A panic attack is a discrete episode of intense fear or discomfort that reaches peak intensity within minutes and involves a cluster of physical and psychological symptoms. The physical symptoms include accelerated heart rate, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, nausea, dizziness, and numbness or tingling. The psychological features include a sense of unreality or detachment from oneself, a fear of losing control, and a fear of dying or that something catastrophic is about to happen. The experience is alarming partly because the physical symptoms are real and intense and partly because the catastrophic interpretations they trigger feel entirely rational in the moment.
Understanding what is actually happening physiologically during a panic attack is an important early component of treatment with Dr. Steinbok at his Boca Raton practice. Panic attacks involve the activation of the body's alarm system in the absence of an actual external threat. The physical symptoms are the product of that activation and are not dangerous in themselves, though the fear of the symptoms tends to amplify them significantly. Establishing this understanding does not eliminate panic immediately, but it creates a framework that makes the next episode less overwhelming and creates the conditions for the exposure-based and psychodynamic work that follows.
