What is a Panic Attack? (Explain in your own words)

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There seems to be no proper definition of a panic attack, which annoys me, as I don't know whether many experiences I've had are panic attacks or near-panic-attacks.

The ones that are definately panic attacks:

The air feels too thick to breathe in, so I gasp for breath and feel dizzy. My heart beats really fast. My thinking is going way too fast and I'm confused, and really, really frightened of things that either aren't harmful (people touching me) or aren't going to happen (building collapsing). My chest and abdomen feel like I've been laced into a really tight corset. Sometimes I tremble or feel sick.


I have problems with anxiety but don't really get panic attacks any more. Instead I just have anxiety symptoms throughout the day, rather than in intense attacks. I'm getting better though.

for me, I get an extreme tightness around my chest, difficulty breathing, nausea, inability to think straight, blurred vision, restlessness and motor agitation, the list goes on and on.

I went to the doctor once and told her I was having panic attacks and I thought I might have a panic disorder so the doctor asked me to describe what I was experiencing. I told her I felt nervous, afraid, apprehensive, and unable to talk to people without a tremendous amount of self consciousness and excessive worry and could she please give me something to stop all this. I explained the symptoms were worse when I forgot where my car was parked in parking lots and couldn't spot it right away.
After listening, she informed me that what I was experiencing wasn't a panic attack.
"Oh,"
I mumbled, not quite sure how to respond. I wasn't expecting such a blatant denial.
Then, she proceeded to explain what I described was anxiety and, then, related a situation involving someone experiencing a panic attack.
"A panic attack is when you are in the parking lot looking for your car and suddenly, you can't breath and you look around and you can't think and you pretty much can't do anything."
she said.
So, that must be it.

I went through a period frequent panic attacks, and after researching my symptoms I found that my official condition was called "Panic Disorder" (appropriately).

Panic attacks for me involved rapid heartbeat, breathing, hyperventilation, chest pain, and intense fear that I was dying. Paradoxically, the attack is triggered by the fear of having an attack, so it becomes self-fulfilling. The intense symptoms serve to feed the fear and discomfort, keeping the attack going. This was a terrifying, and I was very relieved once I researched panic attacks and figured out that was what was going on.

Panic attacks, I don't recommend them to anyone!

For me it's rapid heartbeat, though I don't feel it exactly in the same way as when I'm just nervous, sometimes not being able to feel myself breathe, dizziness, seeing stars and almost passing out, feeling extremely hot and having my jaw gnash and my eyes dart around. And extreme weakness so I can't even lift a glass of water or walk. Which I couldn't do anyhow because my extremities feel that "pins and needles" feeling like they have fallen asleep.

Here is the symptoms of my panic attacks"

*rapid heart rate
*chest pain
*rapid shallow breathing
*I feel paralized, like I can't move
*all my muscles tighten up
*sometimes sweating

After the panic attack dies down I have some symptoms for the next day or two. The severity of the 'hangover' corresponds with the severity of the attack.
*I feel like my brain is mush
*my muscles remain tense
*I am really tired

Last night I had at least two attacks during my sleep. The first one I was having one in my dream and I did that wake up from a bad dream thing and realized I really was in the middle of an attack. It took me about an hour to go back to sleep. Later I woke up drenched in sweat so I figured I must have had another attack. Today I felt the brain mush and physical exhaustion big time. (brain mush is what I call my feeling of thinking in slow motion and easily forgetting things) I was trying to take a nap and I kept having those weird dreams you sometimes get immediately after dozing off. I have 4 or 5 less intense panic attacks in a 45 min time frame. I finally broke down and took a whole xanax. I take xanax VERY sparingly because my doctor said she does not like to refill it and I was only give 15. I usually take only half but I knew I needed a full one today. Thankfully I have an appointment with her on Tuesday.

A panic attack is a response to stress, imagined or not. IT begins with a mind that is overly tense and possibly racing to begin with, given a decision or situation that is not immediately able to be dealt with. It slowly consumes the mind, having the mind race through the options available and continuing to flip through the options until one is only repeating the original question. The mind races, the body tries to keep up - slowly the mind goes too fast for the body and the body either crashes or freezes.

Mutism occurs early on, vertigo later.

sometimes during a traumatic event, other times for no reason at all--- you feel as if someone fat is sitting on your chest. you can't breathe, and you're scrambling to hold on to anything to let you breathe. your chest hurts because it feels as if the fat person is sitting on your chest. and this makes you feel as if you're going to die right then, and you can't breathe. so you try to breathe harder and you can't breathe, and it gets harder and harder. and the room starts spinning, and you can't breathe... the room spins and you feel like you're sinking and sinking and you feel like you're going to die. That is a panic attack in my mind, in my experience.

Basically it is a surge of adernaline into the body which makes your heart pump (which can produce palpitations) more and makes you more sensitive to things, noise and stuff. It's the kind of thing you might have needed more in the past for survival if you need to fight off a wild animal or run away from it etc...
Not really so useful these days, but the symptom's can be quite worrying and you can get into a bit of a vicious circle by being afraid of the symptoms and that producing more adrenaline.
I used to get them about 10 years ago and had some 'therapy', relaxation exercises etc...
But that did not work to well becauseit just made me think about panic attacks wich made me panicky so I decided the best thing to do was just to just forget about it!!
And basicallly that worked!!
Actually I did get a few palputations writing this so that kind of proves my theory!!
So I will leave it at that and go back to forgetting about it which works brilliantly for me!!
I don't want to get back into the 'panic loop'.

the paralyzed part is quite correct, since I can't do anything useful during it to stop or fix it. all the other things, too. it's quite correct.

I think there may be some sort of paralysis durng normal sleep (REM sleep) and that can carry over a bit into when you are awake or something like that, i think I have had that briefly.

it can start out as a feeling of there literally being exclamations points inside my mind....I always seem to get them and I know that that is where I am heading...

Well....I've had a few anxiety attacks. The first and most obvious symptom is the feeling of being trapped, even if you are not. The whole "room closing in on you" feeling isn't always present, but for me it happens in the more severe attacks.

Secondly, dry mouth...can't make saliva. This disrupts the ability to speak (tongue sticks to teeth) and throat starts to close up...almost feels like choking.

I've never had it worse than that. Never curled into a fetal position or ran away screaming, but it's disconcerting enough that I lose any ability to focus on what is going on. Very disorientating. In every case I squeaked through it by focusing on what needed to be done, but I pretty much was a basket case inside.