Panic is usually the feeling of intense pressure that you feel, such as when a panic attack sets on. It’s triggered by the ‘fight or flight’ response which is a system in our brain that triggers adrenaline when a threat is detected.

The idea is that when you face a threat you’re likely going to need to ‘fight’ that threat or ‘flee’ away from the scene. Either way you’ll need the extra energy the adrenaline will give you.

The only problem is sometimes this fight or flight response, which is actually a pretty handy in many cases, is triggered in situations where fighting or escaping aren’t the best options!

Anxiety on the other hand is usually used to refer to that general feeling of almost dread which you may feel in your chest or stomach.

The reason why ‘panic attack’ and ‘anxiety attack’ are used in place of each other is because anxiety often leads to panic and panic can lead to anxiety.

A strategy that I find particularly good is to relax your breathing as soon as you detect any panic setting in. By doing this you can counteract the effect of the fight or flight trigger by reassuring your brain that you are not actually in a life or death situation.

As for what the doctor will do: it’s always a great idea to see your general practitioner when something like this happens just to make sure that there is nothing physical wrong.

However that being said, most doctors will advise you to relax, deal with any stress and then recommend if the problems continue that you see a therapist who specializes in panic and anxiety who will teach you some strategies to help you deal with the problem.

If you’re interested you can find our more about this and several other simple but very effective psychological techniques in the free ebook ‘The 10 Psychological Secrets Of Eliminating Anxiety & Getting Confident Now’ at http://www.anxietytoconfidencenow.jfl.com

All the best with getting rid of your panic/anxiety attacks – I know you can do it. From my experience it is possibly to complete eliminate them.

When I first went to the doctor they basically tried to figure out what was wrong with me just by asking me what happened, what I thought about the experience.

My doctor saw that I was nervous and was asking me about tourette’s, but it’s just their job to think about all the different conditions they have on the books and diagnose you. If you have anxiety the only thing they are going to tell you is that you have anxiety. If your really shy or amazingly quiet they might tell you that you have social anxiety… just be hones so they don’t screw up and misdiagnose because they might prescribe something that will make you worse.