 What does a panic attack feel like? Well, in a single word, a panic attack is absolutely terrifying. Let's put that on the table right away. While by definition, a panic attack happens even when you are in no danger, that doesn't make it any less scary. I mean, a panic attack feels incredibly scary. It will convince you that something is very wrong or that something horrible is happening or is about to happen. So let's take a few minutes to take a closer look at what a panic attack actually feels like. Welcome to The Anxious Truth. I'm Drew Linsolata. I'm a therapist and training as of late 2023, specializing in anxiety and anxiety disorders. And not only do I know a whole lot about panic and panic attacks, but I struggled with panic disorder and agoraphobia myself for many years of my life. Today, we're not just gonna work from theory or textbooks. We're also gonna work from my own experience because I know firsthand what panic feels like. So if you're having panic attacks and you're struggling with that, it gets you. Now, before we get started, if you'd like to know more about panic, panic attacks and panic disorder, consider checking out the rest of the videos and podcast episodes on my channel, maybe following me on social media, checking out my 90 minute panic attacks explained video workshop or grabbing a free downloadable chapter from my panic attacks recovery guide, which is also called The Anxious Truth. I'll put all the links in the video or podcast description for you so you can check those out whenever you want to. Also, just if you're a returning viewer or listener, I just wanna thank you for a second for indulging me as I continue this Foundation's panic series. It's designed to help new members of our community. This information might be old for you, but for those new to this issue, basic psycho-educational content is vital and really sorely needed, so thank you so much. Now, a panic attack will virtually drown you in a flood of physical sensations, scary thoughts, and anxious emotions. They will often get triggered out of nowhere and for seemingly no reason, and they are strong, they are loud, and they are very fast. Sometimes you can feel a panic attack simmering for a long time before it happens. Other times you're kind of fine one minute and then in a full-blown state of panic the next minute. Both of those things are common and normal experiences. Now, when you have a panic attack, it will feel like something horrible is about to happen or is already happening to you. This feeling is accompanied by a long list of possible physical panic symptoms, scary thoughts, and anxious feelings. I can't do them all here, but the most common of those are feeling like you're about to pass out, feeling like you can't breathe or you can't get a deep enough breath. Your heart may race, pound, or even skip beats. You'll feel hot and cold, alternatively, you might start sweating or it might be a cold sweat. Feeling like you're outside of your body or feeling like everything around you is suddenly unreal or as if you're disconnected from reality, that's called the DPDR, T-personalization and de-realization. Trembling or shaking is quite common. Being super nauseous or feeling like you have to run to the bathroom to be physically ill or to pee or to poop, you might feel really dizzy or off balance like you're going to fall over. You will get extremely tense with very high levels of muscle tension. Oftentimes, you will feel like your legs and arms are wobbly or they're made of jelly. You may experience numb hands, face, or feet and hands, which is something that can happen if you accidentally start hyperventilating, which is common during panic. I can go on with a very long list of physical symptoms and sensations of panic. If I didn't mention yours, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen or that you should have it checked out because it wasn't in the list, so it's dangerous. The list is very long. If you want more on this, you can check out episode 239 in my podcast. If you're on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app, I'll put links to that episode in the description below. I actually spend like five minutes in that episode listing panic and anxiety symptoms. You might find some comfort in that. Now, panic attack is also gonna come with a torrent of really scary thoughts and anxious feelings. It's very common during a panic attack to be afraid of either dying, going insane, or completely losing control or sort of snapping. Those are the top three fears usually expressed by people who deal with panic attacks. You may fear being permanently damaged or incapacitated in some way. You might fear that the panic is going to make you make a scene or that will be leaving you at a state of feeling very embarrassed or shameful. That's also a very common thing. When having a panic attack, you might have trouble thinking or speaking. Your memory might degrade. Your fine motor skills will often suffer. It'll cause you to fumble with things like your keys or your phone or a pen or a pencil. If you ever try to write something down during a panic attack or even use your phone or unlock your phone, you might struggle with that. This is actually quite common. And when you're in the middle of a panic attack, you'll often find yourself completely overwhelmed by fear and a sense of danger. That's an awful feeling. You will likely feel an urgent and frantic need to escape from what you're experiencing or to be saved or rescued by people you trust maybe friends or partners or family members or even by emergency medical or rescue personnel. This feeling is so strong. I've been here many times that many people that have panic attacks repeatedly seek emergency medical assistance, either by calling for an ambulance or rushing to the emergency room or in the UK you guys call it the A&E. When you're having a panic attack, you will likely and may frantically engage in every possible trick or hack you've ever heard of in order to make the panic stop immediately so you can feel safe again because during panic, you feel anything but safe. That's very common and often and we will talk about that as we get further down the road in this series and I've talked about it in other social media content and in other podcasts, episodes and videos that need to try all the tricks and hacks and tips to make it stop. Seems like common sense, but it'll often backfire. We'll get to that in a second. Again, because it bears repeating, while a panic attack happens in the absence of an actual threat and while a panic attack can't hurt you or harm you, this does not make it any less scary or impactful. Even if you already understand from a logical perspective that you are safe and not in any danger, it doesn't matter. One of the hallmarks of a panic attack is that the