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What Makes a Panic Attack Feel Like Impending Death?
This can be very frightening to those who are having their first anxiety attack.
Because acute attacks mimic heart failure and come on suddenly, it is wise to see a physician to eliminate other causes and to receive proper treatment if needed.
Social phobias, including general anxiety disorder and agoraphobia often are related to the onset of panic attacks.
Some sufferers have stated the feeling of fight or flight, is what makes a panic attack feel like they should start running away as fast as possible to escape what is perceived as a dangerous situation, but in reality, is not.
The majority of panic attacks may last as little as a few seconds to thirty minutes.
In more serious cases, the attack may come and go for hours before subsiding.
The fear of being called crazy or mentally disturbed, is what keeps many victims of anxiety disorders and the attacks that follow, from telling someone.
Explaining to a stranger, even if the person is a physician, that what makes a panic attack feel like a nervous breakdown, or fear of death, is humiliating and embarrassing.
This why many people choose to suffer in silence or self medicate.
Others will become so afraid of having attacks in public, they will eventually drop out of society and become prisoners of their own homes.
There are triggers that precede panic attacks, and for the more experienced sufferers, these triggers will be obvious enough that an attack may even be prevented from coming on or at the least, reduced in severity.
Some of these precedents are a death in the family, divorce, illness, a new stressful situation on the job, speaking in front of people, feeling trapped when in a crowd, and in some cases too much caffeine.
What makes a panic attack feel like one needs to be racing away as fast as possible is the adrenalin rush brought on by fear.
Hyperventilation is another which is why a person may feel breathless.
None of these symptoms are life threatening, but can be very scary all the same.
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