Was this a symptom of anxiety / panic attack?

[Kery]

Some background information, I struggled with panic attacks constantly a couple of years ago but managed to deal with them and haven’t had one in 2 years. Though I still struggle with anxiety here and there.

Earlier today as I was eating I suddenly felt an anxious feeling come over me, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary it just felt like your regular old anxiety, but it quickly progressed into this rising or “building up” kind of anxious feeling, similar to like being on a rollercoaster or going down a steep hill. My upper body just felt like it had the “butterflies in the stomach” feeling and it slowly kept coming on and I started to panic. It was different to how all my other panic attacks would start though.

I got up and walked around to try and calm myself down and it went away a bit but I could still feel it it creeping up. It took around 2 minutes for it to go away and didn’t transition into a full blown panic attack. I didnt have any other symptoms other than a bit of shortness of breathe and shakiness after the whole ordeal.

Does this sound like a panic attack, or at least the start of one before I was able to calm down? Has anyone had anything similar?

[ankietyjoe]

Sounds exactly like a panic attack.

[nomorepanic]

an anxiety attack but not a full blown panic attack

[Kery]

Thanks for the replies, I figured it was anxiety related. When I was searching for info over this feeling I got a couple of results on epilepsy which was a bit alarming, but none of the other symptoms listed matched what I felt so I just wanted to make sure.

[ankietyjoe]

That's why googling symptoms is a waste of time.

Your body can produce maybe 100 different symptoms, and those 100 different symptoms could describe 10,000 different diseases or conditions.

[Sandra1980]

Anxiety attack a panic attack doesn't build up a panic attack just hits you.

[n3r0x1k]

Anxiety attack a panic attack doesn't build up a panic attack just hits you.

I don't agree with that. I'm not saying that's not how yours work out to be, but I've had many build up, sometimes over seconds, minutes or hours, depending on how apprehensive I was about something and/or symptoms, while other times they just hit me out of the blue.

[Sandra1980]

That's the difference anxiety builds up into an anxiety attack panic attacks just hit you and if you don't react to them they only last for seconds,of course it can take a while to get over them but the actual attack only lasts seconds if you don't react.

[n3r0x1k]

That's the difference anxiety builds up into an anxiety attack panic attacks just hit you and if you don't react to them they only last for seconds,of course it can take a while to get over them but the actual attack only lasts seconds if you don't react.

I get what you're trying to say, and I respect that, but I've had panic attacks (in the thousands) that have often started with anxiety, then the build up. Yes, at its peak, where you feel as if you're 11/10 panic-wise, will subside and then it can become circular, where you hang around 7-9 on 10 and then sometimes it bumps back up if you feed into it. Whether you prefer to call it anxiety attacks or panic attacks (after all, we do get in a state of utter "panic" ) is a different story

[ankietyjoe]

I don't think it's black and white. A panic attack can build up OR explode from nowhere, and the line between anxiety and panic isn't a clear line either. Not in my experience anyway.

That's what makes it so fun, unpredictability....

[Pkstracy]

Sometimes my panic attacks build up, and some times they come out of no where, I mostly know when I am having a panic attack, like, Joe, the line between my anxiety and panic attacks are not always clear.