What is a Panic Attack?

**counselor** Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:33 am

What is a Panic Attack?

The panic attack is a manifestation of anxiety highly intense, brief and transient (usually lasting only a few minutes), but due to the sufferer, considerable anxiety. According to the DSM-IV (Statistical Manual psychiatric) you have the diagnosis of panic attack if at least four of the following symptoms:

1) palpitations or tachycardia;
2) sweating;
3) trembling;
4) shortness of breath or choking feeling;
5) feeling of choking;
6) chest pain;
7) nausea or abdominal distress;
feeling dizzy, fainting or instability;
9) derealization or depersonalization;
10) fear of losing control or going crazy;
11) fear of dying;
12) paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensations);
13 chills or hot flashes.

If there are fewer than four symptoms during the attack it is called the attack with few symptoms.

The panic attack, unless it is caused by a highly stressful situation or danger (such as a shipwreck, for example), get at least the first few times, in a sudden and entirely unexpected, as "a bolt from the blue ". The subjective experience related, more 'commonly, it is to be on the verge of dying or suffering a heart attack or a stroke. In fact, almost all those who suffer the first attack rushed to the emergency