Anxiety Attack Physical Symptom

We all know those first dreaded signs of an anxiety attack: Nervousness, fear or dread that something awful is going happen, such as your mind finally snapping and the men in white coats coming to put you in a straight jacket and haul you off to the nearest mental hospital! That’s if you don’t die of a heart attack first. If you have anxiety or panic attacks (they’re the same thing), you’re quite familiar with these symptoms, but they are the emotional not the physical symptoms. The initial anxiety you feel triggers the physical response. You feel the physical response, such as a huge lump in your throat restricting your breathing, triggering the fear that you are going to die from hyperventilation or heart attack and on and on.

Although the physical symptoms you feel are real, as in you really are feeling them, they can’t hurt you. For instance, although you may have chest pain, it’s most likely you aren’t having a heart attack. However you probably are experiencing hyperventilation.

Hyperventilation is generally the first physical manifestation of panic attack and is generally the cause of all your other physical symptoms. Panic attack causes you to pant instead of breathe. When your breathing is rapid and shallow, you’re taking in oxygen, but not giving your body enough time to retain carbon dioxide. Too much oxygen makes you feel as if you aren’t getting enough air, and causes:

• Hyperventilation
• Light headiness
• Giddiness
• Dizziness
• Shortness of breath
• Heart palpitations
• Numbness
• Chest pains
• Dry mouth
• Clammy hands
• Difficulty swallowing
• Tremors
• Sweating
• Weakness
• Fatigue
• Urgent need to go to the bathroom.

As you see, the four underlined anxiety attack physical symptom are also on the list of symptoms for heart attack. That used to scare the spit out of me until I learned my heart was fine, and I was just having an anxiety attack!

Anxiety attacks cause hyperventilation, which creates every other anxiety attack physical symptoms. Because you don’t understand why you’re having the anxiety attack physical symptom, you become frightened, which feeds the anxiety, so your breathing becomes even more rapid and shallow, intensifying the symptoms and usually adding on a few more. It’s the proverbial “malicious cycle” principle.

The first step to controlling an anxiety attack physical symptom is to take control! Remind yourself that you’ve been through this before and didn’t die. Hold your breath for as long as you can, expel slowly, then breathe in slowly through your nose, drawing the air deep, past your diaphragm and into your tummy. Hold for a count of five, then exhale slowly for a count of seven or until you’ve exhaled fully. Repeat. As you breathe, focus your mind on anything other than the fear and the symptoms. Count the dots or squares on the ceiling tiles, sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in your head, stare at the clouds and find pictures in them; do anything repetitive and not fear-related. Of course, if you feel you’re going to soil yourself, get to the bathroom, pronto, and do your breathing exercises while you take care of business!

If you're looking for a step-by-step panic attack breathing guide, you can find one by CLICKING HERE.

Breathe as described until you feel calm, and then return to breathing normally. If the symptoms return, keep counting or whatever, and concentrate on keeping your breathing normal, being sure to exhale fully before taking another breath. It’s also a good idea to practice breathing like this even when you aren’t having a panic attack, because practice makes perfect, and when you feel the first symptoms of panic attack, eventually you automatically begin the breathing exercise.

Did you know that every 8 seconds someone in the US has a panic attack? True! And sometimes I’m one of them! How about you?

I’ve had panic attacks that have lasted 30+ minutes, and was absolutely certain I was having a heart attack! I couldn’t breathe, I had chest and neck pains, my left arm hurt, yet at the same time was numb; how weird is that?. Although I still feel the symptoms of panic attack coming on, from time to time, I’ve learned how to take control of my thoughts and reactions, and have changed my lifestyle to drastically decrease the chances of panic attack. To find out Step-By-Step how I took control of my Anxiety and Finally Ended My Panic Attacks, CLICK HERE