Panic Attack Vs. Anxiety Attack: How to Know the Difference

When overwhelming fear or distress sets in, it can be hard to tell whether you’re experiencing a panic attack or an anxiety attack. While the terms are often used interchangeably, they’re distinct experiences with different symptoms, durations, and triggers, and they can feel confusing in the moment. Both are rooted in anxiety, a condition that affects over 19% of adults in the United States [2].

At Clear Behavioral Health, we provide evidence-based treatment options, including individual therapy and group therapy, medication management, and holistic approaches designed to support you through anxiety-related conditions. Our experienced clinical team works collaboratively to guide you through recovery, helping you reconnect with your body and mind across a range of care settings.

Understanding Anxiety Attacks 

What Does an Anxiety Attack Feel Like? 

Anxiety attacks can present in varying intensities as well as different symptoms. When experiencing an anxiety attack, it can manifest physically and emotionally. Some common signs to look out for: 

• Physical symptoms: sweating, trembling, racing heart, difficulty breathing 
• Emotional Symptoms: dread, overwhelming worry, detached from reality 

These symptoms can have a gradual onset and can stay active for a long time. These tend to be triggered by work stress, familial conflict, financial stress, big life changes, and romantic complications.  

What are the 5 Warning Signs of Anxiety? 

Anxiety is a mental health condition that can be debilitating and overwhelming to manage when it worsens. The top 5 warning signs of anxiety are [1]:  

1. Physical tension: You may feel anxiety in your body through tightened muscles, clenching hands or teeth, holding your breath, and similar symptoms.
2. Sleep disturbances: This includes both being unable to fall asleep due to excessive worry, or oversleeping as a form of avoiding anxiety symptoms.
3. Difficulty concentrating: You may be unable to concentrate on important tasks related to work, school, timelines, and relationship responsibilities. 
4. Persistent worry: Feeling worried or an impending sense of doom constantly is a sign of anxiety that can significantly impact your life.
5. Intrusive thoughts: Having intrusive or dark thoughts can magnify your anxiety and create panic in your daily life.

Related: Living With Anxiety

Understanding Panic Attacks 

When a panic attack surfaces, it’s different than an anxiety attack due to the intensity of the symptoms. Panic attacks tend to happen suddenly and reach peak intensity within just a few minutes. Unexpected panic attacks are common; however, some important symptoms that you are having a panic attack are: 

• Shortness of breath 
• Dizziness  
• Heart palpitations 
• Fear of dying 
• Hyperventilating  
• The feeling of being closed in 
• Intense overwhelm of your senses 

Most panic attacks last anywhere from five minutes to twenty minutes. If you experience frequent or recurring panic attacks, you could develop a panic disorder, which can lead to intense anxiety and worry about future panic attacks and cause significant changes in how you function daily.

Panic Attack vs Anxiety Attack: Key Differences 

When understanding the difference between panic attacks and anxiety attacks, the biggest indicators are the onset, duration, and triggers for each.  

Onset:  

• Anxiety attacks build gradually  
• Panic attacks arise suddenly 

Duration:  

• Anxiety attacks last anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour
• Panic attacks tend to be brief, but intense feelings of panic, lasting for 5-30 minutes

Triggers:  

• Anxiety attacks normally have identifiable causes  
• Panic attacks can occur spontaneously and without a noticeable cause

The main difference is that panic attacks are considered to be more severe but are shorter than anxiety attacks overall.  

Immediate Coping Strategies for Anxiety and Panic Attacks

How to Calm a Panic Attack? 

Immediate techniques that can help calm an anxiety or panic attack include:  

• Grounding techniques: Focus on an object or items around you to help distract your mind from the panic attack. This can help calm you down if you feel like you’re losing control. Additionally, moving your body with a light walk or stretching can be beneficial for anxiety attack symptoms.
• Deep breathing exercises: Inhaling through your nose and blowing it out through your mouth slowly can help calm your nervous system down. Try the box breathing method, which is breathing in for 4 seconds, holding it for 4 seconds, breathing out for 4 seconds, and holding it for 4 seconds, repeating until you notice yourself calming down. This method has been proven to help regulate your nervous system.

What is the 3-3-3 Rule for Anxiety? 

When experiencing an anxiety attack, using the 3-3-3 rule can help alleviate the severity and length of the attack. This strategy involves

1. Name 3 things you see
2. Identify 3 sounds you hear
3. Move 3 body parts

This technique helps ground you in the present moment, so you aren’t stuck in your head, focused on your anxious thoughts. 

How to Deal with an Anxiety Attack? 

