Short Of Breath Anxiety Or Heart Attack?

Finding yourself short of breath?  Anxiety has a lot of symptoms, and shortness of breath is just one of them.  However, it is important for you to determine whether or not such shortness of breath is indeed caused by anxiety, or by another ailment or disease altogether.

Anxiety is a natural part of our lives.  However, when such anxiety becomes very intense during particular episodes, it should warrant our attention.  These episodes are called panic attacks.

Though often dismissed as harmless, a panic attack can lead to dire complications if neglected.  The worst scenario, of course, happens when the panic attack is not really a panic attack, rather, it is something graver, like a heart attack for example.  An episode of a panic attack shares the same symptoms as an episode of a heart attack after all.  While experts advise people to wait out the effects of the former, waiting out the effects of the latter can be dangerous if not downright fatal.

Hence, it is very important for us to know the symptoms of a panic attack and to determine whether or not what we’re experiencing at the time is indeed a panic attack or something far graver.

Take for example, the following…

Short of breath anxiety is a kind of panic attack that makes it difficult for the subject to breath.  However, shortness of breath is also a symptom of a heart attack and even a stroke.  How to know which is which?

Let’s take a look at the similarities, first.  Short of breath anxiety is accompanied by a feeling of impending doom.  It’s that “fight or flight” feeling that accompanies most cases of panic attacks.  A heart attack involves the same feeling as well.  Some people call it as the body’s way of telling you to seek medical attention FAST.

Short of breath anxiety also involves gastro-intestinal symptoms, which is likewise observable in people suffering from heart attack.  In fact, a lot of heart attack victims mistake their dire condition for a heart burn or a bum stomach, until blood results reveal severe arterial problems.

Short of breath anxiety can also cause circulatory problems which are psychosomatic in nature.  Numbness in some parts of the body is but normal during panic attack episodes.  The same is true for heart attack victims.

So, how do we know whether or not difficulties in breathing are attributable to short of breath anxiety or a heart attack?  Here are some things you should be wary about:

• Is the shortness of breath accompanied by pain on the left side of the chest?
• Is the shortness of breath accompanied by pain or numbness on the left arm?
• Does the subject have a history of congenital heart diseases?
• Is the subject overweight?
• Most importantly, does the shortness of breath last for more than 30 minutes?  Panic attacks usually last for 10 minutes.  Anything longer than that should be a cause for alarm.  Anything longer than 30 minutes would point to the presence of a graver condition.

Short of breath anxiety is not a pleasant, and neither is a completely healthy, condition.  However, given the other possibility, we can say that it is the lesser of two evils.

Learn the TRUTH about Panic Attacks and Anxiety Disorders With This Free Report

Related posts:

1. Panic Attack Shortness Of Breath