Anxiety Attack Symptoms

When your palms start to get clammy and it feels like the air is heavy, you can’t help but start to feel anxious. When you experience these feelings for the first time, you may think that something serious is wrong and not know how to handle it. If you’re like many that suffer from these symptoms, you may be having an anxiety attack, and here’s what you can do about it. 

What is an Anxiety Attack? 

An anxiety attack is an episode where your nerves take over and you start to feel anxious. Normally, this is a response to some kind of event that made you nervous or anxious like an exam, an interview, or even a speech. Anxiety attacks are common for those that suffer from anxiety and come with a different set of symptoms that you can identify. 

Anxiety Attack Symptoms

While anxiety attack symptoms vary from person to person, here is what you should look for if you think that you’re suffering from symptoms of anxiety. 

Nervous Feeling 

One of the most common anxiety attack symptoms is a nervous feeling. Thoughts may start to wander through your head and you may feel a sense of unease for a few moments. 

Increased Heart Rate

After your nerves start to react, your heart starts to beat faster, pumping blood to all parts of your body and making your heart pound through your chest. 

Hyperventilation 

When you’re anxious, your breath also starts to increase, which makes you more nervous and anxious as well. 

Sweating 

Sweating comes in different levels and can range from clammy palms to full-on sweat on your back, stomach, or under your arms. You may start to sweat in response to your rapid heartbeat and increased breathing. 

Trembling

Anxiety has a way of affecting your hands and fingers and makes them tremble a bit. This is a direct response from your nerves that makes your body tremble with fear. 

Tiredness 

Because of your body’s responses to all of these things, an anxiety attack will make you feel tired. Because of the rapid rate of response, your entire system will wear out and you’ll become tired. 

Lack of Focus or Concentration 

With thoughts running through your head and everything happening with your body, you may start to lose focus and not be able to concentrate. 

Handling an Anxiety Attack 

If you’ve never experienced an anxiety attack and feel any one of the symptoms mentioned above, there are some things that you can do to calm down and get your thoughts back in place. Once you feel a trigger try to: 

• Breathe 
• Lie down 
• Close your eyes
• Count 

Afterward, you should start to notice slower breaths, decreased heart rate, and less sweating. It’s always a good idea to try and find out what triggered your response so that you can take action before your next panic attack. If you experience severe or frequent attacks, talk to your doctor for their thoughts.