Q. I was wondering has anyone ever reported feeling the symptoms of what they perceived as an oncoming heart attack or stroke or cancer before starting to panic about it?

Example:
I get pains in my lower back and in the middle of my chest, then shooting pains down both my arms, and a discomfort in my chest while breathing. That is when I start to think is there anything wrong here. Can these be signs of an oncoming heart attack or something worse.

From what I have read, people have the thoughts and then they manifest them into symptoms of pain and discomfort. I'm also wondering if people that suffer from panic attacks worry about having more than one kind of physical attack--such as heart attacks this week, and next week worrying about having cancer, and the following week a brain tumor. I would really appreciate any information you can send me.

A. People with panic disorder do have various fears which can swap and change not just week-to-week, but sometimes day-to-day. These do include fears of having a heart attack, brain tumor, going insane, etc. What isn't acknowledged is many people do have symptoms before the actual panic. The symptoms can be so severe they bring on the panic.

If you go into our website:

1. into our research section there is a study titled 'An Analysis of an uncued panic attack' you will see the various and common symptoms people experience before they panic. These symptoms appear to happen as a result of dissociation, that is people have the ability to enter into self-induced trance states but don't recognize that they do so, and as a result, panic at the sensations.
2. If you go into our question and answer section there is a letter under 'Symptoms' which is very similar to yours and there is a detailed answer to the question.
3. If you go into Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders go down and click on Dissociation and this will give you an explanation of this phenomena.

We teach people to learn to see how the dissociative symptoms happen and we teach people how to work and manage the ensuing panic and anxiety by managing their thoughts. It is our thoughts which create 99% of the ongoing problem. When people don't dissociate, it is their thoughts which trigger the panic, although they may not be aware of what they are thinking.

Some people do panic at various body sensations. They may be unwell for whatever reason and worry about what is happening and this can also result in panic.

next: Symptoms First ~ back to: Questions and Anwers Table of Contents