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Every person can feel anxiety, but when, to a certain extent, that anxiety gets too high, it might not be considered normal anymore. There’s a huge difference between someone who’s feeling anxious and someone who has anxiety. Feeling anxious is a normal feeling and is part of everyone’s life in one way or another, like when delivering a speech in front of many people, taking a big exam or trying out something new. However, for people who have anxiety as a mental health condition, the anxious feelings can be incredibly debilitating, triggered by seemingly normal things and can result in having anxiety attacks.
Symptoms of an Anxiety Attack
The feeling of an anxiety attack can be so intense, you almost always know that the things you are feeling aren’t just your everyday anxious feelings. However, knowing the symptoms or warning signs of anxiety attacks can help you get the right help and treatment needed, based on the symptoms you’re experiencing.
Heart Palpitations
One of the symptoms that is quite common for someone experiencing a panic attack is heart palpitations or an increase in the heart rate. This is because anxiety puts a person in a fight-or-flight situation because of too much worry. Sometimes, even if there is no trigger present.
People who experience anxiety attacks often describe that they can feel their heart beating in their chest, throat, and neck. It is often quite alarming and can send your anxiety into overdrive, but most heart palpitations aren’t dangerous and will usually go away after when the anxiety trigger passes.
During a state of the fight-or-flight response, your body will try to take in more oxygen. As a result, you may experience your breathing quickening during an anxiety attack. When this happens, the body releases a hormone called adrenaline. The release of adrenaline can also play a factor in heart palpitations, as it can cause the human heart to beat faster. Some may also feel muscle tension accompanied by heart palpitations.
If you constantly get heart palpitations caused by anxiety, your psychologist or doctor may prescribe you anti-anxiety medications or other drugs that could help you feel relaxed. With that said, consider checking out BuzzRx for some discounted prices on prescribed medications to help you get medicines at a more affordable price. Psychologists may also advise different forms of therapy to help you like cognitive behavioral therapy and the like.
Cold Sweats
Anxiety attacks can affect your temperature. For some, this can feel like a fever, commonly referred to as a psychogenic fever, especially if anxiety is accompanied by stress.
During an anxiety attack, you may also experience cold sweats because of the body’s flight or fight response. When the body thinks it’s in a stressful and dangerous situation, the flight or flight response activates to help a person prepare for what to do next.
Whenever a person feels nervous, threatened, or anxious, the heart rate also increases. This can cause you to sweat – your body’s natural response to help you stay cool. Similar to the typical sweaty areas in the body, cold sweats caused by anxiety are usually noticed mostly on the palms, armpits and feet.
Feeling Like You’re Passing Out
An anxiety attack can alter the normal breathing pattern of a person, which can lead to hyperventilation. This is when you experience rapid breathing caused by an anxiety-provoking stimulus or situation, and it could make you feel they’re about to pass out.
It can also cause lightheadedness and dizziness, as the body tries to balance the gasses in your blood through proper breathing. The brain may begin to feel weak as well, since the body receives too much carbon dioxide and little oxygen inhalation when hyperventilating. This can all feel like you’re going to faint or pass out.
Persistent Worry
Worrying about some things is a normal part of life. But, with anxiety, the worrying that something will go bad or something unfortunate will happen can be excessive. Some of the anxieties and worries may be caused by a triggering stimulus, while others can seemingly come without a trigger.
Excessive worrying may manifest in the body in various forms. When too much worrying and overthinking occurs, it can lead to an anxiety attack and may even lead to physically illness if not treated properly.
Emotional Detachment
Emotional detachment is when people are unwilling to connect with other people’s emotions. Usually, this is manifested in people who have severe anxiety, as the anxiety can be so scary that you withdrawal entirely. This type of detachment can happen with immediate family, as well as with friends and other loved ones.
For those dealing with an anxiety disorder like separation anxiety, doctors may recommend therapies to help cope. Some therapies may include Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), talking therapy that helps one to process difficult emotions, and Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a therapy used to reduce symptoms of mental illnesses like anxiety.
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If you notice you’re experiencing anxiety attacks more often or they’re becoming increasingly more difficult to manage, speaking with a healthcare provider as soon as possible is highly recommended. Anxiety attacks are manageable with the right interventions; so don’t feel disheartened if you’re struggling. There’s still life after having an anxiety attack, so take note of the symptoms you’re experiencing to communicate them properly to your doctor.
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