How To Deal With Panic Attacks
A panic attack is a feeling of sudden and intense anxiety.
Panic attacks can also have physical symptoms, including shaking, feeling disorientated, nausea, rapid, irregular heartbeats, dry mouth, breathlessness, sweating and dizziness.
The symptoms of a panic attack are not dangerous, but can be very frightening.
They can make you feel as though you are having a heart attack, or that you are going to collapse or even die.
Most panic attacks last somewhere from five minutes to half an hour.
What Does Research Say About Cbd And Extreme Anxiety
CBD, an active component of Cannabis sativa that doesnt have any intoxicating or addictive properties, has been studied in detail for its potential impact on instances of both mild and extreme anxiety. Research into this potential application of CBD has delivered highly promising results so far, and cannabis scientists around the world continue investigating the potential anxiolytic properties of this compound.
Research into CBD for anxiety is largely predicated on the premise that this cannabinoid interacts with the bodys serotonergic systems, which regulate the neurotransmitter serotonin. Studies indicate that serotonin is involved in the progression of anxiety-related symptoms, and some types of anxiety may be caused by abnormally low levels of serotonin in the brain or an imbalance between serotonin and dopamine, another critical neurotransmitter.
Unlike THC, CBD does not stimulate the brains CB1 receptors, which disrupt your brains dopamine systems by triggering huge releases of this intoxicating neurotransmitter. Instead, CBD shows significant affinity for your nervous systems 5-HT1A receptors, which are the bodys most abundant serotonin neuroreceptors.
Anxiety Disorders: The Basics
Before we explain why anxiety can give you the shakes, its important to understand a little about what anxiety is.
According to The National Institute of Mental Health , anxiety disorders are a collection of mood disorders that represent problematically intense feelings of panic, unease and tension.
Anxiety symptoms commonly include things like restlessness, recurring muscle tension, insomnia or difficulty sleeping, a recurring feeling of being on edge or wound-up, patterns of difficulty concentrating, frequent fatigue and regularly present feelings like irritability and uncontrollable worry.
For a diagnosis, youll have felt many of these things for at least six months.
Sound familiar? Youre not alone. More than 30 percent of American adults will have an anxiety disorder during their lifetime.
The most common anxiety disorder form is generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, which is defined by a period of months or years of anxious worry.
We dont know everything about anxiety, including its root cause or a cure for it. What we do know is that anxiety occurs due to imbalances of chemicals and neurotransmitters in the brain, similar to another common mood disorder, depression.
Don’t Miss: How To Calm Nerves And Anxiety
Inhale Cbd The Next Time You Start Shaking From Anxiety
Different types of CBD products exert widely varying effects. Orally ingested CBD products, for instance, such as tinctures, capsules, and edibles, can take 30-45 minutes to take effect. By that point, the situation that triggered your anxious shaking will most likely have dissipated.
30 seconds to 1 minute.try inhaled CBD
Types Of Anxiety Disorders:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is characterized by chronic and exaggerated worry and tension, much more than the typical anxiety that most people experience in their daily lives. People may have trembling, twitching, muscle tension, nausea, irritability, poor concentration, depression, fatigue, headaches, light-headedness, breathlessness or hot flashes.
Panic Disorder: People with panic disorder have panic attacks with feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. During the attacks, individuals may feel like they can’t breathe, have lost control, are having a heart attack or even that they are dying. Physical symptoms may include chest pain, dizziness, nausea, sweating, tingling or numbness, and a racing heartbeat. Some people will have one isolated attack, while others will develop a long term panic disorder either way, there is often high anxiety between attacks because there is no way of knowing when the next one will occur. Panic disorders often begin early in adulthood. Many people with panic disorder also suffer from agoraphobia . See more on Panic Attacks.
Phobias are irrational fears. Individuals with phobias realize their fears are irrational, but thinking about or facing the feared object or situation can bring on a panic attck or severe anxiety.
You May Like: Do I Have Mild Anxiety
Symptoms Related To Anxiety Shaking
There are several other symptoms caused by anxiety, including dizziness, sweating, and irritability. These occur due to the way the brain relays the information to other parts of the body.
