People who suffer from panic attacks often say their acute anxiety feels like a heart attack. As many symptoms of a panic attack and heart attack seem the same so people with panic attacks may get confused between the both.
Both conditions can be accompanied by shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, sweating, dizziness, a pounding heartbeat, and even physical weakness or temporary paralysis.
These symptoms are strong, and the sense of terror overshadows both events and the fear itself can lead to an increase in these symptoms more.
Therefore, it is very important to understand the difference between both. There are ways to determine the difference between a panic attack and a heart attack.
So let’s understand the difference between Panic Attack and Heart Attack
How the signs and symptoms of a heart attack differ from a panic attack?
Dr. Sandeep Vohra, Senior Consultant, Mental Health & Psychiatry, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, shared his insight on the topic and said, “Both heart attack and a panic attack can take place in similar ways with chest heaviness, but heart attack usually is chest pain with a spread in the left side of the arm and in the panic attack one may have palpitation due to anxiety and may feel that he or she is going to die. This is a result of extreme anxiety when a person suddenly starts feeling extremely anxious.”
“The diagnosis is usually done by the doctors by doing the ECG and other parameters which a cardiologist can explain to the patient according to the condition. Panic attack may occur due to anxiety and sometimes out of the blue, therefore, it is always better to consult a doctor,” he added.
How do you stop a panic attack or how do you identify an oncoming panic attack?
Dr. Vohra says, “For somebody who has had a panic attack for the first time, he must understand what is the first thing to do, as he or she may start having extreme palpitation which makes them rush to the hospital in an emergency setting and there they are told that it is a heart attack and all the tests are done, usually the physical symptoms of it are similar to the panic attack. ”
He added, “The patients need to understand the dynamics of the panic attacks they suffer and it depends on their personal, professional, and social life. As people with panic attacks have a fear of it so they must go to a psychiatrist and must go through the processes whatever the doctor suggests like anger management, stress management, lifestyle management or counseling and medication to control it ”
Q. What are the causes of Panic attacks?
A panic attack is all about emotions and severe underlying depression or the patients may have other symptoms like sleep problems, even taking a larger amount of alcohol can lead to a panic attack. The major cause for panic attacks are much-stressed situations, when a person is going through severe depression or any major reason to be emotionally drained or is having any sort of intoxicants like drugs or alcohol, said Dr. Vohra.