Why People often Mistake Panic Attacks with Anxiety Attacks
I recently came across someone that insisted on anxiety attacks being panic attacks. It’s come up quite frequently in my life lately. But I just want to clarify for those who may have a psychology background and my not think that I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Disclaimor: I don’t have a degree in psychology. However, I have studied it and gone to school for it. Yes, I’m a college drop out. I drop out because I was too afraid to attend class. Soon after I was diagnosed with GAD(generalized Anxiety disorder). I know, shocking.
Now back to what I wanted to say in the beginning. YES, anxiety is not an official psychology term but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Don’t forget that mental health is still SO new to us. I mean there’s a mental illness called unspecified anxiety disorder. It’s unspecified because we simply just don’t know, yet.
Saying you have a panic attack when it’s not is like saying you’re autistic when you actually have aspergers. They’re not the same. And there’s proof to back it up.(see blog called Anxiety attacks vs Panic attacks to find out the difference)
Most professionals won’t recognize anxiety attacks as a term because it’s not in the DSM 5. (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It’s basically a therapists cheat sheet because no one can remember that much information.)
It’s DSM **5** because they’ve had to add and reorganize things several times. For example, substance abuse earned its own category, mild or moderate or severe is part of the DSM 5, they’ve also changed the names of some disorders like dysthymia is PDD.(Aka high functioning depression)
Not to mention the DSM 5 came out in late 2013 early 2014… It’s mid 2019. Please keep that in mind.
Fun Fact: did you know we use to count black Americans as ⅗ a person.
That was once a fact. Obviously it’s not true.
We have so much to learn.
Now, I have personal experience with anxiety and panic attacks.
They are different. If you have both, you can tell.
Panic attacks seem like a threat. Anxiety attacks are built up. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, both are valid.
But to give you more information on my experience with the difference between them.
I can’t think with a panic attack. Multiple times I’ve tried to grab my hydroxyzine(antihistamine used to relax your body and makes you tired/sleepy. Brand name is Vistaril) and couldn’t remember where I put it. When it was in plain sight, on purpose.(on my desk, on my bookshelf, and the first thing you see when opening my closest). Now, my roommate knows where it is so he can get it for me when I need it. Another difference is I stutter. A lot. I get out repeated sounds like hos or hyd and that’s about it. I feel faint. I get tunnel vision and I will faint if I push myself too much. Now it’s a little different every time but I get pain. Sometimes threw out my body and sometimes in one spot, like my head or chest or legs or more commonly my abdominal area. I often get air stuck in my lungs and can’t breathe until someone hits me in the back, like you’d do to a baby when trying to burp them. I also tend to get hot flashes and shake a lot. But all of these symptoms last 15 minutes max. Your panic attack shouldn’t last more than 20 minutes. Mine typically last 15. I’d recommend seeking medical help if your panic attack last more than 20 minutes.
I thankfully have never been home alone during a panic attack. I now have a service dog who knows, for the most part, knows what to do. She’s still in training. But I’ll admit when she’s not working she’s a brat but I love her. She has never witnessed a real panic attack but has helped through many anxiety attacks.
During anxiety attacks I don’t stutter much and usually I can find a cause to my stutter like I’m crying and am breathing weird because I can’t breathe through my nose. I do get headaches but they’re caused from the pressure in my face do to… me crying. I cry a lot during an anxiety attack. Like a lot. I work myself up either because of the attack or because I continue to think about whatever is stressing me out. It spirals out of control. But I am coherent. I can talk. I don’t get hot flashes or random pain in my legs or muscles. I do shake depending on how bad the episode is but it’s never close to the ones I get during a panic attack. I can put my hands above my head and breathe fine. I can move and remember everything that is happening. BUT, they can last for a couple hours or until I distract myself or resolve the problem. Now when I was first experiencing anxiety attacks I couldn’t always point out one reason. After 2 in a half years, I have learned that it can be several things that just build up to a point where your body needs to release those hormones. That stress and frustration. I do want to mention that your body can’t tell the cause of the stress and doesn’t know if it’s do to a life or death situation so it acts on instinct. It releases cortisol to keep you awake and aware of your surroundings. Cortisol is not adrenaline which is the hormone released during a panic attack. Adrenaline isn’t a hormone that affects you for a long period of time. So, your body releases the next best thing, cortisol. Which can last for a much longer period of time and isn’t as straining on the body. So, in case of an emergency your body can be awake for hours. Adrenaline is when there is an immediate threat. This is why they are so similar.
This makes it easy to mix them up if you haven’t personally experience both.
I believe because of the symptoms it’s makes it harder to distinguish the two therefore, making many such as professionals believe that there is only one kind of an attack caused by your body.
I’d love to hear your experience on this and if it differs from mine. I try and keep an open mind so all opinions are welcomed and if you have any questions, you can email me at: Tabathamartinez2016@yahoo.com.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519711/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Demystifying_Depression/The_Stress_System
https://www.talkspace.com/blog/anxiety-attack-vs-panic-attack-one/
