When I was working in Connecticut, I saw a woman in her 20s (let’s call her Nena) who was brought to the hospital emergency room for medical assessment. Apparently, Nena was shopping in the mall. Without any warning, she suddenly felt terrified and developed shortness of breath, fast heart rate, hot flushes all over her body, and chest pain.
Everyone thought that she was suffering from heart attack so 911 was called. On the way to the hospital, she displayed significant sweating and showed an intense fear in her looks. In the ER, a doctor saw him who ordered electrocardiogram and laboratory exams. Results came negative and they called me to see her for psychiatric assessment.
What happened to Nena?
Based on the description, Nena suffered from panic attack — a condition that has many causes including coffee intake, heart condition, medications, and psychiatric illness, among others.
One of the most common causes of panic attack is Panic disorder. This psychiatric condition consists of frequent panic attacks associated with a significant fear of having another one. Each attack consists of an overwhelming sensation that happens suddenly and often unexpectedly, and peaks in a short while. Typically it’s associated with various symptoms and lasts for a few seconds to several minutes. Let’s classify the symptoms into psychological, cognitive, physical, and behavioral and discuss them in detail below.
Psychological or Cognitive symptoms
During the panic attack, the individual develops intense feeling of dread or fear of developing a heart attack, a stroke, or other illnesses including “going crazy.” Some fear of losing control.
After the attack, the individual anticipates with significant apprehension or distress the occurrence of another attack.
Physical symptoms
Some individuals with panic attack suffer from tingling sensation or numbness of arms and legs. No wonder, they feel that they have stroke. Along with such sensations, sweating happens. Shortness of breath and awareness of having a lump in the throat are common as well. Some shake or tremble and have hot flushes all over their body.
Others develop chest heaviness, tightness, or pain associated with heart pounding. This is why some feel that they are having heart attack.
Some individuals feel dizzy and lightheaded. Some even believe that they will faint. Still others feel nauseous and suffer from abdominal distress.
Behavioral
Some individuals with panic disorder have agoraphobia. In this instance, individuals avoid crowds or suffer from serious discomfort when in a place where escape may be hard or where help may not be available. Some don’t feel comfortable being outside the home, going to the mall, falling in line, being in an elevator, or driving on the highway.
Those who have frequent panic attacks can hardly function and go to work. Out of fear, they tend to stay home to be with family members when anxiety attack happens.
In summary, panic attacks have many causes and may display with psychological, cognitive, physical, and behavioral problems. One of the most common causes is Panic disorder, a psychiatric disorder manifested by frequent panic attacks and fear of having another one. Others develop agoraphobia and functional impairment as well.