The symptoms of an anxiety panic attack can vary from person to person depending on the severity of the attack. I you recently had an experience that you can not explain and you are wondering if you had a panic attack; check out this list of possible symptoms:

• Shortness of breath
• Rapid heart beat
• Excessive sweating
• Difficulty breathing
• Nausea
• Hot flashes or chills
• Tense joints and muscles
• A feeling that you are out of control
• A fear that you are going crazy
• Dizziness
• An overall feeling that something awful is going to happen

Many people who have anxiety panic attacks confuse them with heart attacks and will call 911 or present themselves at the ER. 

If you have experienced these symptoms, and you've seen your doctor to rule out a physical problem, then you may have had an anxiety panic attack.

First of all, don't worry, you can handle it. 

Anxiety is a natural and needed part of the human makeup. It warns us of danger, can make us more acute thinkers and goads us on to perform better. Your panic attack was simply anxiety that was uncontrolled. You reacted to a danger that was not there but was perceived by your brain.

When the brain perceives a danger, depending on how severe it is, it will send a message to activate the flight or fight response. The body will then add adrenalin to the blood stream and that starts a chain of events that readies the body for flight or fight.

 In extreme cases, say being attacked by a mugger, the body produces enough adrenalin to get the heart beating rapidly and the lungs breathing quickly to get oxygenated blood to the muscle groups that we will need to defend ourselves. In a less extreme situation, say stage freight, less adrenalin is pumped but you still feel the effect. Sometimes this is called jitters.

We've all had anxiety. Remember the first time you went swimming. If you were like me you were scared to death. But as we repeat the experience we learn that there really is nothing to fear if you know how to swim.

The same concept applies to panic attacks.

The brain is triggered to send a message to the body that a danger is imminent. This danger is unreal. Nobody knows for certain how it is triggered. If however you can accept that it is just a panic attack and will pass, you can better control the experience. Also, if you can interrupt the message using a number of distraction techniques, the attack will stop almost instantly.

Once you know you can control the attack, just like knowing how to swim, your fear of the attack will disappear.

And here's the cool part. If you don't fear another attack, you won't get one.

So if you think you've had an anxiety panic attack, it is simply a matter of learning how to "swim" your way through to a fear free life.