logical, the smart part of your brain is on the bench, it's out of the game. Logic and reasoning go out the window because during a panic attack, the lower part of your brain, the lizard brain, if you will, the part tasked with detecting threats and keeping you safe and alive, it's in the driver's seat. If you are getting frustrated because you can't logic your way out of a panic attack, you can stop trying to do that. It rarely ever, because in the most intense moments of panic, the logical part of your brain has very little say in the matter. It's not just you, that's the case for pretty much everyone. It's not a defect on your part that's actually normal and I really felt like I needed to say that. And while you're in the middle of a panic attack, it feels like it will never end, but, and this is important, all panic attacks ultimately end. Not fast enough for anybody, including me, I wanted them to be over very quickly. So it will feel like it's taking too long to end, but all panic attacks ultimately end. Now, in future videos and podcast episodes, we'll talk about why you might think you can panic for hours or even days on end, but for now, know that all panic attacks end because physiology dictates that they will end. That's just a fact, a human body cannot sustain panic levels indefinitely for hours or days on end. We'll talk about undulating panic down the road, but even after the panic attack does end, you will likely feel afraid still, maybe even kind of terrified, shaky and very vulnerable. The physiology of panic is such that it's gonna take some time for adrenaline and cortisol to be completely metabolized and for your body to calm like all the way down. And during this period, you're gonna expect to feel things like you're right on the edge of being re-triggered again into another panic attack. You'll probably feel exhausted or spent or just worn out because it's hard to go through a panic attack. And you might want to retreat to sort of a safe space to try to achieve total calm because you kind of wanna guarantee that it really is over and that it isn't going to happen again. Now, this retreat is part of what creates sort of chronic problem over time. You could check out episode 168 of my podcast, which I will link in the description for a discussion of what I call the panic attack, hangover and why retreat is generally a bad idea. But for now, just know that these thoughts, these feelings, these sensations and the desire to sort of retreat into safety after a panic attack, it's to be expected, it's normal. And just about everybody that experiences panic and panic attacks experiences that too. Now, a panic attack will feel so dangerous, so scary and so overwhelming that the common sense air quotes thing to do is to try to stop them from happening, get away from them, find and manage your panic triggers and search for ways to sort of regulate or control your nervous system. And if you're listening to this in 2023, you know that you cannot scroll social media at all these days without hearing the words, regulate your nervous system. But I get it because after all, nobody wants to panic, I didn't wanna panic. Nobody wants to have such a negative experience but while recurring panic attacks are absolutely among the most successfully and commonly addressed and treated mental health issues in the world today, no joke, true story. Many people are understandably driven in the direction of avoidance which paradoxically can create learned patterns that ultimately trigger more panic attacks and can lead to other chronic conditions like panic disorder or agoraphobia. For more on this, you can check out my panic attacks explained or agoraphobia explained video workshops or you can listen to episode 152 of my podcast which talks about this issue. And of course, this is the second in my foundations of panic series. So if you check out, I believe it's episode 280 of the podcast is episode one of foundations of panic. We talk about the signs and symptoms of panic attacks and we sort of talk about this in more depth. So I'm gonna leave you with one more important thing. You will find that one of the common threads here on the anxious truth is the assertion that panic attacks and anxiety are scary but not actually dangerous. But that doesn't mean that this is all in your head. Early on here in this series, I wanna mention that because as someone who struggled for many years with panic attacks myself, I also freaking hated when people told me that what I was feeling was all in my head. That's not it, that's not an accurate description. You really do feel all the things I've talked about here and more because I can't cover every possible feeling. That's not just in your head. You actually do feel those things. So when people tell you, oh, it's just in your head, you gotta get over it. You can throw that away. They don't know what they're talking about. Well, we started by saying that panic attacks feel terrifying and that terror is real. Again, you actually feel it. If you're not imagining it, it's a very real fear. It's just triggered for no reason and in the end, without any connection to an actual threat or danger. So while all in your head might sound like a really simplified explanation for this and something that you would say, oh, it's all in my head, it's not something that applies in our community. So I wanted to sort of end today by acknowledging this because I think it's important and you never want to minimize the experience. It's impactful, even though it's not dangerous and there are ways to get over this, we don't wanna minimize anybody experienced either. So in the next foundations of panic episode in the series, we're gonna look at panic and panic attack triggers and why sometimes everything can trigger panic. That's a tough one, because it starts to feel like everything is gonna trigger you to your next panic attack. So look for that in a couple of weeks. If you're watching at the end of 2023 or if you're listening or watching in the future, you can certainly find that here on my podcast or on my YouTube channel, if that's how you're consuming this. I like to end each and every one of my episodes with a reminder that even though you are really afraid and really uncomfortable, you are safe and it is possible to get better. It's not easy, it's hard work, but taking small steps toward recovery counts, they all add up. And I will remind you that every single person that's ever struggled with panic and panic attacks that got better was once wondering if that would ever happen for them or when. So if you are kind of feeling discouraged or beaten or lost or confused by this, it's not just you, you're not alone in this and there is in fact hope. So thank you for listening. I hope this has been helpful for you and I will see you the next time.