How do you explain panic attacks to someone who doesn't know....

[blynn]

Hi my name is Brittany. I am a mother of two beautiful girls one is 5 years and the other is almost 4 months. We have a house full including my self girls my fiancé his mother sister and nephew. We all moved from Florida to Vermont about 2 and half years ago. My anxiety has gotten so much worse since then. My whole family is still back in Florida and my fear of flying and driving has prevented me from visiting. We have met a few friends here and my fiancé good friend made the comment to another he couldn't deal with my attitude... I had a panic attack I came home to my house a wreck and im not sure how to explain it to him

[Sagan]

Not my own words. I find them next to impossible to explain myself. Except to say extreme paranoia and or fear of imminent death.

magine that you’re taking a stroll in the countryside. Everything is going well. The trees are in bloom; the sky is blue; the cool breeze is refreshing. You’re humming your favorite tune when suddenly you hear a blood curdling scream — EEEEOOOOWWWW!!!! Now imagine that out of nowhere, a repulsive creature has stepped into your path. He’s got a grotesque body, horns on his head and a menacing smile. You freeze in terror as this hideous face stares into yours!


Though you desperately wish to flee, you find yourself helplessly frozen. Your heart is racing. Your chest is pounding. You can’t catch your breath. You feel lightheaded. You feel faint. You think you might die right there on the spot.
Now imagine feeling this very same terror when there’s no creature in your path. What would your experience be? Would you feel mystified? Bewildered? Embarrassed? Wonder if you’re going crazy?

o explain a panic attack in layman’s term isn’t as easy. There is a fair amount of personal bias involved. Even if the same physical and mental sensations are involved, my subjective, personal experience will be different from another person’s. That being said, there do seem to be some common themes (read about panic attack symptoms). Most people, including myself, describe a panic attack as a loss of mental control, rapid heartbeats, and profuse sweating. Think of how your body feels moments after a near accident or the physical sensations of a roller coaster ride. The major difference, of course, is that there isn’t a “normal” reason for this attack. A person is minding their own business and suddenly these sensations occur. The disorder, quite literally, attacks.


A panic attack is a surprise infusion of fear into a person. Imagine your worst fear gripping you for no reason. You can’t escape it because you aren’t quite sure why it is happening and, more than likely, the racing thoughts and clouded mental state make it impossible to make the best decision, especially quickly. Put simply, a panic attack can best be described as “freaking out.”


In the end, the word everyone should focus on is attack. It isn’t a panic disruption, a panic annoyance, or a panic inconvenience. It is a called a panic attack for a reason. It comes out of nowhere and attacks the body, both physically and mentally. It is a sudden onset of symptoms that leaves the victim terrified and unable to defend themselves. It literally attacks us using our primal urges.

[enfield]

explaining has never been a good way to really teach somebody anything. the superiority of learning by experience has always been repeated to us so that's what we'll do. we'll teach by experience. the first thing is to induce a panic in the person. then when the panic is effectively induced you need to let them sweat it out for awhile. to really panic. after that, reveal there was nothing to panic about all along and they were tricked! then run really fast into your room and lock the door behind you. somewhere they cant get you because they're gonna be fuming. when its safe come out tell them thats how a panic attack feels because its what they just had. the only difference is they panicked where panic was a very reasonable response. you panic when its not. for how to do this there's a lot of options. you could try the tricked them into believing they were poisoned method or some other way. dont go too far or you'll regret it. but make it too mild and you might not induce a panic.

[joyful_cara557]

I sometimes think it's like asthma, and I feel like a fish out of water. It's a suffocating type of feeling for me, and I can't get enough air. And then there's the feeling that the world is going to end, and the shaking and dizziness. That's the best way I can put it into words but honestly you don't really know until you've felt it yourself.

[1]

Explanation is sometimes isn't enough for some people.

[Cuchculan]

This is an old post. But one that interested me. I sat with a doctor and three student nurses once and he made us hyperventilate. That would mean taken in big deep breaths as quickly as you can. What does this do? It would mimic what a panic attack would feel like. I will admit to laughing during it as one of the student nurses fell off their chair. They were dizzy. The whole exercise was to show me how to calm back down again. What I really liked was the fact that the doctor didn't let the students off the hook. They were in the same room. So they had to do it too. Then it was all about bringing the breathing under control again. Showing me that I can control such a thing. If it was an adult that I had to explain it to and I was close to them, I would use this same method. Make them feel like people do when a panic attack hits. If a person thinks they can deal with it, challenge them and make them hyperventilate. If done quickly, they will get dizzy and their breathing will be all over the place.

[Chantellabella]

I agree with all the posts above (love your answer, enfield!)

I've had to explain to people how it feels before and the best way I know how to do it is show them also.

I tell them to breathe really fast and shallow
When they get a tad dizzy, I tell them to imagine that they are completely powerless and something is about to attack them
Then I ask them to remember a time when they had horrible indigestion so bad that they thought they were having a heart attack
Lastly, I tell them to believe they have no hope of this stopping and because they can't breathe, they will eventually die

This usually gives them an idea of the intensity of an attack

[jfox222]

All of the above posts are great answers to this question, but when I have had to describe the feeling of anxiety or panic attacks to friends or family who do not understand, I ask them if they have ever been walking down a flight of stairs and accidentally missed a step? Can they recall that feeling in their heart, almost like it skipped a beat and is suddenly pounding? Anxiety is kind of like that feeling but it is there all the time and does not go away.
When I explained it like that to some friends they all were able to show much more empathy than previously.

[Chloe]

I find no matter how well you describe it or even if someone sees it they will never know, internal thoughts and physical reactions to external forces also don't help,

For me to explain what it's like physically I find easy- (breath in and out 5 times in every second, now imagine that getting faster but you can't stop it,, you've got goosebumps everywhere but you feel numb, your throat is swelling shut, you feel like your trying to be sick but can get your stomach to heave, you can't stop the breathing, it feels as though you've just span on the spot 50 times, it's getting darker but you keep on hearing this voice but there's no one there, every heart beat ripples through your body like your being punched only there's no pain and it happens at the same rate it would as if you've just sprinted 100m)
If you try and explain what's going on inside your head I think most people that don't know or don't have similar worries dismiss or down play what that's got to feel like because they know that there's no one trying to kill you or hurt you. But when you believe that with every fibre they don't know what it's like unless they've been in that scenario
I think worst thing for me is if you have hallucinations or have someone touch you and you start screaming you've then got to explain sorry I thought you were trying to choke me or take my top off and they get upset for you thinking of them in that way when it wasn't you it was some crummy part of your head that sees the world as a horrible dangerous place as something to fear