GenInv – Health and Wellness

While different people may have different symptoms when experiencing a panic attack, there is one they all share – that of the racing heart. It’s the first thing you notice as you become aware of the others. It can become so intense that people who experience a panic attack for the first time usually race to hospital convinced they are having a heart attack.

This panic attack symptom is also the cause of many of the other symptoms we feel during an episode. But let’s look firstly at what

causes it to react the way it does. To feel anxiety is perfectly normal and, indeed, we need it in order to survive. It’s anxiety which causes you to hasten across the road when you see a car coming; if you didn’t feel anxious, you would stay there and let it hit you. In hastening across the road, your heart will beat just a little harder to urge you on.

What stimulates it in this situation?  The brain perceives danger and so activates the autonomic nervous system. This system is respons

ible for controlling the body’s energy levels and preparing it for action. One of the things it does is signal the kidneys to release two chemicals called adrenaline and noradrenaline. As these chemicals surge through the body – an adrenaline rush – the heart is given the message to beat harder, which in turn gives you the energy you need to rush across the road. It’s the body’s way of protecting you.

So in this scenario, we can understand the process. There is a very clear danger an

d we respond to it. But what happens during a panic attack? Panic attacks are a problem because there is no danger, there is no car speeding towards you so why does your heart race?

Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a definitive answer to this question, but here is what scientists think happens. Within the brain, there are not only the mechanisms which react to fear but also a storehouse containing the memory of fear.

These memories usually lie dormant until one day, when we have been under too much stress for too long, we are too tired or we haven’t eaten properly or taken in enough fluids, our bodies are run down and unable to cope with one small trigger that we coped with fine the week before. Our brain perceives danger in the crowd, in the elevator that’s going too slow, in the building that seems too high and our fear response is triggered inappropriately.

The adrenaline rushes through our body, our heart begins to race, we try to gulp in air because we feel we can’t get enough. Messages are sent around the body telling it to redirect blood from the places where it isn’t needed (fingers, toes, skin) to where it is more useful (heart, muscles). This is why panic attack symptoms include numbness or tingling in the hands and feet.

While the symptoms of a panic attack may feel like a heart attack, there are some differences sufferers should be aware of. If you are having a heart attack, a heavy crushing pain is felt in the center of the chest whereas during a panic attack, the pain is sharp and localized above the heart. Victims of a heart attack don’t hyperventilate while this is what precedes the other symptoms in a panic attack. Vomiting usually accompanies the former but not the latter.

It is important to know that while you may feel you are going to die from your symptoms, this will not be the case. To our best knowledge, no-one has ever died from a panic attack. This is because there is no problem with your heart – your heart is fine. Before the symptoms become too much for your body to handle, the parasympathetic nervous system will kick in and calm things down. This is an inbuilt defense system activated when the sympathetic system (responsible for the adrenaline rush) gets too carried away. This will always be the case.

Learning about the body’s physical response in a panic attack is key to overcoming the initial fear of another attack. Know that you are not going to die and your body is doing what it’s supposed to do – it’s just doing it at an inappropriate time.