Can Anxiety and Panic attacks kill you?

Short answer is no. That would be a very, very short blog post though! If you’re worried about this, it will be helpful to really understand the physical symptoms that come with a panic or anxiety attack so you can understand what is happening at the time of an attack and be able to reassure yourself. So, how about we have a quick look:

Racing heart beat
This happens because your body is in fight or flight mode and adrenaline is flooding through you. It’s getting blood pumped to all of your muscles just in case you have to fight off that big scary bear or run away from it. Your brain has recognised that it needs plenty of oxygen to get to your muscles, the bits furthest away from your heart to make sure you have the energy to run of fight. The way that it gets that oxygen there is through your blood and the only way is can do that is to beat really hard and fast.

Feeling faint
You feel faint because all your blood is rushing to your muscles and your brain doesn’t need to do quite as much thinking if it’s just protecting itself. You don’t need to do long math equations, just be able to survive. You may also be breathing heavy which will add to the faint feeling. Speaking of which…

Shortness of breath
You’re short of breath because your breathing pattern has changed. Again, your body is getting ready for that fight or flight, I don’t know about you buy I certainly can’t run very far without my breath changing, it goes from full and complete breaths to quick and short ones. This would be find if you were physically exerting yourself but because you’re not, it is super scary. Sometimes I actually hold my breath as well, I’m not even aware that I do it sometimes but that doesn’t help when it finally kicks in and I’m breathing heavy and don’t realise it’s because I’ve been holding it.

Tingling and numbness
While we’re on the subject of breathing, this change in breath can also lead to decrease carbon dioxide levels in your blood. This reductions can lead to tingling and numbness but also chest pain and a dry mouth not to mention adding to the light-headedness/dizziness from earlier. We’re having fun right?! And people wonder why panic attacks are so awful!

Chest pain and tight throat
That’s not all that the breathing affects as well. Nope, there’s more. The heavy breathing also causes strain and spasm in your chest wall muscles and throat. That tight feeling is your muscles contracting along with the rest of your muscles in your body to make you more resilient. These may hang around afterwards as well but they will go.

Now your body realises that it has excess weight that it can quickly get rid of… see where I’m going with this? That’s where the nausea and stomach upset comes in, your body is trying to get rid of some weight Paula Radcliffe style. There’s no time to stop, it just wants it out. Yeah… thanks body! As if the sweating, heavy breathing and numb hands wasn’t enough. Now you’re going to add a bathroom trip to the dizziness as well. Cheers.

So that’s just a few of the main symptoms. My point is this, a panic attack or anxiety won’t kill you, although it will certainly feel like it will. There are many different symptoms and I highly recommend that you stay away from google as this will certainly convince you quite quickly that something is desperately wrong. If you must google, choose your words wisely. Don’t do “chest pain reasons”. Try “why does panic cause chest pain” instead. You will get a much more sensible answer that will be able to reassure you next time you have a panic attack. The best bit is that once you can understand why your body does these things, it’s much easier not to be phased by them. If you’re not phased by them, your anxiety attack leaves you much quicker. Now, roll your shoulders, unclench your teeth and take a breath.

You’ve got this!

Love, Lisa x