Getting Support And Treatment For Panic Attacks
Panic attacks can be incredibly frightening and cause you to worry about if and when another will happen again, causing a vicious cycle.
At Priory, we can help you to learn strategies so that you are able to better manage your panic attacks and reduce the likelihood of them happening in the future.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is an evidence based treatment available at Priory, where you learn how to identify and reframe your panic attack triggers and anxiety-inducing thought patterns.
Mindfulness sessions are also useful for learning how to identify and move past unpleasant thoughts and sensations without allowing panic to take over. During sessions at Priory, you can also receive relaxation training to understand deep breathing techniques and progressive muscle relaxation.
Exposure treatment may also be used after sessions in relaxation, cognitive reframing and mindfulness. During this time, you have the opportunity to practise the strategies you have learnt, and recognise that you can cope in challenging scenarios.
Certain medications, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors , or other medications, may be recommended or prescribed if necessary to further support in the management of your panic attacks.
If you think you are having a medical emergency, please seek immediate support.
Location And Characterization Of Pain
With a heart attack, pain is classically felt below the breastbone as a dull pressure. It may radiate up to the neck and jaw or down the left arm. It is a vague pain you cannot specifically locate with the tip of your finger. Sharp pain or pain that you can point to with a finger is unlikely to be from the heart.
Panic attacks, on the other hand, may cause chest pain with a sharp or stabbing sensation, or a choking sensation in the throat.
What Causes Chest Tightness
There is no exact explanation of what causes chest tightness in anxiety sufferers. Nevertheless, it is advised to seek a primary care provider immediately for any sudden or worsening chest pain in order to rule out possible cardiac disease.
Do not by any means feel as if you are bothering anyone when you seek help for chest pain. Once serious health conditions are ruled out, you can begin to tackle your anxiety-induced chest pain.
Rest assured that anxiety can commonly cause chest tightness and chest pain for a variety of reasons. These include:
Chest tightness most often occurs right before or during an anxiety attack. It may also present spontaneously with no anxiety at all in what is known as a limited-symptom panic attack.
Rest assured that chest discomfort caused by anxiety is usually harmless.
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How Can You Tell If Your Chest Pain Is Caused By Anxiety Or Panic Attacks
Symptoms may vary from person to person and you should always consult your doctor for concerns about your heart, but there are some key differences in chest pain caused to anxiety versus chest pain caused by heart problems:
- Chest pain due to anxiety only stays in the chest area while pain due to heart issues spreads from the chest to other parts such as jaws, shoulders, and arms, etc.
- Heart-related chest pain develops when youre engaged in some activity while chest pain due to stress develops when youre at rest.
- Chest pain due to anxiety might feel like a sharp pain but pain due to heart problems often feels like squeezing and heavy pressure in your chest.
- Pain due to anxiety fades away after a few minutes such as 10-20 minutes, on the other hand, if your pain starts slowly and gradually keeps increasing with time, it could indicate a heart issue.
- If youre feeling out of control in some situation, anxious, feel numbness and sweating in your hands and feet and eventually feel chest pain, then this is mostly due to anxiety but if youre feeling normal and you start experiencing chest aches then it might be a heart-related issue.
Can Costochondritis Be Caused By Anxiety
Anxiety from the flight or fight response can cause your body to get pumped up so you can fight or escape. Your body usually returns to its normal state within 30 minutes, but if youre experiencing high levels of anxiety, then your body cant return to the normal condition so easily. This further promotes the muscle tension, and staying stiff for long periods of time may cause costochondritis.
Though anxiety can cause costochondritis and many people have reported as such, theres not much proof or scientific research to back this claim. Stress and anxiety can often be blamed for causing chest aches and other physical problems. Anxiety may be a catalyst for worsening your costochondritis but there isnt any direct correlation between the two cases. You should also note that not every chest pain is costochondritis or a heart condition and what youre experiencing might be entirely different. Diagnosing costochondritis can be a complex process, and its important to rule out other similar or more serious conditions. Its always better to consult a doctor so you can fully understand your situation which will help ease your worrying as well as help you come up with a solution for the symptoms youre dealing with.
