One of the more reliable characteristics of an anxiety attack is the belief that a serious health crisis is at hand. The person having an anxiety attack is often convinced that they’re dying, or that they’re on the verge of becoming incapacitated, and will often make a mad scramble for medical attention. A suggestion to the person having an anxiety attack that they aren’t seriously ill will often draw an angry response.
It’s not entirely unreasonable that someone having an anxiety attack would believe they’re in the midst of a serious health crisis. There is some overlap between the symptoms of an anxiety attack and the symptoms of some serious health conditions. Symptoms of an anxiety attack can be similar to heart attack symptoms, for instance. Some of the symptoms of a heart attack are chest tightness and tingling in the extremities. During an anxiety attack, a person’s chest can feel tight, and their extremities can feel numb and tingly.
A person suffering a stroke can feel a sense of disorientation and can have balance difficulty. It’s not uncommon for a person to feel disoriented or wobbly during an anxiety attack. Of course, obviously, an anxiety attack is not a stroke, and an anxiety attack is not a heart attack. There is mix up between anxiety attacks and heart attacks and anxiety attacks and stroke however. At any given moment, there is someone in an emergency room somewhere who is having an anxiety attack and nothing more, but who believes they’re having a heart attack or stroke or both.
One method for determining whether symptoms are actually an anxiety attack is to consider what was happening before symptoms began. If agitation or upset preceded the onset of symptoms, an anxiety attack might be the cause. A person can additionally consider their own physical background. The notion that someone in their twenties or thirties is having a heart attack or a stroke is dubious, unless that person is either extremely overweight or has recently used a narcotic. On the flip side, a person in their fifties who is not physically fit should take chest pains or feelings of disorientation very seriously.
It’s sensible to have unusual symptoms medically checked over. What is not healthy however is to be physically cleared yet continue to seek medical care because of perceived symptoms. The person who thinks himself or herself ill in the face of direct evidence to the contrary is displaying classic symptoms of anxiety or some other emotional disorder.
