12
without becoming exhausted. During a panic attack physical and
emotional symptoms often increase in waves and then slowly subside.
After the initial attack ends, a person may still feel anxious and jittery
for many hours.
Sufferers usually feel helpless to stop an attack. During the at-
tack individuals may feel intense terror or fear. They may have heart
palpitations and chest pain so severe they think they are having a
heart attack. Others have trouble breathing, hyperventilate, or feel
like they are choking. Individuals may experience hot flashes or chills.
They may sweat profusely, tremble, or feel as if they are going to throw
up. Some feel dizzy and light-headed, as if they are going to faint.
Many people mistake these physical symptoms for another medical
condition or illness, which may prompt them to visit a doctor. Once
the doctor rules out a physical cause for their symptoms, they may
be diagnosed as having a panic attack. To be diagnosed with a panic
attack, a person must experience four or more symptoms at the same
time. The symptoms must have devel-
oped abruptly and peaked within ten
minutes of beginning.
Jemma Kidd, a makeup artist and
writer from England who has panic
disorder, experienced her first panic at-
tack around age twenty, when she woke
up with an inexplicably strange feeling.
Throughout the day she felt increas-
ingly detached from her surroundings
and out of place. “It was weird—I was
on familiar territory, surrounded by
people I loved, but I couldn’t help feel-
ing frightened,” she remembers.Then a
few hours later, panic descended at full
force. “Everything suddenly looked distorted. I felt sick, my heart be-
gan racing and I couldn’t breathe.Within ten minutes it was over, but
afterwards I felt as if I had been in a war zone.”
7
In addition to feel-
ing blindsided by the attack, Kidd was disturbed that she could not
pinpoint its cause. Nothing bad or unusual had happened to explain
the terror; nothing had gone awry or could otherwise explain the pet-
“Everything suddenly
looked distorted. I felt
sick, my heart began
racing and I couldn’t
breathe. Within ten
minutes it was over,
but afterwards I felt as
if I had been in a war
zone.”
7
—Jemma Kidd, a panic disorder
sufferer.
