Introduction

Let’s talk about what's the difference between an anxiety attack and a panic attack ? is it important to recognize the difference ? and if so, why?

in this article i'm going to be breaking down the key differences between the two and explaining what that actually means for us in terms of understanding and mitigating our anxiety response.

You want to stick around to the end of the article on this one because i'm also going to talk about the potential problem with both of these distinctions and how to fix it.

I'm Hollowins and this is -

anxiety attack or panic attack

The Five Main Distinctions

Saverity

Okay, so the terms anxiety attack and panic attack will often get used by people interchangeably to mean pretty much the same thing but there are actually quite a few different ways that we might distinguish between the two responses.

Now we'll talk about the merits and potential hazards of drawing this distinction later but here are the main ways that different people will distinguish between a panic attack and an anxiety attack.

Many people who suffer with high anxiety levels will refer to an anxiety attack as a less intense or severe version of a panic attack, whilst this isn't strictly the case it can very easily be perceived that way. Panic attacks are generally perceived as scarier than simple anxiety
because they can cause us to feel like we're in immediate physical danger. The problem of this way of looking at things is that if we label panic as a more severe version of anxiety then should we start to experience more panic attacks than anxiety attacks, we might then conclude we're in some way getting worse.

Psychological vs Physical

So a common way i hear people defining between panic and anxiety is to say anxiety attacks are more psychological and panic attacks are more physical, whilst with anxiety attacks we're aware of what we feel anxious about and have a cognitive focal point for our concerns, with perhaps less direct physical symptoms, a panic attack is that instant visceral response that we don't necessarily perceive there to be a reason for. It just strikes us physically out of nowhere.

Time Frame

Perhaps the most common way of distinguishing between an anxiety attack and a panic attack is to describe anxiety attacks to be more like a long-term build-up over time, eventually reaching a point of overwhelm, whereas a panic attack is instant with no prior warning. Also many talk about anxiety attacks lasting longer than panic attacks.

A panic attack is pretty much over in maybe a few minutes or even moments, once we physically start to return to normal, we quickly calm that panic, but anxiety attacks can last a lot longer due to the fact that the things we're anxious about are generally more long-term concerns.

Biology

If we're talking purely on a science-based footing then anxiety and panic are actually very different biologically. Panic involves the production of adrenaline which is intended to facilitate immediate life-saving action. Anxiety involves the production of cortisol, the stress
Hormone.

Now, this doesn't necessarily stop one response leading to the other, but what your body is actually doing based on your mind's understanding of the situation is completely different.

“Why” Aspect

Perhaps the most important distinction for me between anxiety attacks and panic attacks is the reason we're experiencing each particular effect. Anxiety tends to be focused on something about life that we're finding a challenge and starting to doubt our ability to cope with.

It involves an assessment of how big the challenge we're facing is, how many things we have on our plate right now, and how highly we rate our ability to come out the other side of it. when it comes to panic our concerns are focused on the panic itself.

There's no real assessment of our ability to cope because our body's already displaying an inability to cope and the response itself is now our main concern.

The Real Problem

Okay here's the main point i want to make in this article. The real problem with labeling our response as either an anxiety attack or a panic attack is the use of the word “attack”.
As soon as we label one of our emotional responses as an attack we instantly frame it as something that happens to us rather than something we are doing.

We effectively place ourselves in the role of victim. Whilst anxiety and panic can feel very much out of our control and like something that we've been unfortunate enough to have visitors today, the truth is that both these responses are things that our mind does.

When we feel any emotional response it's part of our mind taking an active role in creating that response and it does it for a reason. Understanding that reason isn't always easy, especially when it feels like it's come out of nowhere, but if we accept that there is one then we can start to get active in understanding and changing our responses.

Final Conclusion

The bottom line here is that the labels we give our emotional responses are seldom helpful. Yes it might go some way towards explaining to someone other than ourself what we're currently feeling. But using a term that many have differing definitions of is just as likely to create confusion as it is clarity.

Any labels inevitably come with preconceptions which are in the case of anxiety almost always misconceptions. These are after all just names we give things. Also a number one thing, what's more important is what's going on with you ? why do we feel that's happening ? and how do we get something different happening?

That's it for now i'm Hollowins always remember to be kind to your mind and i'll see you next time.

All Image edited by canva