Question:
i find that my panic attacks come with hyperventilation, fight or flight
and blurred vision. my anxiety attacks bring dizzyness and tingling on the
ends of my fingers.
Answer:
Panic is an extension of an anxiety attack. A panic attack is one of the
most unpleasant experiences which doesnt actually involve true danger. In my
experience they can be fast or slow in their action, but usualy slow (for me).
Anxiety attacks, were a daily thing until medication.
If I had to scale the difference, I'd place anxiety as a 3 or 4 compared to a
hypothetical '10' for panic.
As to symptoms, and this is a personal view only,..anxiety is a continual
sense of low grade fear, complete with all the bodily sensations, both physical
and mental: sense of something bad about to happen, waves of butterflys rising
up in your stomach and chest, cramps from,...believe it or not my bowel, (great
for constipation), heightened vigilence but no sweating.
Panic is full blown physical symptoms accentuated, plus a racing heart, almost
vomiting, and extremely unpleasant chest and stomach pain and cramps. Vision is
stuffed up big time, with a 'slow motion with dettachment from reality
experience' is the best I can explain it. If someone talks to me I cant
understand them as my mind is in hyperdrive flitting from one stimulous to
another, both internal and external ( movements around me). Whoah, describing
this is easy now as I haven't had one for years,
And that is a very real problem for those of us who have pre-existing blood
pressure and or angina. I'm only 49 and due to mega hi cholesterol had a
coronary occlusion,...now a racing ticker can provoke angina,...depends on how
'hard' the beats are. All this anxiety is fun isnt it? :-)
I have moderately high blood pressure mainly due to the asthma meds I must
take.I take a couple of BP meds which keep my pressure quite normal, most of
the time. The extra BP from anxiety/panic attacks does me no good at all. My
heart, and blood vessels seem to be in pretty good shape, but they need to
be! I have gone from a quite usual 138/68 to 210/105, and back as low as
128/58 in a 2 hour period, all with no reason at all except a panic attack.
It sucks big time!
