How do you know it’s a Panic Attack?

If you’re like me and get random panics, how do you actually know that it’s a panic attack, and not some other illness? Here are the signs:

The symptoms you get can suddenly disappear when you’re not focusing on it. For example, you may be thinking of something else for 2-5 minutes, and suddenly realise that during that time, you didn’t feel it, but as soon as you thought about the anxiety, those feelings came back. Illnesses would not be like that as if you are sick, then you should always be. Because anxiety can be hugely caused by thinking, this is why sometimes when you divert your mind, the symptoms seem to disappear.

Similar to sometimes, even if you try and relax and breathe, you may notice the symptoms go down a tiny bit. Even if you catch onto that, you should realise that’s panic.

It follows a pattern, such as you get it after you feel nervous, or before certain events.

You’ve felt this way before and came through it, and knew it was panic.

You literally do feel fear and panic, especially around your stomach and heart area.

Certain things seem to trigger it, such as just before you eat, or going out, or seeing a doctor, or anything that you are usually nervous about.

You can feel your heart beating very fast. No matter what symptoms you are experiencing, feel your heart. Is it thudding? Sometimes you may notice it’s beating much faster than usual!

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Once you have caught onto the fact that you’re experiencing panic rather than an actual disease, remember to try the cold water trick by splashing your water with ice cold water (not even cold tap water, put ice) as that will slow your heart rate down and decrease symptoms of panic.