Panic attacks are a serious health problem - and at least 20% of adult Americans (around 60 million people) will experience them at some stage in their lives.

Of those 60 million adult Americans, around 3 million will develop full-scale panic disorder at some point.

But are the symptoms of panic attacks in women different to those in men?

General panic attack symptoms

Panic attacks are clinically defined as episodes of powerful, inexplicable terror that arrive suddenly and often without warning, accompanied by four or more of the
following symptoms:

• shortness of breath
• chest pain
• fast heartbeat
• heart palpitations
• excess sweating
• nausea
• dizziness
• numb feeling in extremities
• hot and cold flashes
• shaking / trembling
• sensation of choking
• fear that you’re going crazy
• fear that you’re going to die
• ‘mind chatter’
• depersonalization or feeling of detachment

Symptoms of panic attacks in women

Symptoms of panic attacks in women don’t generally differ from those in men as a group, but symptoms do significantly vary from person to person.  (This will often depend on the cause of the attacks - which can be from anything from other underlying medical conditions, to stress caused by loss, job changes, location moves, divorce etc.)

However, occurrences ARE much more likely to occur in women as they are in men - with some studies now suggesting that occurrences are twice as likely in women.  There is also the complication of pregnancy to consider.  The frequency of panic attacks may increase, decrease, or remain unchanged during pregnancy - but during the post-partum period, increased frequency of panic attacks is common.

Women do tend to deal with the symptoms of panic attacks in a different way to men.  Women tend to avoid anxiety-provoking situations more, and seek professional medical care more frequently when compared to male panic attack sufferers.  So whilst women are more at risk of attacks than men, their response tends to be more positive.

What you can do to stop panic attacks

Experts are still not exactly sure why or how stress sets off a panic attack, but some believe it’s due to faulty brain circuitry, whereby the body’s instinctive fight-or-flight response is triggered in response to normal,
non-life threatening stress.  But no matter what the cause, and no matter whether you’re male or female, what is important is that you TAKE ACTION.

Don’t do nothing and hope that they will just ‘go away’.  Always seek advice on your situation from your doctor, or other trusted medical professional.

We also strongly recommend you look at a breakthrough new treatment called Panic Away, which is receiving consistently positive reviews from sufferers.  It does not involve taking any medications, and has a extremely high success rate.

Click here to visit the official Panic Away website  <<

We have also prepared a consumer factsheet which we recommend you view here:
Panic Away Consumer Factsheet

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