A Panic attack can be easily confused with a heart attack because the symptoms are somewhat similar. Strong chest pain, sweating, prickly and tingly feeling, heart palpitations, shortness of breath and even nausea. There is also the possibility that a heart attack could trigger a panic attack. How do you distinguish one from the other. Although we hope that none of our valuable readers suffer from both conditions, still this article could be of invaluable help in recognizing the difference between panic attack and heart attack.
1 Main Symptoms to Recognize a Heart Attack
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- As described by people, chest pain from a heart attack appears as crushing and constricting.
- The pain originates from the center of the chest and moves downward. It travels along the left arm and along your back.
- Heart attack pain can spread to shoulders, teeth, jaws, and neck.
- The intensity of pain can fluctuate.
- In most cases, the prickly or tingly feeling of a heart attack is limited to the left arm followed by nausea, cold sticky sweat, and possible vomiting.
- During a heart attack, people have said that the fear experienced is focused exclusively on chest pain because of the fear of death.
- It is a general rule that in heart attack, people do not hyperventilate (increased rate of breathing or over breathing) BUT!! This symptom can occur if the heart attack triggers a panic attack.
If you do experience any of the above symptoms for more than 5 minutes call emergency or an ambulance. If you have someone nearby and you are unable to call help, ask the person to rush you to emergency immediately.
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