Some common signs and symptoms of Panic Attacks:

Physical:
Immense or sudden sweating, Lightheadedness, Dizziness, Shakiness, tremor, trembling, Heart Palpitations, irregular heartbeat, Racing or pounding heart, Slow and pounding heart, Hyperventilation, Hot flashes, Chills, Fainting, Frequent Toilet Use, Insomnia, Chest pain, Nausea, stomach discomfort, Vertigo, Headaches, Choking sensations, Paresthesia (localized numbness), Itching or burning sensations, Exhaustion, Muscle spasms, Weakness, Grinding of the teeth, Ringing in the ears, Dry mouth

Mental:
Restlessness, Agoraphobia, Avoidance behavior, Feeling emotionally excluded, Fear of impending death or doom, Feeling of impaired vision, temporary blindness, Feeling like no one understands, Feeling like nothing is real, Loud internal dialogue, Irrational or racing thoughts, Loss of cognitive ability, Loss of the ability to react logically to external stimuli, Intense frightening realizations of reality, Nervousness, Fear of Losing Control, feeling out of control, feeling of going insane, Sense of Terror, Lack of Concentration, Claustrophobic feelings

Emotional Symptoms

Fear of failure, fear of death, fear of living, fear of going insane, fear of losing control, fear of a serious illness, fear that the panic attack will not end, flashbacks to an earlier trigger, intense feeling of being scared, and inexplicable terror that something bad is about to happen and that you are powerless to do anything about it.

Perceptual Symptoms of panic attacks

Perceptual symptoms include feeling that you have lost free will, tunnel vision, dissociation or depersonalization, heightened senses, dream-like sensations, and the apparent speeding up or slowing down of time.

Panic attacks will normally only last for a short period of time around 10 minutes if you have one.  However, sometimes you may find that some of the symptoms associated with such attacks may last for quite a bit longer.  Certainly once you have had one panic attack you are at a greater risk of suffering from others in the future.  For those who have to deal with panic attacks quite regularly then they are suffering from the condition which is referred to as Panic Disorder.

There are not only physical symptoms that a sufferer of panic attacks will have to deal with, but there are the mental ones as well.  Below we take a look at the symptoms of a panic attack which a sufferer needs to be aware so that they know when an attack is occurring.

1.  You may when you are having a panic attack feel dizzy and apprehensive.  Often you may find yourself panicking when there isn’t anything for you to panic about.  Sometimes the dizzy can lead to you feeling weak and in some cases if it becomes a severe attack you may faint.

2. Sometimes you may find it hard to breathe when an attack occurs as there seems to be some kind of restriction to your chest and may be your throat.  The constriction of the chest is often caused by your body trying to combat the surge of adrenalin within the body.

3. You will find that your heart rate is much faster than normal in order to try and pump more oxygen around the body.  Because your body is using up more oxygen then you find yourself beginning to hyperventilate (you are breathing much faster and deeper).  This is because your body is trying to get more oxygen into it in order to replace that which has been lost.

4. When you suffer a panic attack you may start to feel disassociated from the things around you.   Sometimes it can feel as you are moving away from things that are real or your vision becomes tunneled.  Although these kinds of symptoms are also associated with a person having a heartache one needs to be aware that when they occur with a panic attack they won’t hurt you. 

Although the symptoms of a panic attack may seem frightening to those who have them it is important for you to remember that the attack can be controlled.  The first thing to do when you feel that an attack is approaching is to start breathing very slowly and very deeply.  Even this can provide you with the ability to get the panic attack under control and you will hopefully begin to feel better shortly afterwards.