A panic attack is a brief episode of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress. In scientific terms, panic attacks are thought to occur when the brain's normal mechanism for reacting to a threat � the so-called "fight or flight" response � gets �switched on� at the wrong time. Panic attacks usually last for a few minutes but may continue for much longer. Most panic attacks are worst between 10 and 30 minutes after they begin. The symptoms usually fade over the course of about an hour.

Usually, a first panic attack seems to come out of the blue. It might happen when you are dong something ordinary like driving a car, shopping, or going to work. Suddenly, you are overwhelmed by frightening and uncomfortable symptoms. Panic attacks usually take a person completely by surprise. One reason they are so devastating is that you can�t really predict when they will happen.

People who have experienced a panic attack have described how terrible and uncomfortable they feel, and the fear that they have some awful, life-threatening disease, or are "going crazy." People who are experiencing a first panic attack often go to the hospital emergency room because they think that they are going to die.

A person�s first panic attack often occurs during a time when they are under a lot stress, maybe from an overload of work or pressure, or from the loss of a family member or close friend. The attacks may also follow surgery, a serious accident, illness, or childbirth. Some chemicals may also trigger panic attacks, like too much caffeine, or cocaine or other stimulant drugs and medicines (such as the stimulants used in treating asthma).

Sometimes people who have never had a panic attack think that panic is just a matter of feeling nervous or anxious � the sort of feelings that everyone is familiar with. However, panic attacks are much worse than that. People who have experienced panic attacks describe experiences that are so overwhelming and terrifying that they really believe they are going to die, lose their minds, or be totally humiliated. These horrible things don't actually occur, but the chance seems very real to the person who is suffering a panic attack.