A sudden wave of intense fear peaking within minutes, with a pounding heart, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, dizziness, tingling hands, chest pain, or nausea.
NIMH notes the symptoms are physical enough to feel like a heart attack, and that attacks last from a few minutes to an hour. Panic attacks themselves are not life-threatening, though they are deeply distressing.
What to do
Common questions
What does a panic attack feel like?
A sudden wave of intense fear or a sense of losing control, arriving even with no clear danger or trigger, and peaking within minutes. NIMH lists the physical symptoms: a pounding or racing heart, sweating, trembling, difficulty breathing, weakness or dizziness, tingly or numb hands, chest pain, and stomach pain or nausea - a combination physical enough that many people end up in the ER convinced it is a heart attack. Emotionally, people describe fear of dying, impending doom, or feeling detached from reality or themselves. An attack lasts from a few minutes to an hour, sometimes longer, and while the feelings are distressing, panic attacks themselves are not life-threatening. One attack does not mean panic disorder - that diagnosis is about repeated unexpected attacks plus persistent worry about the next one. If attacks are recurring, treatment works well. If you ever feel in crisis, call or text 988 in the US, or your local crisis line. Pymander, a free AI doctor available 24/7 by text, can help you sort what happened.