Can You Actually Die From a Panic Attack? How Danger Symptoms Fool You

Panic attacks can be very intense and make you feel like death is just around the corner that feeling can intensify your anxiety even more making the panic get worse and worse, But can it get so bad that you just die like from a heart attack? The short answer is no People. Don’t die from panic attacks. If you want to know more about why stick around I’m, Dr Tracey Marks a psychiatrist, and I make mental health education videos. This topic is based on a viewer question from Sal Sal says Dr Marks A few days ago. My friend, let me try her vape pen. I took a puff and a few minutes later it felt like my throat was closing in on me. My arms felt weak and I thought I was going to fall. My mom took me to the emergency room and, while I was waiting, my arms and legs were jerking. I thought I was going to have a seizure. They put me in a room and I passed out When I woke up. I felt better, but my throat still felt like it was slow to open and close. They told me I was high and anxious Okay. So what if it was anxiety, I’m still scared. If I do it again, I may completely stop breathing. Can the anxiety kill me Thanks Sal for your question and I’m. Sorry, you had that experience. There’s more to unpack here than it would seem. First, let me tell you how this situation can be potentially threatening Vaping through e-cigarettes is associated with constricting your blood vessels, regardless of what you inhale. Vasoconstriction is where your blood vessels narrow and you get less blood flow and therefore less oxygen to your tissues. The damage that comes from vasoconstriction doesn’t happen after one use It’s multiple uses, but you can get temporary, reversible constriction that may go unnoticed by some, But for people prone to anxiety that constriction can trigger a panic attack. Then there are cells, jerking Vaping, is associated with an increased risk of seizures. The FDA posted a warning on its website about this, and that reference is in the description, along with other article references. I used to make this video, But not all jerking is seizures. One easy way to tell is if your arms and legs are jerking on both sides of your body and you’re, still conscious it’s, not a seizure Seizures, result from abnormal and disorganized electrical activity in your brain. That disorganized firing of nerves can make your limbs jerk. If the jerking happens on one side of your body, it’s called a focal seizure and you can remain awake, But once the disorganized nerve firing crosses over to the other side of your brain and affects both sides of your body, you lose consciousness. That’s called a generalized seizure, So let’s assume Sal, didn’t have a seizure. Constricting vessels can also trigger muscle contractions. Have you heard of the term the claw hand about anxiety? The claw hand is an example of a muscle contraction due to hyperventilation causing muscular contractions. So sometimes a person in the throes of a panic attack who is hyperventilating can get contracted limbs that make them believe they’re having some kind of neurological problem, instead of it being anxiety Life-threatening or muscle contraction is not life-threatening but scary. Nonetheless, So back to Sal’s, experience of throat closing Panic attacks can be experienced in a variety of ways. There’s the classic increased heart rate and hyperventilation, but sometimes there are stranger symptoms like feeling a lump in your throat feeling, numbness, and tingling. In your limbs, The numbness and tingling are not a reflection of impending paralysis. You lose the ability to move your limbs or become paralyzed when you have damage to your nerves, Panic attacks, don’t cause that kind of damage. What could be going on is hyperventilation and muscular contraction that stimulates your nerves. You feel the nerve stimulation as numbness and tingling, and we call this paresthesias. It’s a weird activation of your nerves, but it’s not nerve death or damage It’s 39. S. evidence that your nerves are active, Then there’s the throat closing issue Real throat closing happens when the tissues around your throat get inflamed and swell. This is usually associated with an extreme allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. That process has nothing to do with anxiety, Feeling anxious can cause contraction of the muscles around your throat, which gives you the sensation of a lump. Now there are other reasons you can lump in your throat like gastroesophageal reflux disease, but a lump from anxiety is merely a sensation and does not cause narrowing of your throat to the extent that you won’t be able to breathe. So if Sal has another panic attack for any reason, the lump doesn’t just keep getting bigger and bigger until it eventually closes off your breathing. It doesn’t work like that. It’s just merely a sensation due to the contraction of the muscles. In your throat or around your throat, The last issue that Sal mentioned that could make them feel like they could die. The next time is passing out Most likely the intoxication from the drug they vaped made them feel drowsy and fall asleep, But your breathing is controlled by both the involuntary system of your autonomic nervous system and a voluntary system. You don’t have to slump to make yourself breathe. Even if you lump in your throat, If something makes you lose consciousness, your autonomic nervous system will take over and breathe for you, Then the lump will probably go away as your muscles relax. So remember an allergic reaction that causes swelling in your throat is what causes your throat to get blocked, not the sensation of a lump from muscle contractions. So, no doubt panic attacks are very frightening because of all these physical symptoms that you can have, and many people think that they are dying. Often a person with panic attacks will make several trips to the emergency room before they finally help for anxiety. A 2017 study found that 50 people with panic disorder made six or more trips to the emergency room. That’s a lot of trips. But it happens because, even if someone tells you once or twice that you don’t have a serious condition and you’re not going to die each time, you have another attack, it can feel like this time is different. It’s like Groundhog Day. You keep having these attacks, but each time you don’t remember how the last time it was anxiety. You still think that this time you have something more serious, I hope Sal. This puts your mind at ease at least just a little bit, And you too, if you’ve, suffered with this or know someone who’s had this very scary. Experience of panic attacks Watch this video for more on how to use your vagus nerve to calm yourself. Thanks for watching, See you next time.

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