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What Should You Do If You Experience Anxiety Chest Pain
Always seek medical care to get your chest pain checked out. Symptoms of anxiety/panic attacks and heart attacks overlap a bit. Its best to have yourself evaluated in the emergency room under the guidance of an experienced healthcare professional.
If you are diagnosed with anxiety chest pain or non-cardiac chest pain, seek professional healthcare to manage your anxiety. Treatments can include cognitive behavioral therapy to manage your anxiety and, if needed, medications .
Here are some steps to manage an anxiety attack or panic attack, even with chest pain :
- Breathe deeply, slowly, and steadily.
- Count to 10 and keep repeating until the feeling passes.
- Monitor your chest painanxiety chest pain doesnt last long compared to a heart attack .
- Focus on a calming favorite image while counting.
Those are useful, though temporary, fixes. While you may not reduce anxiety completely, lifestyle changes can help you reduce the severity of your physical symptoms of anxiety. Try these strategies to manage your anxiety :
- Eat rightIncrease your vegetables and decrease your sugar intake.
- ExerciseAim for at least 150 minutes a week. Bodily movement helps reduce anxiety.
- Get enough sleepMost people need at least 7 hours.
- Avoid alcohol or tobacco.
- Some people are sensitive to its effects.
Why Anxiety Causes Chest Pain
There are many physical symptoms that a person can experience when they suffer from anxiety. One symptom that is common in people who suffer from more chronic and severe cases of anxiety is chest pains. Chest pains can create several different types of sensations in the chest, upper back, and sometimes the shoulders, like:
- Tingling
- Pressure
- Numbness
Chest pains caused by anxiety are often mistaken for symptoms of a heart attack, but they are not dangerous. They are simply a reaction to anxiety. Cases of anxiety that commonly create chest pains include:
- Panic disorder
- Severe cases of generalized anxiety
- Phobias
Chest pains caused by anxiety can occur on their own or without an apparent trigger. It is difficult to live with experiencing chest pains because they can disrupt the quality of a persons daily routine. The pain can sometimes become so severe that affected people end up visiting the emergency room because they believe they are experiencing a medical emergency. Though they are not dangerous, chest pains cause a great deal of anxiety and distress within a person, so it is important to understand what causes and alleviates them.
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Anxiety And Heart Disease
The association between anxiety and heart disease has not been as fully studied as the relationship between depression and heart disease.
However, Una D McCann, M.D., director of the Anxiety Disorders Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, believes the connection is strong.
Impact Of Anxiety Attacks
Anxiety attacks, or panic attacks, are episodes of intense fear and emotional distress. They usually strike suddenly and without warning. And they may last several minutes or up to an hour.
These attacks may have a discrete trigger. Sometimes, though, they occur without a known cause.
Anxiety attacks are often recurrent. They’re distressing to experience and concerning for friends and family who witness them.
When you’ve had panic attacks, it’s common to worry about having more. Attempts to avoid them can lead to extreme lifestyle changes.
You may find yourself avoiding situations or environments that have triggered previous episodes. You may also get in the habit of checking for escape routes you can take should anxiety strike.
Avoidance strategies can become extensive. At the extreme end is people who become housebound or otherwise withdraw from the world. This is called agoraphobia.
Anxiety attacks aren’t just intense fright, though. They can cause physical symptoms including:
- Severe dyspnea
- Abdominal cramping
- Chest pain
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But If Your Heart Is Healthywhy Would Stress Cause A Pain In Your Left Arm
Think about that for a moment. Its not surprising that of Dr. Clarkes 7,000 stress-illness patients, hes never encountered one with a simultaneous presentation of chest and left arm pain in the presence of a healthy heart.
Angina means theres a problem with the coronary arteries, and there are treatments for this. Do NOT ignore these symptoms!
Tests by a cardiologist would begin with an EKG and cardiac stress test.
However, if you go to an emergency room with complaints of pain in the chest and left arm, you will immediately have an EKG done, blood tests to see if you had or are having a heart attack or have a blood clot in a lung, and a chest X-ray.
Anxiety, of course, is often the cause of a single symptom: chest pain.