Symptoms related to anxiety shaking include:3
- Fear that something bad is going to happen
- Dizziness
- Sleeplessness
Why Hand Shaking Becomes A Vicious Cycle
People with social anxiety are often very good at hiding their feelings. This can lead to quietness or even mistakenly being labelled arrogant, but at least others arent aware of the underlying anxiety.
This is completely different when your hand starts shaking though. There isnt much you can do to hide it especially if the trembling becomes violent.
So the natural reaction is to try and calm yourself down.
Im OK.
No one has noticedhave they?
Theres nothing to worry about!
You might try and hide your hands in your pockets or behind your back. You may even try to force them to stop shaking.
This is a mistake.
Heres why
The more you focus on your anxiety, the less you are concentrating on the task or other person. Before long, your only focus is your trembling hands.
But your brain wont let you get away with this for long. As soon as you realise youve lost track of the conversation, youll probably feel guilty or ashamed. You might even start to panic because you have no idea what to say next. These feelings cause more stressmore anxietyand more shaking.
In short, consciously forcing yourself to stop shaking can often have the opposite effect.
So what should you do instead?
Read Also: What Doctor Prescribes Anxiety Medicine
Why Are My Hands Shaking Nerves Or Medical Problem
Youre nervous about a big presentation. Your heart begins to race, your throat gets dry and your hands start to tremble. Deep breaths can help calm your nerves, but what if you cant shake off your trembling hands?
Nerves arent the only thing that can make your hands tremble. There are a number of reasons hands shake, but interesting fact: Your hands actually shake way more than you realize.
To be certain, everyones hands have a little movement even when were trying to keep them very still, said Ryan Barmore, MD, a movement disorders specialist with Banner Health Clinic in Colorado. This is broadly known as a physiologic tremor, and while some have subtle movement, others can have a little more.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a tremor is a rhythmic or unintentional muscle contraction that can cause shaking in one or more parts of the body. It most often can affect your hands but can also occur in your arms, head, vocal cords, torso and legs.
Our bodies are sure full of surprises, but if your shakiness concerns you, here are eight potential reasons its happening and when you should talk to your health care provider.
What Vitamin Helps With Tremors
However, tremors and other movement disorders are associated with vitamin deficiency, most vitamins B1, B6 and especially B12. B12 is very important for keeping your nervous system in good working order. Severe lack of Vitamin B12 is rare, but shakiness and tremors can occur even in mild deficiency.
Read Also: Does Bupropion Help With Anxiety
How The Body Responds To Anxiety
Anxiety is your bodys natural response to stress and triggers a fight or flight response. In dangerous situations, it helps protect you from being injured or worse. But anxiety can also be triggered in situations that arent dangerous. For example, many people suffer from social anxiety disorder that makes people nervous in normal social situations like a party or performance. Anxiety might cause shaky hands and trembling, alongside other symptoms that well explore in later sections.
With that said, if youre experiencing both hand tremor and anxiety, its important to see a doctor. Although a tremor might be temporary and related to stress, a persistent tremor or shaking that occurs during certain movements could be a sign of underlying health conditions or essential tremor .
Although most people associate tremor with Parkinsons disease , shaky hands arent always a sign that you have or will get PD. In fact, the most common movement disorder that may present as shaky hands is essential tremor.
Is It Anxiety Or A Panic Attack
When you feel a sudden rush of intense emotion or nerves, it’s likely your body responding to a situation. You might experience nausea, sweating, or shakiness, among other symptoms. If this is your first experience, you may be wondering if you’re experiencing anxiety or a panic attack.
Anxiety and panic attacks are two different conditions.
GAD is often characterized by anxiety or worry about future events, anticipating a negative outcome. Symptoms include general uneasiness and muscle tension and the onset is typically gradual. On the other hand, panic attacks are short bursts of extreme fear that come on suddenly and are characterized by symptoms including:
-
Fear of dying
-
Temperature changes, either hot or cold
Panic attacks are triggered by an extreme fear response to a perceived threat occurring right at that moment. The bodys “fight-or-flight” response makes you hardwired to handle immediate danger. Panic attacks typically last less than 30 minutes and can occur once or repeatedly.
