you may feel with the onset of panic can make you certain you are about to faint. What is happening is that as a part of the “fight-or-flight” reaction the blood circulation to your brain is slightly reduced, most likely because you are breathing more rapidly.(4)
This is not dangerous and can be relieved by breathing slowly and regularly from your abdomen, preferably through you nose. This feeling can also be helped by taking the first opportunity you have to walk around a bit. Let the feelings of light-headedness rise and subside without fighting them. Because your heart is pumping harder and actually increasing your circulation, you are very unlikely to faint.
“I’m going to fall.”
A Panic Attack Cannot Cause You to Lose Your Balance
Sometimes you may feel quite dizzy when panic comes on. It may be that tension is affecting the semicircular canal system in your inner ear, which regulates your balance. For a few moments you may feel dizzy or it even may seem that things around you are spinning. Invariably this sensation will pass. It isn’t dangerous and very unlikely to be so strong that you’ll actually lose your balance.(1)
If sensations of pronounced dizziness persist for more than a few seconds, you may want to consult a doctor (preferably an otolaryngologist——an ear, nose, and throat doctor) to check if infection, allergies, or other disturbances might be affecting your inner ear.
“I won’t be able to walk”
You won’t fall when you feel “weak in the knees” during a Panic Attack
The adrenaline released during a panic attack can dilate the blood vessels in your legs, causing blood to accumulate in your leg muscles and not fully circulate. This can produce a sensation of weakness or “jelly legs,” to which you may respond with the fear that might fall or you won’t be able to walk. But this sensation is just that–a sensation–and your legs are as strong and able to carry you as ever.(5) They won’t give way! Just allow these trembling, weak sensations to pass and give your legs the chance to carry you where you need to go.
“I’m going crazy.”
You can’t go crazy during a Panic Attack.
Reduced blood ﬂow to your brain during a panic attack is due to arterial constriction, a normal consequence of rapid breathing. This can result in sensations of disorientation and a feeling of unreality that can be frightening.(1) If this sensation comes on, remind yourself that it’s simply due to a slight and temporary reduction of arterial circulation in your brain and does not have anything to do with “going crazy,” no matter how eerie or strange it may feel.
No one has ever gone crazy from a panic attack, even though the fear of doing so is common. As bad as they feel, sensations of unreality will eventually pass and are completely harmless.
People do not “go crazy” in a sudden or spontaneous way. Mental disorders involving behaviors that are labeled “crazy” (such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) develop very gradually over a period of years and do not arise from panic attacks. No one has ever started to hallucinate or hear voices during a panic attack.(6)
“I’m going to completely lose it”
A Panic Attack cannot cause you to lose control of yourself
Because of the intense reactions your body goes through during panic, it’s easy to imagine that you could “totally lose control.” But what does completely losing it mean? Becoming completely paralyzed? Acting out uncontrollably or running amok? There are no reported instances of this happening.
If anything, during panic your senses and awareness are heightened with respect to a single goal: escape. Running away or trying to run away are the only ways in which you would be likely to “act out” while panicking. Complete loss of control during panic attacks is simply a myth.
The first step in learning to cope with panic reactions is to recognize that they are not dangerous. Because the bodily reactions accompanying panic feel so intense, it’s easy to imagine them being harmful to your body. Yet in reality no danger exists.
The physiological reactions underlying panic are natural and protective. In 