them out.
So in conclusion - if you are generally an anxious person, then, you are more at risk of experiencing panic attacks. However, having anxiety most of the time does not mean you will experience a panic attack. It all depends on how resilient our body is with our level of anxiety - at any given point of time.
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