Everyone experiences anxiety and panic at different times, these are common responses to stressful or dangerous situations. However, for someone who experiences panic attacks the feelings of anxiety, panic or stress can occur regularly and at any time, often for no apparent reason.

Why do panic attacks happen?

Biologically , when our bodies perceive a threat in our environment we respond by entering ‘fight or flight’ mode. Panic attacks often happen when our body responds in this way but there is no threat in our environment, sometimes it is referred to as a ‘false alarm’ reaction.

What happens when I am having a panic attack?

Lots of people experience panic attacks differently. A number of symptoms can be explained by understanding what happens our body biologically when we are aroused into a state of panic. We often misinterpret these symptoms as dangerous or something ‘bad’ happening, they are in fact, the body ‘doing its job.’ One of the most important parts of learning to deal with a panic attack is understanding what is happening to your body.

•  You may experience an increased heart rate as your body pumps more blood and oxygen to muscles in order to prepare for escape.
• A shortness of breath may be experienced as a result of the chest muscles tightening as all of the muscles in the body flex in preparation for escape.
• Feelings of dizziness, disorientation,or unreality as oxygen is diverted from the brain to muscles in the limbs and pupils dilated to focus attention.
• Sweating occurs in order to cool the body during escape as well as to cause the skin to become more slippery and harder to grab.
• Feelings of nausea that result from the diversion of blood from the stomach and resulting change in gastric acid as the body diverts energy from digestion to muscles needed to flee.