Here are some of the best ways to manage an anxiety attack when the symptoms start:  

• Accept your current feelings – Curiously talk to yourself about what you are currently feeling, and why you may feel anxious, and accept those feelings in the moment. Remind yourself that your feelings are valid and temporary.
• Regulate your breathing – Use the box method to help regulate your breathing and calm your anxiety in the moment.
• Use mindfulness techniques – Practicing mindfulness techniques such as the box method, the 3-3-3 method, and a body scan meditation will all shift your attention away from your anxiety and back into your body.
• Seek support – Reach out to a mental health provider such as our team at Clear Behavioral Health for support and coping strategies to manage anxiety attacks moving forward.

Learning how to manage anxiety attacks can be life-changing, especially with how overwhelming they can be.  

Anxiety Disorder in Teens

Most teenagers experience anxiety, especially because of developmental factors like puberty, social changes within school, academic pressure, and the introduction of romantic connections. Symptoms of anxiety differ slightly in teenagers, usually by presenting with irritability, difficulty concentrating, frequent headaches, and excessive worry.

Anxiety can impact their academics and social relationships, causing them to withdraw and isolate, and have a massive decline in their academics. Clear Behavioral Health has specialized teen programs to get professional help within a structured program for teen anxiety. The program will work on offering teens coping skills, insight on how to navigate anxiety, and unpacking the cause of the anxiety in the first place.

Related: Overthinking to Overcoming: How Teen Anxiety Treatment Helps You Thrive

How Do I Beat Anxiety? 

You beat anxiety by learning to manage it, not by eliminating it. Effective treatment combines therapy, lifestyle changes, and, in some cases, medication.

To properly manage anxiety and minimize symptoms, you must combine treatment options. Therapy, lifestyle changes, and medication such as serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) can all be provided in tandem to treat anxiety and help you feel more in control.

When in therapy, you’ll engage in various evidence-based treatment approaches like exposure therapy and mindfulness interventions, and learn healthy coping skills. These approaches help you build resilience, challenge anxious thoughts, and develop practical coping skills.

Outside of therapy, supporting your mental health through regular exercise, good sleep, healthy nutrition, and stress-reducing habits like meditation or breathwork can make a big difference. Beating anxiety is a process, but with the right support and tools, it is manageable.

Related: Coping Skills for Anxiety: 10 Strategies to Help You Find Relief

Clear Behavioral Health’s Comprehensive Anxiety Treatment 

At Clear Behavioral Health, we offer various levels of treatment programs for your specific anxiety treatment needs.  

• Inpatient mental health programs: Our inpatient programs offer 24/7 support for severe anxiety and other mental disorders, or if you find yourself struggling with a mental health crisis. You’ll be living at the facility while receiving treatment. This is considered an intensive intervention for your anxiety symptoms with therapeutic modalities, holistic methods, and medication management if necessary.  
• Outpatient mental health programs: The outpatient programs include everything our inpatient programs offer, but you do not live at the facility. You stay at home while attending treatment sessions multiple times a week. This is a great option for people who may have a less severe form of anxiety. 
• Virtual IOP: If you feel your schedule, location, or accessibility cannot accommodate an in-person program, you can always join our virtual IOP for anxiety. This offers great therapeutic modalities like our other programs and is completely online and accessible throughout California.  
• Teen mental health programs: Our anxiety treatment programs for teens follow the same model as our other levels of treatment in a teen-centered approach, involving age-appropriate care with family involvement.  

Evidence-Based Treatment Approach 

When it comes to our mental health professionals, we have licensed therapists and psychiatrists who will work with you through your symptoms. Additionally, we have multiple locations across the Los Angeles area that accept most major health insurance providers for covered or minimal-cost care.  

When to Seek Professional Help for Anxiety

If you feel like your anxiety is no longer manageable and is interfering with work, school, relationships, and your daily life – it’s time to seek professional help.

Identifying if your anxiety episodes seem to be more frequent and increasing in severity, with the addition of anxiety attacks or panic attacks, might be signs that your anxiety needs outside support. Self-help strategies can work for some people, but if they don’t, finding coping tools from a mental health professional will make your life easier and your anxiety manageable.

Don’t Panic, Attack Your Anxiety Today

The good news is that anxiety attacks and panic attacks are highly treatable. One of the most important things you can do is to be sure you get the support you need to manage them.

Clear Behavioral Health offers comprehensive and evidence-based care that can help you improve your anxiety symptoms. With proper support, healing is possible.

Call Clear Behavioral Health now to learn more about our anxiety treatment programs in the Los Angeles, CA, area, including our convenient location in Van Nuys, CA, to get your anxiety in check and work towards gaining your life back.  

References: 

1. Panic attacks and panic disorder – Diagnosis and treatment – Mayo Clinic. (n.d.). https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/panic-attacks/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20376027 
2. Any anxiety disorder. (n.d.). National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder