What Does an Anxiety Attack Feel Like? Know the Signs

Anxiety attacks are incredibly uncomfortable things to have to go through. It has been recorded that 10% of the population will experience attacks at some point in their life. It is likely that you, or someone you know will experience this so it pays to know – What does an anxiety attack feel like?

The first symptoms you may experience when you are having an anxiety attack are breathlessness and sweating. Obviously, we are all different and we all suffer in different ways, but the two mentioned above are the two most common symptoms you will come across when you are having one.

You may suffer from loss of sight temporarily and your heart may start racing. If you have been experiencing any of the above, it is likely that what you are suffering from is, in fact, an anxiety attack and it might just be time for you to visit your doctor!

Anxiety attacks can come about at any time, even when you are least expecting it. If you are out and about doing the shopping, or in the house doing the household chores, the last thing you want is to be suffering from anxiety attacks, but it will happen when and where it chooses and there is often no definite reason for it to be happening at that time.

The symptoms vary greatly, and you may experience all of the symptoms at once, or just one or two. Some people complain about breathlessness with the feeling of “butterflies in their stomach” or feeling like their heart is going to explode with it pounding so hard. They can last for a few seconds, or a few hours. Everyone is different and everybody’s experience with anxiety attacks differs.

Occasionally the symptoms can become so severe that you experience problems such as feeling like you are going to faint, your mind going blank or being frightened your legs are going to give way. There is a scale, as such, of anxiety attacks, and there are methods in which you can learn to control the symptoms once you start feeling one of the “lighter” ones, by that I mean ones that are lower down on the so-called scale.

Now, if you were to ask me what does an anxiety attack feel like, I would tell you that I have experienced shortness of breath and being faint-headed, but I never got to the point where I felt as if I wasn’t in control of my bowels, or that my legs were going to give way from under me because I always sit down when I feel one coming on anyway.

Whichever symptoms you have, whether they are higher up or lower down on the scale, they are very frightening and very often completely unexpected. So the answer to the question – What does an anxiety attack feel like, in its shortest form, is absolutely terrifying! Especially if you do not understand why you are experiencing them in the first place!