When I was suffering really badly from panic attacks I had quite a wide range of symptoms. I tried to educate myself as mush as possible about these symptoms. Here I will try to cover as many of my symptoms as possible and try to explain what each one means
My hope is that this may help put other sufferers mind at ease.
Headache.
This is a very common symptom for anyone suffering from panic or anxiety. The headache is almost like a migraine, and in many cases it may be a migraine. What I found helped was to simply disregard it as being panic related and treat it like any other migraine. Have a lie down, drink plenty of fluids and it will go away. If it;s minor try your best to ignore it. Don't always assume it's related to panic, just think "I have a headache"
Vision disorder
Not as common as headache but can occur. This usually happens before the headache and can be quite daunting. It is also a very common for migraine sufferers so again, it may not be in any way related to panic or anxiety. What I used to experience was a blurring of my eye sight. I would also occasionally see red flickering dots that seamed to be right on front of my eyes. This can sometimes be called a migraine aurora. It is not an uncommon symptom of a migraine and usually happens before any physical migraine pain.
Hyperventilating.
This is one of the most common symptoms and one I am sure most of us have experienced at some stage or another. hyperventilating basically means a speed up in your rate of breathing with little or no physical exertion. This can very often be the first stage in a panic attack. This is your chance to stop it going any further. There are a number of ways to help get your breathing under control.
1. Place a smallish bag over your mouth and nose and breath. This helps by re-circulating the carbon dioxide that you are exhaling. It is important to take the bag off every 30 seconds or so to allow it to defuse with natural atmospheric air. If you don't your oxygen level will drop and you will hyperventilate even more. Try and slow down your breathing as you go. The bag doesn't actually serve to slow down your breathing, What It does do is prevent you from developing palpitations. The palpitations are raised heart rate are a result of your blood gasses becoming abnormal. Your hears needs to pump blood faster.
2. Breath though a hankie or similar piece of material. this will restrict your breathing just enough to help you slow down. At the same time you are breathing atmospheric gas so should not really cause any discomfort.. keep doing this until you notice your breathing become more normal.
3. pursed lips. This is by far my favourite. It is great for when you are outside, or with people.. You can do this without anyone knowing what you are doing. It also works very well. Basically you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. But breathe out through pursed lips. When you breathe in count to 4, when you breathe out count to eight. this trick works very well for getting your breathing under control.
Palpitations.
Palpitations are generally a natural result of your blood gassed passing what would be classed as normal level. This can be as a result of hyperventilating. when you hyperventilate your blood carbon dioxide level drops. this causes all the tiny blood capillaries to decrease in size. this makes your heart need to work harder to circulate the blood through the body. I'm no doc so I don't understand fully what or why, but that a very basic description. The point to realise is, it is not a problem with your heart. It is your heart doing exactly what it needs to.
Very often people will believe they are having a heart attack. You are not, this is simply your body responding in the way it needs to. However if you feel your palpitations lasting for more than 15 mins you should call NHS direct.
Sleep starts
Sleep starts vary greatly from person to person, and even from night to night. A sleep start is basically a jump or jolt that occurs just as you are about to fall asle
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