The Symptoms of a Panic Attack - It Can't Kill You

The symptoms are in fact an exaggeration of the normal bodily reaction to a fearful situation. Imagine what would happen if you were up a ladder and felt it slip from under you. Your heart would pound, your breathing would alter, and you might turn very pale or break out in a sweat. However, as soon as you climbed down the ladder and recognized that you were safe, but had nearly had a nasty accident, your anxiety would die down. You would understand the symptoms as being quite natural, and you would not worry about those symptoms. But what if you experienced exactly those same symptoms pushing a trolley around a supermarket or sitting at your desk at work? Your mind would immediately try to make sense of the situation and would come up with a number of very frightening thoughts.

The problem with panic attacks is that your fear reaction has become oversensitive and is being triggered in a variety of apparently normal situations. This oversensitivity of the fear reaction is more likely if you are tired or under a lot of stress. Sometimes this stress can be caused by worrying about having another panic attack. If you have had one bad attack you can become over-vigilant, an expert at detecting the normal changes in your body which you would usually ignore. You are constantly on the lookout for slight changes that may indicate that something is amiss. Once you begin to imagine something sis wrong, you become slightly frightened, triggering the body's reaction and the vicious circle of panic takes off. Other factors which can trigger panics include physical exertion, hunger, hormonal changes, caffeine and alcohol.