An anxiety attack is a frightening experience. The attack can literally come out of nowhere. There you are sitting on the beach enjoying a great day with your buddies or your family. The sun is shinning, the water is perfect and the waves are swishing on to the shore. How much more relaxing can it get?
Then all of the sudden your heart starts to race, you feel a tinge of pain in your chest. Your finger or toes start to get that numb pins and needles sensation. You quickly become short of breath and you’re getting dizzy. You feel like you’re dieing! You think you’re dieing and rightfully so. That is what an anxiety attack can feel like.
Everyone is different so some of the symptoms above you may feel more severely than someone else and vise versa. Those are the most common symptoms of an anxiety attack.
There are plenty more which include.
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Feeling that something terrible is about to happen.
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Feeling like you’re losing control or have lost control.
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Numbness in your extremities which can include your arms, legs, fingers, toes and even in some case your whole body, all at once.
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Dizziness is very common and is caused from hyperventilating, your taking shallow breaths, so you body is not receiving enough oxygen. This certainly will not kill you or even harm you.
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Many times when a person is experiencing an anxiety attack they think they are having a heart attack and rush to the emergency room. If it is your first An anxiety attack then that’s not a bad idea just to make sure. Often times an anxiety attack does mimic a heart attack.
While any of these symptoms of an anxiety attack alone can make anyone fearful, when you combine even a few of them they become terrifying. Thousands of people of all ages show up at emergency rooms all across the world every year fearing for their lives. After hours of testing and a large chunk of change later, they are diagnosed with having an anxiety attack. It certainly is a relief for most to know that it was “just” an anxiety attack, but none the less the damage is done and the fear of having another one becomes the new problem.
By practicing relaxation techniques, lower your stress level and learning all you can about anxiety hopefully you can prevent future trips to the emergency room. I always live by one rule – When in doubt off I go. You can never be to careful with your life, so if you have an anxiety attack even if it’s your 2nd or 100th if something doesn’t feel right or your gut tells you something is wrong it’s better to be safe than sorry.