June 18th, designated as International Panic Day, aims to raise awareness and educate about panic attacks.
So what is a panic attack?
This corresponds to a sudden and intense episode of fear and anxiety, generating physical symptoms that can lead us to imagine the worst-case scenarios, such as heart attacks, strokes, or even fear of death. They can occur due to a specific cause, or during a period of increased stress and anxiety, or without any apparent reason and unexpectedly, lasting, in most cases, only a few minutes, however, they can last for hours.
These attacks are more common than we imagine, affecting at least 11% of adults annually. However, it is not a problem exclusive to adults, and can affect children and adolescents.
Below are some symptoms that can help identify a panic attack:
• Physical symptoms: feeling of suffocation; tightness/pain in the chest; sweating; tremors; dizziness; chills or extreme heat; palpitations or rapid heart rate; tingling; nausea; stomach pain or diarrhea; difficulty breathing;
• Psychological symptoms: frightening thoughts (e.g., "I'm going to die," "I'm going to suffocate," "I'm having a heart attack"); derealization – feeling disconnected from reality; depersonalization – feeling like a spectator of oneself, as if "observing oneself from the outside" experiencing that moment.
After a panic attack, it's normal to feel physically and mentally exhausted, as the body expends a lot of energy fighting the symptoms and trying to calm down. Additionally, the next day the person may still feel sore due to the tension accumulated during the attack.
It is also important to note that experiencing a single panic attack is neither alarming nor a "problem." The situation becomes worrying when it tends to repeat frequently, or when there is excessive concern that it might happen again, resulting in daily life conditioning.
In these cases, it is important to seek help from qualified professionals to help us cope with and overcome this condition, such as a psychologist, and sometimes medication may also be necessary. However, a medical evaluation should never be neglected in order to rule out other diseases that may be causing the attacks or producing similar symptoms.
Dr. Telma Gomes - Taipas Termal Mental Health and Therapy Unit
