Although they are popularly used as if they were synonyms, the terms anxiety attack and panic attack They don’t mean the same. Although they share some symptoms, they should not be confused.
It is common to use the term “anxiety attack” to refer to an intense anxiety crisis; However, it is also common to refer to these crises as “panic attacks.”
Clarifying these concepts and understanding their differences can clear the way to correctly diagnose and approach the treatment of these conditions.
What is an anxiety attack?
Although its use is frequent in colloquial language, the anxiety attack has little presence in clinical language. In fact, does not correspond to any diagnostic category according to the DSM-5, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Of course, this manual does define anxiety as a characteristic associated with different psychiatric disorders.
What people call an “anxiety attack” is a intense response to a stressor or concern, which causes a period of acute anxiety, a peak of anxiety that can last (for hours, days and even weeks) until the stimulus subsides or an effective strategy is found to neutralize it. That is, it has a perfectly identified cause.
Although it is more serious than the feeling of anxiety, it does not usually reach the reaction intensity of a panic attack.
Symptoms of anxiety attack
The so-called anxiety attack may present one or more of the following symptoms:
- Restlessness, nervousness
- Fatigue not justified by physical or mental effort
- Concentration difficulties
- Irritability
- Muscle tension
- Sleeping problems
What is a panic attack?
According to the official DSM-5 definition, a panic attack is “a sudden episode of intense fear that triggers serious physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent cause.” That is, the panic attack has a perfectly cataloged clinical entity.
A occurs under extreme pressure or an excessive accumulation of stress. It can cause serious physical symptoms, to the point that many people who suffer from it interpret that they are having a heart attack.
Panic attack symptoms
According to the DSM-5, some of the symptoms that characterize a panic attack are the following:
- Fear of losing control or going crazy
- Fear of dying imminently
- Difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, feeling of choking
- Palpitations or strong heartbeat
- Sweating
- muscle tremors
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Headache
- Chills or hot flushes
- Nausea
- Abdominal cramps
- Numbness and tingling
- Derealization (feeling that the outside world is not real) or depersonalization (feeling of not being oneself).
Clarifying the 4 essential differences between an anxiety attack and a panic attack
- Panic attacks usually occur without any trigger. Anxiety responds to stressors or threats perceived by the subject.
- The symptoms of a panic attack are intense and disturbing. For their part, anxiety symptoms can be variable in terms of their intensity.
- Panic attacks appear suddenly. However, anxiety symptoms present a different evolution, they usually go from less to more, intensifying gradually, in a matter of hours or days.
- Panic attacks disappear within a few minutes, while anxiety symptoms can last over time.
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