Anxiety Attacks vs Panic Attacks

The more I connect with others regarding my mental health journey, the more I realize that people find that the discrepancies between an anxiety attack and a panic attack are not so easy to define. In fact, many folks believe that a panic attack is a synonymous term for an anxiety attack and vice versa. They do sound alike, don't they? What even is the difference between panic and anxiety anyway? Don't they always play hand in hand? Do both involve the universal sensation of fear?

What people forget is that fear comes in many types with different intensities, causes, and characteristics, and they can certainly exhibit varying signs and symptoms.


Even early on when I first started to deal with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) over a decade ago, I didn't even quite understand the difference. Like many, I used panic and anxiety interchangeably. However, in 2014, I began to understand what made the two different once I started struggling with frequent panic attacks myself. It is due to this common misunderstanding that led me to create this blog post.

Anxiety Attacks

The easiest way I can describe an anxiety attack is a period of anxiety, which may range from moderate to severe. These normally begin with worry of some sort like a fear of speaking to an audience or attending a job interview. While most people struggle with some type of anxiety, worry, and fear from time to time, anxiety is often more intense than your average period of distress. The worry itself can be impairing to the point where you may have difficulty concentrating and doing anything except think about what you're anxious about at the moment. Anxiety attacks can be due to something medical, can be a result of different anxiety disorders, or can be brought on psychologically.

Some symptoms might include:

• Intrusive and/or repetitive thoughts
• Heart palpitations or pounding heart
• Chest pain
• Hyperventilation
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Weakness or shakiness
• Lightheadedness
• Sensation that you may vomit and/or faint
• Depersonalization (feeling like you are in a dream-like state / no longer alive)
• Tunnel vision
• Muscle pain
• Numbness or tingling (pins and needles)
• Tremors
• Hot flashes
• Lump-in-throat sensation like you're choking (globus pharyngis)
• Sensitivity to loud noises

When I struggle with attacks of anxiety, I usually have no more than five or six symptoms at a time. However, some may only have one symptom. Although the symptoms can be very uncomfortable and not to mention stressful, I am usually more afraid of whatever I am worrying about (e.g., taking an exam, going to an appointment, etc.) than the physical symptoms themselves. But when I do worry about the physical symptoms of my anxiety attacks, it is usually because I am fearful someone else will notice that I am anxious, witness me pass out, or even see me throw up.

For me personally, I would experience anxiety waking up in the morning before school, prior to taking a test or talking out loud / in front of the class, while at an appointment of any kind, during phone calls with strangers, and while interacting with most males. These were all things I knew scared me and made me go outside of my comfort zone.

An anxiety attack can last hours, a day or two, or even weeks or months at a time before subsiding. They can occur during an event or near a stimulus that you are frightened of or can occur months before you know you will come in contact with it. For instance, if someone is scheduled to go to the doctor six months from now, they may suffer from anxiety that comes and go or stay and slowly intensify the closer the appointment comes. Generally, experiencing an anxiety attack is sometimes similar to the sensation of tripping over a step or reaching into your pocket and realizing that your phone isn't there.

Panic Attacks

Commonly, people find panic attacks much scarier than an anxiety attack. The symptoms of panic usually include stronger anxiety symptoms, can either be more or less variant, and typically affect your life and day-to-day tasks more than general anxiety. In fact, many describe a panic attack like they are having a heart attack, even though they are not the same. A panic attack might begin as an anxiety attack, it might ignite suddenly when you are exposed to a certain stimulus (e.g., a loud sound), or it may simply come out of the blue for no apparent reason. Panic attacks can be a result of trauma or abuse, due to dealing with long-lived and serious anxiety, or might even be a result of something medical like a vitamin deficiency or hormonal balance.

Some symptoms might include:

• Intrusive and/or repetitive thoughts
• Heart palpitations or pounding heart
• Chest pain
• Hyperventilation
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Weakness or shakiness
• Lightheadedness
• Sensation that you may vomit and/or faint
• Depersonalization (feeling like you are in a dream-like state / no longer alive)
• Tunnel vision
• Muscle pain
• Numbness or tingling (pins and needles)
• Tremors
• Hotflashes
• Lump-in-throat sensation like you're choking (globus pharyngis)
• Sensitivity to loud noises
• Feeling like you've lost control
• Intense fear that you're dying

For many folks, having a panic attack is such a handicapping, excessive experience that one usually cannot focus on or do anything else while they are struggling with the attack. It is far more debilitating than everyday stress and a much stronger anxiety response to the point where one might believe their health is in immediate danger. At this stage, their brain is in a full-fledged fight-or-flight response, and its main goal is to protect them from perceived danger. During a panic attack, your body doesn't want or expect you to sit through a wedding, sing on stage, shop in a store, or conduct your normal day-to-day activities; it wants you to run, hide, or fight for your life (or better yet, make you think you need to). In the midst of panic, you want so badly to escape but usually don't know why or where to go; you truly feel like nowhere is safe, not even in your own skin.

After I began struggling with panic attacks after dealing with long-lasting, severe anxiety, I couldn't continue to drive, count back change at work, and eventually, leave the house (agoraphobia) because I was so afraid of having another panic attack outside of my "safe zone." Nowadays when I struggle with panic, usually all it takes is the exposure of stimuli that caused or exasperated my panic from the start (e.g., driving, going to work, leaving my neighborhood, etc.), even if the stimuli that trigger my attacks aren't things that would normally make me anxious or do not currently make me anxious the way they used to. However, there are also periods where I experience an anxiety attack, and it turns into a panic attack.

The good news is, panic attacks, while they are often much more debilitating than general anxiety, usually only last a few minutes to a half hour rather than several days at a time. Still, panic attacks can occur every now and then or may occur multiple times a day. Some may feel the aftereffects of a panic attack for months (i.e., feeling on edge) until they learn how to accept control their fear and panic.

The Bottom Line

All in all, while anxiety and panic attacks have their similarities as they both involve anxiety and various symptoms of anxiety from sweating to a pounding heart or accelerated heart rate, panic is a stronger form of anxiety, or really, an exasperated component of it. Unlike anxiety, panic attacks can include some or all of the common symptoms of anxiety plus an extreme fear that you've lost control over your thoughts and actions, may die in the midst of the attack, and might very well have "no way out."

Either way, both are fear-based and involve feelings of restlessness or overstimulation, even when there is a medical cause or contributor to the panic or anxiety. Likewise, both can have the same or similar triggers whether they be social, situational, mental, physical, and so on and so forth. The two additionally can be expected or completely unexpected. Anxiety and panic can be apart of a mental health disorder and last long-term, or they may act temporary symptoms, not apart of a disorder at all. Regardless, health is always a concern with panic and anxiety whether it be merely psychological or mainly a physiological problem. Thus, they are both something that need to be addressed one way or another.

Those who struggle with anxiety or its associated mental disorders may have an increased risk of developing panic attacks or a series of phobias in the future if they 1) do not get help for their anxiety and 2) fail to do anything to ease their anxiety by making necessary lifestyle changes.

Due to the latter statement, I urge people struggling with anxiety to get help in any ways that they whether it be taking medication prescribed by a doctor, attending therapy or counseling, eating healthier, or seeing a holistic practitioner for natural treatment. Both anxiety and panic can come and go or can increasingly get worse over time without being addressed. The sooner you are able to treat your anxiety and figure out why it's occurring, the sooner you may be able to heal and find mental freedom.