Anxiety attack may affect your quality of life if not given treatment immediately. That’s why it’s important you understand if you have anxiety attack symptoms.

As a human being, it is normal that we feel anxious, worried, and fears from time to time due to the things that our complicated lives bring. Anxiety is just a part of life. It helps us cope with the stresses we may encounter. If you are in a state of anxiety, it is likely that you experience anxiety attack.

Anxiety attack is a sudden surge of overwhelming fear that comes without warning and without any apparent reason and this would usually last for no more than 10 minutes. It is far more intense than having anxiety or the feeling of being stressed out. One in every 75 people worldwide will experience an anxiety attack at one point in his orher life.

Most anxiety sufferers report fear of dying, going crazy or losing control of emotions as well as behavior. The incidents generally provoke a strong urge to escape or run away from the place where the attack begins, and they are associated with chest pain or shortness of breath, and feeling of impending doom.

A person with a phobia will often experience an anxiety attack as a direct result to the hung-up trigger. These anxiety attacks are brief and quickly relieved once the trigger is escaped. In the conditions of chronic anxiety, one anxiety attack can usually turn into another one, leading to a nervous fatigue over a period of days.

An anxiety attack has symptoms that often occur suddenly without any apparent cause. The symptoms can be as follows:

Pounding heartbeat, generally faster in nature

Increased sweating

Dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea

Difficulty breathing

Tingling and or numbness in the face

Dreamlike sensations or perceptual distortions (de-realization)

Disassociation, the perception that one is not connected to the body and time

Fear of losing control and doing something embarrassing

Fear of dying

Feeling of impending doom

Crying, associated to the above symptoms

Anxiety attack usually last for several minutes and is considered one of the most disturbing condition that anyone can live through in everyday life. The way to understand the different symptoms of anxiety attack is: first, comes the sudden jolt of fear with less or no triggering motivation, and then this will lead to a release of adrenaline (epinephrine), which causes the supposed fight-or-flight response, where the person’s body prepares for major physical activity.

This results to an increased heart rate, labored breathing or hyperventilation, and sweating. The diaphragm, involved in the action of the lungs, is also a muscle and it can become overly tight.

When there is continuous, inferior anxiety, a person frequently works too hard when breathing. However, if there is hyperanxiety or an anxiety attack, there is overwhelming excitement, and a person may hyperventilate.

Because strenuous activity hardly ever arises, the hyperventilation leads to carbon dioxide levels lowering in the lungs and then the blood, resulting to the shift in the pH of the blood, which will then lead to many of the other symptoms, such as tingling or numbness, dizziness, and lightheadedness.

Anxiety attack is a serious condition, but before you start thinking if you have this condition and go running to see a doctor, stop and take a deep breath! Relax before you start having an anxiety attack, even if you actually don’t have it.

Don’t take things too hard for it may lead to something serious and may affect your daily routine. Take things lightly. In any case, if you think you have this condition, the first thing you should do is see a doctor.

If you are diagnosed with anxiety attack condition, appropriate medication and good counseling can bring your life to normal again. Otherwise, tell yourself to relax and continue to live your life to the fullest.

There are many causes of anxiety attacks, ranging from medical issues to external mental or emotional stimuli. These causes are many and varied and if you are suffering from anxiety attacks, it is imperative that you find out what is causing them.

1 – Hereditary Causes

First off there may be your heredity blame. Anxiety attacks have been found to run in families, which leads many professionals to conclude that the trait can be found in the human genome. On the other hand, studies on genetically identical twins have shown that sometimes one twin will experience anxiety attacks, while the other will not. Another way in which anxiety attacks can be inherited is through an overly cautious worldview handed down by a patient’s parents and the cumulative stress it causes.

2 – Biological Causes

There are also many biological causes to anxiety attacks, such as inner ear disturbances (labyrinthitis), hyperthyroidism, hyperventilation syndrome, hypoglycemia, prolapsed mitral valve (a heart disease), pheochromocytoma (an adrenal gland tumor), and Wilson’s disease (a genetic disorder). Even a vitamin B deficiency caused by parasitic tapeworm infection or from a poor diet can also cause anxiety attacks.

3 – Mental / Emotional Causes

Mental or emotional issues can also trigger anxiety attacks. These include generalized anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),significant personal loss (such as loss of a romantic partner), significant life changes, ‘what-if’ thinking, lack of assertiveness, withheld feelings, mistaken beliefs, and avoidance of or association with anxiety-provoking situations or environs.

4 – Pharmalogical / Medicinal Causes

Pharmacological or medicinal causes include amphetamines, alcohol, marijuana, psilocybin (a hallucinogen found in some mushrooms), side effects from drugs such as Ritalin or other antidepressants (especially at the beginning or end of use), and stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine. Some anxiety attack sufferers also develop an irrational fear of certain medications, which may result in anxiety attacks if they are taken, which is a purely psychosomatic effect similar to what placebos have been shown to produce.

As anyone can see, there are many causes of anxiety attacks, most of which are completely out of your control if you are having them. The good news is that you can do something about it. The first thing you need to understand is that it is not your fault. Your anxiety attacks are nothing that you asked for and not something that you necessarily caused. If it is found that your anxiety attacks are caused by something external that is easily remedied, your problem may be solved quite easily. If it is caused by a lifestyle choice, for example marijuana or alcohol consumption, there are alternatives available. If it is something that is more ephemeral, then your mental health professional can counsel you and/or prescribe medication that will help you deal with your anxiety attacks.

Conclusion

Don’t immediately blame yourself or believe that there is simply something wrong with you if you are having anxiety attacks. If you look hard enough, you will probably be able to discover what the cause is. In many cases, the cause of anxiety attacks can be quickly discerned and dealt with via counseling, medication or self help.