Understanding Anxiety Attacks: Key Symptoms and Triggers

Anxiety is a normal response from our body to any outside trigger that could suggest risk or threat. It is also common when you are in a tense situation like public speaking or learning your test results.

However, if these situations become more severe, it could suggest an anxiety disorder or anxiety attack. This is marked by severe fear and concerns in the absence of any real threat. Therefore, identifying and understanding the symptoms of an anxiety attack is vital for early interventions and effective management.

Here we will discuss anxiety attacks meaning, and their difference from panic attacks as well as a few other considerations for the disease.

What is Anxiety Attack?

An anxiety attack means a state of heightened distress or fear that can be induced by stress or fear. This term is not one that is used clinically but is often described to collectively address a group of symptoms which correspond to anxiety attacks. As time progresses, these symptoms can emerge and last for longer periods of time and intensify.

Unlike a panic attack, which occurs suddenly and is often intense, an anxiety attack builds over time and is closely tied to perceived threats or stressors. In an anxiety attack, one could feel that he or she cannot control his or her thoughts or feelings. 
Thereby, it is known to cause a significant level of distress for the patients. This explains what anxiety attack is properly including all the associated information for the condition.

Symptoms of Anxiety Attack

Symptoms may differ in terms of individual differences but are physical, emotional, and cognitive. Understanding such signs is particularly beneficial to ensure that recognition and management are easy. Some of the anxiety attack symptoms are as follows:

Physical Symptoms

• Pounding heart or palpitations
• Hyperventilation or feeling short of breath.
• Feelings of heaviness in the body or chills
• Shaking or shivering
• Dizziness or light-headedness
• Muscle tension or weakness

Emotional Symptoms

• Extreme fear or anxiety
• Irritability or mood swings
• Feeling separated or "unreal."

Cognitive Symptoms

• Racing thoughts or difficulty concentrating
• Sense of doom
• Obsessive thoughts about fears or worries.

However, please note that anxiety attack symptoms in females might also involve hormonal fluctuations. Such irregular hormonal problems are also known to increase the severity of such anxiety attacks.

Panic Attack Vs Anxiety Attack

Panic attacks and anxiety attacks are often used synonymously as they share many common symptoms. However, there is a difference that can distinguish both conditions. The differences are as follows:

Common Causes and Triggers of an Anxiety Attack

While the precise cause remains unclear, experts have identified three primary contributors to anxiety:

• Genetics: A family history of anxiety or other mental health conditions may increase the likelihood of inheriting these tendencies.
• Brain function and chemical imbalance: Long-term stress or certain underlying health conditions can disrupt the brain's chemical balance, potentially leading to anxiety. Additionally, personality traits like extreme shyness in childhood may evolve into anxiety over time.
• Environmental influences: Experiencing trauma, particularly during childhood or adolescence, is a significant factor in developing anxiety disorders.
• Knowing what triggers an anxiety attack helps one avoid or manage the situation. Some of the most common triggers include:
• Stressful Situation: Deadlines, exams, or work problems.
• Health Care: Having chronic illnesses or disease phobias.
• Social Relations: Fear of judgement in public or embarrassment.
• Trauma or Past Incident: Unresolved emotional wounds.
• Financial Problem: Debt or lack of job stability.

Understanding some of these triggers is the first step in the treatment of the root cause of an anxiety attack.

How Anxiety Affects Women

Although anxiety attack symptoms are not gender-based, the studies indicate that females are nearly twice more vulnerable to an anxiety disorder than males. 
Other conditions of hormonal causes such as menstruation, pregnancy, or even menopause tend to heighten the symptoms during an anxiety attack in females.

Anxiety Attack Symptoms Female:

• High Irritability: The hormonal changes are said to raise emotional sensitivity.
• Tightness of the chest: Most of the time, left untreated.
• Hormonal Sensitivity: More prone to panic attacks during pre-menstrual syndrome or postpartum stages.

Treatment and Management for Anxiety Attacks

Controlling anxiety attack symptoms requires a combination of short-term control measures and long-term control mechanisms: 
Short-Term Control Mechanisms

• Breathing Techniques: Deep, relaxed breathing that slows down the heartbeat.
• Grounding Techniques: Focus on the somatic sensations that encompass touch or vision. This can drive away the dominating thoughts.
• Relaxation Exercises: Progressive muscle relaxation helps release stress.
• Positive Cues: Quoting reassuring statements such as, "It will get over,” can be used to relax the patient.

Long-Term Management

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) works significantly well in finding and reversing the negative thought cycle of the patient.
• Exposure Therapy: Exposure therapy follows CBT and involves confronting your fears and facing situations you have been avoiding. It helps you handle these things more effectively. Your doctor might also suggest relaxation techniques and guided imagery to help.
• Lifestyle modification: Exercise, balanced diet, and rest all have a positive impact on mental health.
• Medication: medications like Benzodiazepines ease anxiety, panic, and worry quickly but can lead to tolerance over time. Your doctor might suggest an antidepressant for balance.

When to See a Mental Health Professional

While mild attacks of anxiety are usually manageable alone, see a mental health professional if:

• Episodes begin occurring recurrent or increasing.
• Interferes with the capacity to perform daily activities or interact with others.
• Physically, it is similar to other conditions like heart disease.

Anxiety attacks can be graded by a mental health professional in terms of seriousness and, therefore, treatment.

Prevention of Anxiety Attacks

There are no such preventive strategies for anxiety attacks, but some interventions can reduce the potential for future occurrence and intensity of the episodes.

• Stress Management: For example, mindfulness activities, such as practising yoga or even journaling
• Healthy Lifestyle: Reducing consumption of coffee and alcohol and healthy eating.
• Support Networks: A company of friends, family, or a support network
• Professional Guidance: Sessions of therapy routinely to treat deeper causes.

Final Words

If one is capable of recognising symptoms of an anxiety attack, it helps make the very first step in prevention. Although many ask about what anxiety is attacking the exact manifestation of the disease may vary from one person to the other. It may help discover causes, formulate effective coping strategies, and get assistance when needed to regain control over life and mental health.
Mental health will never be put aside, and thus, the news regarding anxiety attacks should be normalised for the development of a caring and compassionate society.