The feeling and appearance of panic attacks is different from the chronic anxiety type and can appear out of nowhere and affect your life.
People who have had a panic attack can describe the experience in precise terms. It's physically devastating and frightening, at least until the symptoms go away within a few minutes. The difference between panic attacks and worries that stay in mind for a long time is as clear as day and night.
This is how clinical psychologists explain the difference between a panic attack and what people refer to as an anxiety attack.
There Is No Such Thing As An Anxiety Attack
Maybe there is, but the term anxiety attack doesn't appear in the books doctors use to describe mental disorders. There is no such definition in the dictionary of psychologists. So it can basically mean everything and mean different things to different people.
Some people use the terms panic attack and anxiety attack interchangeably. Others define an anxiety attack as anxious feelings that do not rise to the level of a panic attack.
Panic and Anxiety Cause Different Emotions
We all have tense and anxious feelings from time to time. But sometimes people get stressed over things that don't exist yet and their worries get out of control.
Many patients deal with extra stress throughout their lives and need some handling skills to overcome this challenge, like the ultimate load that bends a camel's back.
A panic attack is the body's response to an impending danger and can occur even if there is no threat to a person's physical existence. Panic resembles fear.
There is one more way to separate these feelings. Let's say you are someone who is suffering from a panic attack. When you are worried that you are going to have a new panic attack, it is called anticipatory anxiety, and it is the worry of "I am going to have a panic attack". On the other hand, the emotion felt during a panic attack is what we know as fear.
Being able to separate the two is important because there are different strategies for separating and managing fear and anxiety.
Panic is Short Term, Anxiety is Long Term
Anyone who has had a panic attack can tell you it's like a roller coaster. It comes suddenly, suffocating its victim with extreme fear and pounding the heart, creating a breathtaking physical discomfort. It's over in minutes. A diagnosis of panic disorder may be made when panic attacks become recurrent and people experience fear that they will have a new seizure.
The experience of someone coping with extreme anxiety can be very different. Experts warn against the use of the term anxiety attack because anxiety symptoms neither come on quickly nor go away quickly. Anxiety has low-severity symptoms that persist for a long time. It is like a kind of shadow that weighs on the person.
If you are constantly struggling with worries, you may be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. This mental disorder lasts for more than 6 months and is often characterized by existing symptoms of extreme anxiety and worry. Anxiety disorder is characterized by feelings such as irritability, restlessness, fatigue, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, and drowsiness.
Someone with an anxiety disorder will say they can't stop worrying. It may even be a pathological level of concern. He might say: “Every time my child leaves the house, you expect him to call me every half hour and say he's fine, and if he doesn't, I'll get worried and call him right away, I can even apply to official institutions.”
Panic Strengthens Physical Feelings, Worry Weakens
During a panic attack, the person's breathing accelerates and the heart rhythm increases. The body is prepared to fight an enemy.
But studies of people with anxiety disorders show that their anxiety manifests in a different way. When someone has anxiety attacks, their physiological activity is reduced. His heart may not speed up and his sweating may decrease.
If the coronavirus (Covid-19) has traumatized you and you are constantly feeling intense and persistent anxiety about this issue and you do not know what to do and how to cope, we can work together on this. If you want to get online therapy, you can reach me at these numbers.
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