Anxiety Attack Or Panic Attack: What's The Difference? Explained by a Therapist

today I'm going to talk to you about the differences between panic attacks and anxiety attacks because they're not the same thing although a lot of people use them interchangeably so in this video I'm going to tell you about the differences the different symptoms for each of them and in the next video I'm going to give you tips about how to manage your panic attacks and anxiety attacks but before I get started I wrote an ebook and it is completely free and I want to give it to you because I realize that so many people really like the tips that I'm giving on all my social channels and I wanted to make it easier for you to access these tips in times of need all you have to do is just go to the link that's in my description and you can download your free copy today let's get into it let's start with talking about what panic attacks are a panic attack is a sudden onset of overwhelming Sensations and feelings that can reach its peak within minutes and it includes such intense emotions and physical Sensations some of the most common symptoms of a panic attack include heart palpitations shortness of breath dizziness nausea trouble swallowing being extremely sweaty or extremely cold losing sensation in your body intense chest pain gastrointestinal issues and extreme dissociation which is a disconnect from your body your surroundings you might feel like your body's part of a fun house mirror or that you are living in some sort of virtual reality panic attacks are so intense that people think they're having a heart attack one of the most common reasons for ER visits is panic attacks people take themselves or their family takes them to the hospital thinking they are dying or having a heart attack there are so many reasons people have panic attacks sometimes it's because of trauma sometimes it's because you have high levels of anxiety or struggle with panic disorder and they vary for different people there's almost always a trigger for a panic attack even when you don't really realize what that that trigger is there are different types of triggers there are triggers that we are aware of those are things like maybe being around a person that is triggering for you or watching something that could be triggering or hearing about a subject that you have experienced in the past basically unhealed trauma but there are also some things that aren't really in our awareness this is because our nervous system perceives a threat when there isn't actually conscious awareness of that threat something as subtle as a scent so if you were abused by somebody in childhood that were specific cologne or perfume you might notice in the future that you have a heightened sense of anxiety or even panic attacks around people that wear that perfume even if you don't know that person at all all of a sudden you might start feeling really anxious and really overwhelmed and you're not sure why I'm gonna give you a really common example of how the out of nowhere panic attacks happen let's say you woke up this morning you didn't have time to have breakfast but you did have your large cup of coffee you get to work and you start noticing that you're a little bit shaky and then you notice that your heart's beating a little bit faster if you've had a panic attack in the past you might start to think oh no here it is it's coming on I'm having a panic attack that sends your nervous system into a deeper state of fight or flight so now you're hyper Vigilant now you're hyper aware of your body and physical Sensations and just being in a state of fight or flight introduces more fight or flight symptoms in our body like that tightness in chest that difficulty breathing maybe shallow breaths and your awareness is fully gone over into your body because these symptoms in the past have resulted in something that you didn't like that intense panic attack that was really scary but since we're in that fight or flight State and we're not really interrupting it or really having the thought of we did have coffee we didn't have breakfast we start to generate more of that in our nervous system so that perceived threat in that moment is we are having heart applications our breathing is shallow and we're a little bit shaky our nervous system sends off that alarm something's wrong something's wrong we begin to hyper focus more and more on our body and boom there's that panic attack that's when you start feeling the fear of losing control feeling like you're dying and thinking that something is severely wrong with you so as you can see in that example there wasn't necessarily an aware trigger that was happening maybe you even forgot that you had coffee that morning and didn't really have breakfast but something did trigger that symptomology in your body to pop up which you your brain interpreted as something is wrong and it created more of that on the other hand anxiety attacks are not an actual diagnosis they are not actually in the diagnostic manual for mental health disorders it's not something that you get labeled as having it's usually more of a symptom of anxiety or depression or another mental health disorder it's basically saying that you have high levels of anxiety in that moment for the purposes of this video and based on what I'm seeing online a lot of people have kind of Loosely identified the differences between anxiety attacks and panic attacks this is what we mean when we say somebody's having an anxiety attack so an anxiety attack is a term that's used to describe a general feeling of heightened anxiety people that talk about having anxiety attacks usually know what is going on maybe there's something going on in your life that just has you in a heightened state of anxiety maybe you have a presentation coming up maybe you're in a bad relationship maybe you're having trouble with different aspects of your life so your anxiety is heightened and as things happen in your environment due to those stressors you start to notice that you're almost on the verge of that panic attack but you still are okay to maybe calm down a little bit faster or not go into a full-blown panic attack usually anxiety attacks are used to describe the mental process of overthinking catastrophizing being really hyper aware of like every little thing similar to panic attacks here are some of the physical symptoms of anxiety attacks you might have increased heart rate you might feel a little bit of gastrointestinal distress maybe you're overthinking like your brain is jumping from one thing to another you keep playing past events in your mind or future events in your mind or conversations you might feel really tense in your body specifically around your neck your jaw your shoulders your back you might find yourself clenching your jaw and just like having a lot of tightness in your face that's why people get them so confused because they do share symptoms but it's not to the level of feeling like you're dying or about to lose control as is described with the panic attacks another thing that is common when people talk about anxiety attacks is that they tend to build up over time so as we talked about with panic panic attacks just feel like they're coming out of nowhere or the the quickness between like that sensation in your body and a full-blown panic attack is much faster with anxiety it's almost like we're working ourselves up over time so we notice some things off maybe we start thinking about that thing being off it kind of lingers for a while and it keeps growing and growing and growing and then it kind of gets to its peak which is still not as high as a panic attack um but we we are also able to uh distract ourselves from it maybe or if we have a friend to talk us through it it gets better a little bit quicker or if we have coping skills that we can implement we are able to use them in that moment one of the major differences between panic attacks and anxiety attacks is that with a panic attack your prefrontal cortex the thinking logical memory skill based connection based part of your brain is completely shut off because as you go directly into fight or flight whereas with anxiety attacks you still have access to the thinking learning remembering skill based part of your brain because you're not fully in fight or flight so that's why coping skills might be easier to implement with anxiety attacks so that's why a friend talking to you about what you're anxious about or you kind of journaling or doing any of the coping skills that you have learned might help you with that whereas with panic attacks most of the time we don't even have access to remember we have coping skills so I hope that this video clarified the difference between panic and anxiety have you had a panic attack have you had anxiety attacks do you fear what to do about them do you want tips to know how to help yourself with them I hope you do because in my next video I'm gonna give you all the best tools that I provide my clients and people on social media that have said have been really really helpful so make sure you're subscribed leave me a comment and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Micheline Maalouf

Views: 5,628

Keywords: panic attack, anxiety attack, panic attack symptoms, anxiety disorder, mental health awareness, anxiety attacks vs panic attacks, panic attacks explained, how to stop panic attacks and anxiety, panic attack triggers, anxiety vs panic, anxiety vs panic attack, am i having a panic attack, explained by a therapist, anxiety attack or panic attack, panic disorder, whats the difference between a panic attack and anxiety attack, stop panic attacks, mental health

Id: k_LcRsc5s5k

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 25 2023