I have always assumed that in the world of mental health, the terms anxiety and panic were pretty much a cause and effect thing. That’s at least how I used them. Panic attacks were simply the result of your anxiety flying off the hook. After all, nobody says they have panic. You say you have anxiety. I was wrong. They are similar and can combine for some good old fashioned heart-pounding fun (sarcasm font needed), but they can apparently exist independently as well.
How did I find this out, you wonder? Because about three months ago, my anxiety came back with a vengeance. In fact, I was having days that were worse than before I started treatment for PTSD. Only this time around, all of the tricks that I learned to combat anxiety weren’t working. I can meditate, do yoga, deep breath and practice gratitude until I am blue in the face, but as soon as I stop the feeling that I am having an asthma attack or heart palpitations comes rushing back in. I’ve spent upwards of ten hours straight unable to take in a deep breath. I have used my asthma inhaler more in the past three months than I have in the past three years. But the inhaler did absolutely nothing to free up my breathing. That’s because I have graduated from generalized anxiety disorder to panic disorder. Whoo!
The racing thoughts and social interaction worries are totally gone, instead 90% of all of my symptoms are physical. With the remaining 10% consisting of worrying about the physical symptoms. It’s not really a trade-off I would have chosen, had I been given a choice. But then of course, why would anyone choose any of this. So what is my point of bringing all of this up, other than to complain? To bring awareness to the fact that there is a difference. Since I first started dealing with anxiety, I’ve had numerous conversations with people on that topic, and a few of those people have expressed problems with the exact same symptoms that I’ve having now. I of course don’t remember who any of those people are now.
So in an effort to reach at least one of those people, I bring you this PSA. If the majority of your anxiety symptoms are physical, to the point that you think there is something medically wrong with you, chances are you need to look into panic disorder. Especially since the tricks to alleviate those symptoms are drastically different. For anxiety I calm myself and relax. For panic I tense and hold the muscles around where I’m panicking then release. If that doesn’t work, I run up a couple flights of stairs, which sounds counter-intuitive, but generally brings relief. Except that one time that I was actually having an asthma attack. That didn’t go away until I used my inhaler. Ooops!
This website has a pretty good article differentiating the two.