Difference Between Anxiety Attack Vs Heart Attack

Anxiety Attack Vs Heart Attack

Anxiety and chest pain are often related to each other which could result in an increased discomfort as well as fear. In fact, it might be unclear to figure out whether you are suffering from an anxiety attack or a heart attack. Thus, knowing the difference could help you to save your life. The symptoms of both panic attack, as well as heart attack, happen to be similar in nature. Thus, sometimes it makes really difficult to differentiate in between the two.

According to a heart hospital in Delhi, having a heart attack can cause a person to panic which could make the situation all the more confusing. If a person thinks he may be having a heart attack, he is required to seek emergency medical attention.

A panic attack is very common in people. According to studies, 2 to 3 percent of the population of the country experience panic disorder. Here are the following symptoms of a panic attack:

• Tingling in the hands
• Pain in the chest
• Shortness of breath
• Racing of the heart
• Sweating and shaking of the body.

Heart attack treatment is possible after looking into the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. Here are the symptoms of a heart attack different from a panic attack:

• Pain in the chest
• Shortness in the breath
• Nausea and vomiting
• Sweating

According to a heart hospital in Delhi, these two conditions may have overlapping symptoms and therefore you must know the difference in between the two in order to save your life.

How to spot the difference?

Knowing the difference between both the health conditions could be difficult in the first place, especially if a person has never experienced the symptoms of any of the conditions before. You can differentiate in between the two by concentrating on the following factors:

• Characteristics of the pain:

Chest pain is common in both anxiety attack and heart attack. However, during a panic attack, the chest pain is usually very sharp and the same exists only in between the chest. The chest pain in the heart attack resembles a pressure or a sensation similar to squeezing.

• Onset

The onset of the symptoms might also help a person know the difference between a panic attack and a heart attack. Although both the conditions could develop suddenly in the body without causing any warning, there are still some differences. Heart attacks could come on because of the physical exertion such as climbing the stairs, anxiety attack does not come on due to such reasons.

• Duration

The duration of symptoms of both the problems can also help you to distinguish between a heart attack and a panic attack. In most of the cases, a panic attack last for 20-30 minutes. During a heart attack, the symptoms tend to last a little longer and the same get worse over time. Chest pain that is caused during the problem can become worse in several minutes.

In both cases, the anxiety attack can never cause a heart attack on a person. The causes of an anxiety attack are totally different than that of a heart attack and both of them are different problems having common symptoms respectively.