Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety Attack Symptoms

Anxiety or panic attacks are sudden periods of intense anxiety, fear and discomfort. While these attacks might seem to happen for no reason, they’re actually the body’s response to what it perceives to determine the need for fight or flight.

The attacks usually last about ten minutes, but can be as short as one minute. However, there are some severe cases where they occur in cycles. Anxiety attacks cycles can last for various extended amounts of time. They can also make a person feel a strong sense of nervous anticipation between each occurrence.

Physical symptoms of anxiety attacks generally include shortness of breath, heart palpitations and sweating. The bodies extremities are often effected and a person can experience headaches, nausea dizziness and the feeling of being lightheaded. This is the bodies way of fighting back and protecting itself from what it perceives to be a threat to it.

Sudden feelings of fear can often be one of the key triggers for anxiety attacks. In response, the body releases adrenaline followed by increases in the heart and breathing rate and production of sweat (to regulate body temperature). These actions prepare the body for the physical activities of fighting or escaping. People often do not need to fight or escape a situation once a panic attack occurs and therefore the body’s reaction causes the discomforts of physical pain.

The heart palpitations are brought on by the increased heart rate. When that happens, a person can hyperventilate due to rapid breathing, causing a decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide levels in the bodies blood and lungs. This leads to the tingling, numbness, dizziness and lightheadedness. The rapid heart rate, raises the adrenaline and that effects the blood vessels by causing them to narrow, which in turn effects the amount of blood that is able to get up to the brain. After understanding the causes and symptoms of anxiety attacks, you should learn to breathe properly if an attack occurs, which will help you to take steps in controlling them; you owe it to yourself to learn ways to do this and get to the root of the problem!