Dr. Clarke explains, The mechanism that produces physical symptoms in anxiety is not completely understood.
But possible explanations include altered processing by the central nervous system of sensory signals from the chest and contraction of muscles in the chest caused by signals traveling from brain to muscle via the sympathetic nervous system.
Since 1983 Dr. Clarke has successfully cared for over 7,000 patients with stress illness.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. Shes also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
When To Seek Medical Attention
If you ever question if you are having a heart attack, seek medical attention immediately. Chest pain can be a sign of a serious heart attack, and it is never worth taking a chance on your health or your life.
Since panic attacks can be so difficult to distinguish from other more serious problems, the first episode of a suspected panic attack should prompt you to seek medical attention.
People who have been diagnosed with panic disorder and have recurring panic attacks will become familiar with the symptom, and can be reassured that the symptoms will pass with time.
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Timing In Anxiety Vs Heart Attacks
Though some heart attacks hit without warning, there can be early signs some symptoms include radiating chest pain and queasiness that come and go over a course of hours, weeks, or months. Panic attacks, though, are more like rogue lightning strikes that only last for ten to 30 minutes. It may come out of the blue and suddenly a person is gripped by very intense symptomssuch as I cant breathe, I feel as though my throat is constricting, my heart is racing, my palms are sweating, says Dr. Todd. All the adrenaline in the body that comes with a panic attack creates a large variety of symptoms. Its quite an event.
Am I Having A Heart Attack
Its always better to be safe rather than sorry when your heart is involved. But chances are that your terrible feelings are not those of a heart attack, but of a panic attack instead.
Approximately one quarter of patients who go to the emergency room for treatment of chest pain have panic disorder, says psychiatrist Many of these patients are young women, among whom panic disorders are more common and heart disease is rare.
Chest pain is a symptom that can accompany panic attacks. But panic disorder is often unrecognized and untreated among young women with chest pain.
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Panic Attack Vs Heart Attack: How To Tell The Difference
Heartmail
Your heart suddenly begins racing. You feel pain in your chest and you are short of breath.
Are you having a heart attack? Or could it be a panic attack?
“Any of these symptoms can be extremely frightening,” says Patricia Tung, MD, of Arrhythmia Services at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Although they share a number of similarities, the two conditions result from very different disease processes. Panic attacks arise when stress hormones trigger the body’s “fight or flight” response, often resulting in racing heart, chest pain and shortness of breath.
In the case of a heart attack, a blockage in a coronary artery may result in the same symptoms. “Chest pain, rapid heartbeat and breathlessness may result when an insufficient amount of blood reaches the heart muscle,” says Tung.
One of the key distinctions between the two is that a heart attack often develops during physical exertion, whereas a panic attack can occur at rest.
A heart attack is more likely to develop when the work load of the heart increases, for example while a person is shoveling snow or running up the stairs, especially in people who do not routinely engage in physical exertion.
Another difference is duration: Panic attacks tend to gradually subside and resolve on their own within about 20 minutes. A heart attack, however, will often continue and may worsen over time.
When Your Heart Skips a Beat
Heart Attack
How Anxiety Chest Pain Feels
Anxiety chest pain will vary from person to person. Your symptoms may even vary from day to day. The stressors you encounter throughout your routine may also affect the intensity of your symptoms. In general, though, anxiety chest pain may feel like:
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Tension, tightness, and pressure: You might experience a mild, constant tightness or a sudden, intense tightness in your chest. You may also feel like it’s difficult to breathe or that your heart is beating out of your chest.
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Persistent aching or burning: Similarly, you might experience a persistent ache in your chest, similar to heartburn.
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Numbness: Your chest might feel numb or “tingly,” similar to when your leg falls asleep from sitting in one position for too long.
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Sharp, shooting, or stabbing pain: It’s also common to feel a sudden onset of shooting or stabbing chest pain. In fact, most individuals² who go to the hospital for chest pain are released from the emergency room with a non-heart-related diagnosis. As frightening as these symptoms are, they’re often not fatal and aren’t related to a heart condition.
How long does anxiety chest pain last?
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