Can panic attacks cause an asthma attack?
Sometimes when I have panic attacks, I start to wheeze uncontrollably. I do have asthma, and I was wondering can fear set of asthma? I was diagnosed with asthma 2 weeks ago and I don’t really know too much about it. Sorry.
Panic attacks start when the fight-or-flight response of the body acts up uncontrollably, usually without any explicit cause. The actual attack sets in because this scares us tremendously and causes even further fear and anxiety to be generated, then the elevated level of anxiety scares us even further… and so on and so on… it’s a self-aggravating process that sort of automatically makes itself stronger over a very short period of time by ‘feeding back into ourselves’.
Panic attacks usually don’t cause actual medical problems. It’s possible that if you become so scared and panicked that you begin to hyper-ventilate, then your asthma-afflicted lungs will naturally have some difficulty. Usually though, people suffering from panic attacks are simply so terrified that subtle changes in breathing and heart beat FEEL very exaggerated.
One of the most common things that frighten people having anxiety attacks is the overwhelming notion that they are about to have a heart attack. They seem to literally feel their heart practically beating its way out of the chest. In actuality, though, a heart attack almost never really occurs (at least no more often than the ordinary person gets a heart attack). The individual is simply experiencing heightened sense perceptions that typically accompany the fight-or-flight response, and don’t realize that they are actually just paying closer attention to their heartbeat than they ever would bother to ordinarily. Thus, their increased heart-rate seems to them to be many times more pronounced than it actually is.
Comments
Comment from J.G. Coleman
Time October 22, 2009 at 4:23 am
Panic attacks start when the fight-or-flight response of the body acts up uncontrollably, usually without any explicit cause. The actual attack sets in because this scares us tremendously and causes even further fear and anxiety to be generated, then the elevated level of anxiety scares us even further… and so on and so on… it’s a self-aggravating process that sort of automatically makes itself stronger over a very short period of time by ‘feeding back into ourselves’.
Panic attacks usually don’t cause actual medical problems. It’s possible that if you become so scared and panicked that you begin to hyper-ventilate, then your asthma-afflicted lungs will naturally have some difficulty. Usually though, people suffering from panic attacks are simply so terrified that subtle changes in breathing and heart beat FEEL very exaggerated.
One of the most common things that frighten people having anxiety attacks is the overwhelming notion that they are about to have a heart attack. They seem to literally feel their heart practically beating its way out of the chest. In actuality, though, a heart attack almost never really occurs (at least no more often than the ordinary person gets a heart attack). The individual is simply experiencing heightened sense perceptions that typically accompany the fight-or-flight response, and don’t realize that they are actually just paying closer attention to their heartbeat than they ever would bother to ordinarily. Thus, their increased heart-rate seems to them to be many times more pronounced than it actually is.
References :
Comment from J.D.
Time October 22, 2009 at 4:17 am
if u have asthma it will start an attack.
a panic/anxiety attack can give ur body all kinds of damage. my mom used to have them when i was young-it messed up her heart n the pills to prevent them messed up her liver. put a tight rubber band around ur wrist when u feel one comin on-snap it til it hurts. the nerves will relax from the chem from ur brain.
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