Also Check: How To Practice Mindfulness For Anxiety
Are There Different Types Of Triggers
There are different types of triggers. Or, in a way, different types of shaking. Yet all of them may be due to anxiety. Shaking may be caused by:
There are physical causes of shaking, but these tend to be less common. Also, during periods of stress, the body may deplete important resources, like water or magnesium. Sometimes the body shakes as a result of this nutrient loss. Only a doctor can confirm that you are feeling shaky because of anxiety and not because of some health problem.
Symptoms Of A Panic Attack
Panic attacks often occur out of the blue, which means they may surprise you while youre out in public. Many people worry that they will begin to have such an episode while driving or in an important meeting. Signs that a panic attack is beginning include:
- Pounding heart
- Feeling of pressure or pain in your chest
- A feeling of intense anxiety like danger is imminent
- Loss of control
- Becoming lightheaded or faint
- Sweating, hot flashes, and chills
- Hyperventilation, shortness of breath
These experiences are tied to the bodys fight-or-flight response. Your body is priming itself in response to a perceived threat even if nothing is really wrong. Over time, this can become something of a cycle itself. If you experience panic attacks often, the very idea of having one may be enough to trigger an attack itself. This results in a condition known as panic disorder. Those who endure recurring panic attacks should seek psychological help.
Recommended Reading: What Medicine Is Given For Anxiety
Treatments For Anxiety Shaking
There are a variety of different ways you can stop yourself from shaking with anxiety. In general, improving your overall mental health over time is the best way to prevent this symptom from occurring.
You can also eliminate behaviors or actions that might be making your shaking worse. Lack of sleep, for instance, can harm your nervous system and worsen tremors, and stimulants like caffeine can exacerbate anxiety tremors or cause tremors on their own. Lets examine the four major ways you can reduce or eliminate anxious shaking:
What Is Anxiety Twitching
Anxiety twitching is a potential symptom of anxiety. Not everyone who has anxiety experiences anxiety twitching as a symptom.
Twitching is when a muscle, or group of muscles, moves without you trying to move it. This could be a small movement or a larger, jerking motion.
Anxiety twitching can affect any muscles in the body and any number of muscles at a time. It may last for a few seconds or much longer.
In some people, anxiety twitching can happen off and on indefinitely.
Eye muscles are commonly affected by anxiety twitching.
Anxiety twitching often gets worse when youre trying to go to sleep, but usually stops while youre sleeping.
It also often gets worse as your anxiety gets worse. However, it may take some time for anxiety twitching to go away after you get less anxious.
Recommended Reading: Can Journaling Help With Anxiety
Effects Of Anxiety Disorders
An anxiety disorder occurs when you experience anxiety without any of these types of triggering situations. Those with an anxiety disorder might find themselves shaking without being confronted with a dangerous situation. For example:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder Shaking may occur all the time or because of nervous thoughts.
- Panic Disorder Shaking may occur before, during, and after a panic attack.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Shaking may occur in response to hearing loud noises.
Panic Disorder Treatment Options
Panic attacks and panic disorders are treatable once the underlying cause is identified. Usually medical conditions and other factors are ruled out before making the diagnosis, says Flo Leighton, psychiatric nurse practitioner, and therapist with Union Square Practice in Manhattan. Getting to the root cause typically takes a couple of sessions, says Leighton. Here are some options that may be recommended to you :
Don’t Miss: How To Help A Child With Depression And Anxiety
Anxiety Treatment In Washington State
The Lakeside-Milam team understands how disorienting and concerning panic attacks can be. Thats why we have developed treatment protocols specifically for those with severe anxiety. Even if you believe panic attacks to be a fact of life, treatment can improve your symptoms. Contact our admissions team to learn more about our outpatient anxiety programming in Seattle and beyond.