How do I know if I'm having a panic attack?

How do you know when you’re having a panic attack? If you’ve never had a panic attack before, or you have one for the first time, you’ll feel all these weird sensations in your mind and body. Anxiety runs rapid. You don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Your world gets turned upside down for a few minutes. Everything just becomes a blur. Consequently, you feel like you are going to pass out. Then all of a sudden, it starts clearing. Your 5 senses come back to you. What feels like an eternity was only a couple of minutes. Altogether, your surroundings come back in play. Your standing there dumbfounded. That’s how you know you’re having a panic attack.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill

A Strong Feeling of Dread, Danger or Foreboding

The feeling of dread or danger heightens when you have a panic attack. All things considered, you have no control over your body or your mind for that matter. Basically, you feel like you’re dying and there’s nothing you can do about it. Above all, you feel like you have control over nothing. One minute you’re standing there talking to someone and the next minute you feel like you’re having an out of body experience.

The danger perceived from your mind happens right before you have the attack. You know something wrong is going to happen because you have all the beginning symptoms of a panic attack. As a matter of fact, panic attacks can happen at anytime, no matter what you are doing. Subsequently, you could have one while you’re sleeping.

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” Albert Einstein

Anxious and Irrational Thinking

All of a sudden, you start to panic. You feel like you’ve lost control of your body and maybe even your mind. The anxiety is excruciating and you don’t know how to make it stop. Then, your brain chimes in with the irrational thinking. “I can’t breath!” “I’m going to die!” No you’re not dying, you’re just having a panic attack.

Even though you may have had lots of panic attacks, you keep thinking “this is going to be the one.” I’m going to die from this one. And then it’s over with just as soon as it started. Afterwards, you’re just standing there praying that you don’t have anymore. But that’s usually not the case.

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” John F. Kennedy

Fear of Going Mad, Losing Control, or Dying

At any rate, the fear of going mad or losing control during a panic attack is very prevalent. That’s one of the ways you know you’re having a panic attack. Do you ever wonder what other people think if they see you having a panic attack? Despite you trying desperately to control it, you can feel yourself losing control of your body. I’ve never seen another person have a panic attack, so I don’t know what it looks like from that perspective. Do I look like I’m loosing control? What are my facial features?

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” George Bernard Shaw

Feeling Lightheaded and Dizzy

I definitely feel lightheaded and dizzy before, during and after a panic attack. Consequently, something is happening to your body and mind. The dizziness is from your body telling you that something is very wrong. At this point, you feel like you need to get away from whatever your perceived threat might be, but you can’t move. Consequently, there is no threat! Your body is responding to something that doesn’t exist. How are you supposed to control that?

“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” Scott Hamilton

Tingling and Chills, Particularly in the Arms and Hands

At the same time, you start to feel tingling and chills, particularly in the arms and hands. Tingling is such a strange feeling even if you aren’t having a panic attack. At length, your body turns cold. You feel like your arm or hand has fallen asleep. Plus, my hands get really cold also.

A wave of chills goes through me, not reflecting my environment temp. You feel like you are being pulled from your body. I guess you could say it feels like an out of body experience. Actually, that has happened to me only a couple of times when I just didn’t want to deal with the panic attack.

“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” William James

Trembling or Shaking, Sweating

Trembling or shaking and sweating are symptoms of how you know you’re having a panic attack. At this point, it feels like someone turned up the thermostat because you start sweating. One of the symptoms I can’t stand is the shakiness. Sometimes you can tell how bad the attack is going to be by how much you are shaking (at least I can). Therefore, if I’m shaking a little bit, I can usually squash the panic attack. If I’m shaking a lot, I know a bad one is coming.

I can’t stand the shakiness because I feel like I have really lost control of my body (and mind) for that matter. When I feel like I’ve lost control, I panic even more and the attack lasts a lot longer. I try to de-escalate the attack by using breathing techniques, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and concentrating on the 5 senses to bring me back down to earth.

“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.” Wayne Dyer

Conclusion

So, if you ask yourself “how do I know when I’m having a panic attack”, you can look at this post and know all the symptoms. Plus, you’ll at least know that you’re not the only one who experiences this. I just chose to write about my experiences with them so other people know when they’re going through one if you’re a first timer.

So, stay strong when you go through an attack. They don’t last forever (even though it feels like it). By practicing some of the coping skills, you can lessen the severity of the attack (but that’s in another post). Well, I hope you now know some of the precursor’s for having a panic attack and you won’t totally freak out. Until next time…

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