What's The Difference Between An Anxiety Attack And A Panic Attack?

Do you ever feel like your body is betraying you in the middle of an important meeting?

One minute you're presenting your quarterly results with confidence, the next your heart is racing like you've just sprinted up ten flights of stairs, and you're wondering if everyone can see the sweat beading on your forehead. You excuse yourself to the bathroom, splash cold water on your face, and think, "Was that a panic attack? An anxiety attack? What the hell just happened to me?"

You're not alone in this confusion. As a hypnotherapist who specializes in helping high-achieving women transform their anxiety into unstoppable confidence, I've heard the question, "What's the difference between anxiety attacks and panic attacks?" a few times from my clients. And honestly? The distinction matters less than you think. But understanding what's happening in your body matters immensely.

What's The Difference Between An Anxiety Attack And A Panic Attack?

"Anxiety attack" isn't actually a clinical term. It's become common language for what we experience, but technically, we're talking about panic attacks and generalized anxiety episodes.

Panic attacks are like lightning strikes – intense, sudden, and typically peak within 10 minutes. Your body floods with adrenaline as if you're facing a life-threatening situation, even though you're just sitting in a conference room. Symptoms include:

• Racing heart or palpitations

• Sweating or chills

• Trembling or shaking

• Shortness of breath

• Chest pain or discomfort

• Nausea

• Dizziness or feeling faint

• Fear of losing control or dying

  
  

Anxiety episodes (what people call "anxiety attacks") tend to build more gradually and can last much longer, sometimes hours or even days. It's like having a smoke detector that won't stop beeping. You feel:

• Persistent worry or dread

• Muscle tension

• Restlessness or feeling on edge

• Difficulty concentrating

• Irritability

• Sleep problems

• Physical symptoms like headaches or stomach issues

  
  

Whether you're experiencing sudden panic or persistent anxiety, your nervous system is trying to protect you from a threat that isn't actually there. Your body is conducting high-frequency energy that hasn't learned proper expression yet.

How Do I Know If I Am Having A Panic Attack Or Anxiety Attack?

The key difference is intensity and timeline. If you feel like you're having a heart attack, can't breathe, and feel completely out of control – and this peaks quickly then subsides – that's likely a panic attack. If you've been feeling wound up, worried, and physically tense for days or weeks, that's more of an anxiety episode.

But honestly? It's best if you stop trying to diagnose yourself and start asking better questions:

• What was I thinking about right before this started?

• What's my body trying to tell me?

• How can I honor this energy instead of fighting it?

  
  

Remember, thoughts are not real. Your panic and anxiety are your body responding to thoughts and perceived threats, not actual danger.

What's Worse, Panic Attacks Or Anxiety Attacks?

This is like asking whether lightning or thunder is worse. They're different expressions of the same storm system. Some of my clients prefer panic attacks because "at least they're over quickly." Others find chronic anxiety more manageable because it doesn't have that terrifying "I'm dying" quality.

What's actually worse is believing that either one means you're broken.

Your sensitivity isn't a disorder. It's advanced perception technology you haven't learned to use yet. Society has taught highly sensitive women to see their intensity as a problem instead of recognizing it as the superpower it actually is.

Woman Panic Attack Symptoms

Women's panic attacks can present differently than the "classic" symptoms you read about (which are typically based on male experiences). Women can experience:

• Nausea and digestive issues

• Dizziness and feeling faint

• Shortness of breath without chest pain

• Tingling in hands and feet

• Feeling disconnected from reality

• Intense fear of embarrassment or judgment

• Hot flashes or sudden temperature changes

  
  

Women's panic attacks frequently coincide with hormonal changes, especially during perimenopause. Your body is already adjusting to new energy frequencies, and if you haven't learned to conduct your natural intensity, it can feel overwhelming.

What if your panic attacks might actually be frequency upgrades your nervous system hasn't learned to integrate yet? What if that electrical energy coursing through your body is trying to activate something powerful within you?

What Causes Panic Attacks

The traditional answer focuses on triggers: caffeine, stress, lack of sleep, certain medications, or traumatic experiences. And yes, these can all contribute.

Panic attacks often occur when there's a disconnect between who you're meant to be and who you're pretending to be. Your authenticity is trying to break through, and your nervous system is responding to the energetic dissonance.

Many of my clients discover their panic attacks started when they:

• Took a promotion that felt misaligned

• Stayed in relationships that required them to dim their light

• Ignored their intuition about major life decisions

• Began living according to others' expectations instead of their own truth

  
  

Your panic isn't random. It's intelligence. It's your inner wisdom saying, "This path isn't right for you." The question isn't how to stop the panic; it's how to listen to what it's telling you.

What Is The 3-3-3 Rule For Anxiety?

The 3-3-3 rule is a simple grounding technique that uses the following steps: identify 3 things you can see, 3 sounds you can hear, and move 3 parts of your body. It's designed to bring you back to the present moment.

I'm also going to give you another tool – what I call the TRU Method:

T - Thoughts: Ask yourself, "What thoughts am I consciously or unconsciously having about this situation?"

R - Real?: "Are these thoughts based in reality? How real is this threat?" If not real, the thought is useless. Change it. Aim for neutrality and common sense.

U - Useful?: "Is this thought useful to me right now?" Likely the answer is no. Time to change the thought.

After challenging your thoughts, decide what you want to feel in advance. Don't just try to "calm down." Choose your emotional state: excitement, focus, clarity, confidence. Then use your self-talk to get there. This is what high-functioning people do.

The fastest way out of panic or anxiety:

1. BREATHE in the square pattern 10 times: In for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4

2. CHALLENGE the thought: What's actually happening right now?

3. DECIDE what you want to feel and talk yourself there

4. CHANGE your physical state: shower, walk, cold water, movement

   
   

Remember: you're not managing your anxiety. You're conducting your energy. You're not calming down. You're powering up in a different frequency.

The Truth About What's Happening To You

Whether you call it a panic attack or anxiety attack, what's really happening is that you're a high-frequency woman trying to operate in a low-frequency world. Your sensitivity picks up on energetic misalignments. Your intensity contains intelligence that society has taught you to suppress.

What if, instead of trying to fix yourself, you learned to honor your sensitivity as the advanced perception technology it actually is?

I don't help women calm down. I help them embody their truth. I teach them to alchemize that anxious energy into magnetic personal power and authentic presence.

Your panic attacks and anxiety aren't proof that you're too much. They're proof that you're operating at a frequency most people haven't accessed yet. The question isn't whether you're having a panic attack or anxiety attack. The question is...

Are you ready to transform that electrical energy into the unstoppable confidence you were meant to embody?

Share a lightning bolt if you're ready to stop managing your intensity and start conducting it.

You're not alone, and there's a reason this is happening now. Your authenticity is trying to break free, and that energy you're feeling? It's not your enemy. It's your power source waiting to be properly channeled.

CURIOUS ABOUT ANXIETY SUPPORT? LET'S CHAT.