What is a panic attack?

  Panic disorder is a psychological disorder characterized clinically by panic attacks. The basic manifestation of panic attacks is a sudden and severe anxiety attack, which is not limited to any particular situation and is largely unpredictable. The prototype of panic experience is derived from ancient Scythian mythology. Legend has it that a sky god named Pan used to sleep in a rocky cave by the roadside, and if someone woke him up when he passed by, he would let out a heart-stopping scream, and many people were scared to death by this appalling scream of his, and later people called this sudden terror and fright as panic. A panic attack is an emotional experience characterized by the sudden onset of significant symptoms of vegetative hyperactivity, accompanied by a strong sense of near death or loss of control and fear of unfortunate consequences. Typically, the patient is engaged in daily activities, such as reading, eating, walking, meeting, or performing household chores, when he or she suddenly feels palpitations as if the heart is about to jump out of the mouth, chest tightness, chest pain, chest pressure, and a strong feeling of “heart attack”. At the same time, she feels difficulty in breathing, her throat is blocked, as if she cannot breathe and is about to suffocate, and she feels a strong sense of fear, as if she is about to die or is about to lose her mind. This extreme nervousness makes it unbearable, so it screams and asks for help. In some cases, the patient feels dizzy, lightheaded, unrealistic, sweating, pale, unsteady gait, gastrointestinal discomfort, urinary endangerment, urinary urgency, and fidgeting. An attack usually lasts 5-20 minutes and rarely resolves on its own in more than an hour. Most of the episodes end with yawning, urination and falling asleep. In between episodes, everything is normal, but soon it will come back suddenly. Therefore, most patients are anxious about having another attack during the interval of recurrent attacks. Some patients are also reluctant to go out alone, travel or go to crowded places because they are worried that they will not get help if they go out.