Anxiety Attack vs Panic Attack

anxiety attack or a panic attack what is the difference I see a lot of misinformation about this across social media and if you're having a panic attack what's the quickest and most effective way to bring it back down again I'm Dr Julie I'm a clinical psychologist and I'll talk you through it so let's start with that first question what's the difference between an anxiety attack and a panic attack now an anxiety attack is a term that's being used more and more online and on social media often to mean slightly different things and the reason for that is because it's not a clinical disorder or a diagnosis so it's not a term that's recognized or used by professionals to mean anything in particular when there's no set agreed definition or criteria for something it's really important to be aware of that because when you hear people using the term unless they State what they mean by it different people can use it to mean different things I see people on social media listing criteria for what it means to have an anxiety attack but that's not a criteria that mental health professionals would recognize I see it used a lot to describe a general buildup of anxiety you like in the lead up to some sort of social event maybe your exam or an interview and something I see people saying on the internet that's just not true is that an anxiety attack has a specific Trigger or a clear circumstance that's directed towards and that panic attacks don't usually have a clear identifiable trigger that's complete rubbish it's never that clear-cut there are plenty of people who experience high levels of anxiety and have no idea why it's happening and in the same respect there are lots of people who experience panic attacks that are highly predictable and specific to a situation that they're fully aware of so again whether you can pinpoint a specific Trigger or not does not determine whether you're experiencing a panic attack or not so a panic attack is this abrupt surge of intense fear and discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes and then during that time you'll experience a range of intense symptoms we're looking for around four from the following list so that might be palpitations that pounding heart feeling sweating trembling shaking sensations of sort of shortness of breath like you can't catch a breath feelings of choking chest pain nausea abdominal distress feeling dizzy or lightheaded or like you might faint derealization which is feelings of sort of unreality or depersonalization so that feeling of being detached from yourself or fear of losing control or going crazy or that fear of dying and numbness or tingling sensation you might get chills or heat Sensations so hot flushes so while you can be in a pretty high state of anxiety a panic attack is where that anxiety really Peaks to such an intensity and the symptoms are so intense that you start to think you might be dying or you could be completely losing control so experiencing a panic attack does not necessarily mean that you have a panic disorder panic attacks can be related to lots of other things like trauma reactions separation anxiety oh CD or specific phobia but if you get more than one panic attack it's really helpful to go and talk to a doctor or a psychologist who can help you work out what's going on and what it's related to so if you experience panic attacks what can you do about it I'm going to take you through some of the top tips from therapy now one of the most important tips when it comes to panic attacks is first understanding how anxiety can spiral into a panic attack so the trigger for a panic attack could be something outside of you like an event or a specific situation maybe the supermarket or a crowded place but it could also be internal by that I mean it could start with a physical sensation maybe that feels like anxiety one example might be you had a strong coffee at breakfast and later on that day your heart starts pounding in your chest if that happens and you've struggled with anxiety before you might notice that those palpitations and immediately think oh no I'm getting anxious this is really bad I'm gonna lose control either way what you're perceiving is some sort of threat whether that is and how you feel or something that's threatening around you then what happens is you become apprehensive about the build up of anxiety so you're becoming hyper Vigilant to any other symptoms of anxiety and when you do that you start to notice them more which in turn makes you feel even more anxious so as your threat system is ramping up into action The crucial part of all this is the next part this is when it can cause anxiety to spiral into Panic it's when you start to misinterpret one or two of those symptoms as catastrophic that means you start to fear either complete loss of control total humiliation or even death so for example many people experience chest pain and naturally start to think I'm having a heart attack others feel a tightness in their throat and a dry mouth and that shortness of breath and they start to think I'm going to suffocate but whatever the fine details are if you're telling yourself that you're about to face death or total humiliation and your anxiety is going to take off and you have yourself a panic attack so if you do have a panic attack what can you do about it well number one is remember that when you're having a panic attack your body's actually working really well it's doing what it was built to do so when your heart's pounding and your throat is dry because of anxiety you are safe building up a real awareness around what those signs are for you actually helps you to recognize them as anxiety when they come up again in the future and if you can see them as anxiety Then you can break that cycle of misinterpreting those symptoms that can then lead to panic attack number two is breathing so one of the quickest ways to calm the mind is through the body if you can extend your out breath meaning that you breathe out for slightly longer than you breathe in then after a few minutes your brain is going to start telling your heart to slow down you could try doing something like the 7-Eleven to get you started which is when you breathe in for counter seven and out for a count of 11. the specific numbers don't matter so much do what feels most comfortable but you're really looking to breathe out for longer than you breathe in for and do it for a few minutes so give it some time before it starts to work it won't work immediately so take your time with it number three is to stop the odd panic attack from turning into something more regular you have to make sure that you don't start avoiding the thing that triggered it in the first place if that situation is a safe one so for example if you went to the supermarket and you had a panic attack it might feel like a good decision to not go back there for as long as possible but avoidance feeds anxiety in the long term because you'll never get the chance to be in that supermarket and have it go well and then feel better about it when you start to avoid lots of things because of anxiety Then that anxiety grows and you find yourself stuck in a terrible situation where you can't leave the house or you can't do all the things that give you a meaningful life so don't avoid get support if you need to take it slowly build up to things really gradually but don't let anxiety make parts of your life out of bounds to you I took in depth about anxiety in my book and I cover lots of tools from therapy in there so check out the link in the description or the link in the bio if you're watching on Instagram so that you can order that if you want to I'd love to hear more about your own experiences with anxiety and what helps you most when you're feeling anxious so chat with me in the comments and you can stick in topic suggestions there for future videos don't forget to hit subscribe so you can catch them in the future thanks for watching guys

Channel: Dr Julie

Views: 946,272

Keywords: anxiety attack, panic attack, anxiety attack vs panic attack, what is a panic attack, what is a anxiety attack

Id: kUBH1LjK3jc

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2022