Difference Between Anxiety Attacks and Panic Attacks
Friday, November 6th, 2009Ordinary people do not know the difference between “panic attack” and “anxiety attack”. Because of this, they often use them wrongly. From psychiatrist’s perspective, the two are very different, and therefore, they need to be treated differently.
Anxiety attack is caused by worries related to life, such as relationships, money, work place environment, or school environment. This may be triggered because something bad has happened in the past, or the person expects something bad to happen in future. Some issues that remind or are related to these worries trigger it.
Panic attack is more unpredictable as there is nothing specific that can be said to trigger it. The person is worrying here as well, but this worry relates to physical being or mind, and this worry is not something that has been there for long in the mind.
In anxiety attack, the person shows shortness of breath, gets shaky, and the heart starts racing. These attacks may last for some minutes, or may go on for several days.
Panic attack on the other hand makes the person feel as if he or she is having a cardiac arrest. At times the person may faint, or feel as if he or she is choking. Sometimes such people vomit or have nauseating feeling. Others describe it as a feeling where they are going mad. Some even feel that they have lost control over their mind, or body. Here also the heart races rapidly, and there is breathlessness. Persons undergoing panic attack also shake like those with anxiety attacks. These people may even go to emergency rooms to confirm that nothing is wrong with them.
At times, though rarely, people with anxiety attack may get panic attack as well.
As to treatment, people with anxiety attack can be immediately given normal anti depressants such as Valium, Xanax, Ativan, and Klonopin, which contain benzodiazepines.
But a similar treatment in panic attacks may aggravate the problem. These people too need to be given the same drugs, but in much smaller doses.
Cognitive Behavioral treatment for anxiety attacks is relaxation and meditation techniques so that thinking patterns are altered. But for people with panic attacks, such treatment is oriented more towards body and mind.
Relavant Panic Attack Resources
Generalized anxiety disorder - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Panic Attacks Treatment by NathanTy
3 shark attacks have Mexico resort area in panic - USATODAY.com