A sudden pounding heart, suffocating tightness in the chest, numbness throughout the body, cold hands and feet, accompanied by the extreme fear that 'I am going to die soon'. When such symptoms peak without warning within 10 minutes and then subside, it is called a panic attack. And if these attacks recur, and daily life is disrupted because of anticipatory anxiety over another potential attack, it can be diagnosed as panic disorder. Modern medicine explains a panic attack as a malfunction of our brain's alarm system.
In particular, the brain's amygdala is a core region that detects threats and triggers fear reactions, and patients with panic disorder tend to show excessive activation of this amygdala. Even in situations that are not actually dangerous, the brain sends an emergency fight-or-flight response signal throughout the entire body, just as if one had encountered a wild beast. At this time, the sympathetic nerve within the autonomic nervous system becomes extremely hyperactive, producing physical symptoms such as a rapidly beating heart (palpitations), rapid breathing (dyspnea), and blood rushing to the muscles, causing cold hands and feet or numbness. Simultaneously, stress hormones like adrenaline and norepinephrine are excessively secreted, further amplifying the feeling of terror. As these processes proceed rapidly the moment we feel fear, it feels like an attack.
It is not simply due to stress. It is known to often develop through a complex combination of genetic factors, dysfunction in specific brain regions, and past trauma or chronic stress. Just as a car's horn sensor becomes overly sensitive and honks even in a gentle breeze, our body's danger detection system has become hypersensitive. Because it is easy to mistake these symptoms for physical problems, many people visit cardiology or pulmonology first, but in most cases, tests reveal nothing abnormal. Ultimately, emotional factors of anxiety and fear are manifested in an amplified state as physical symptoms. The important thing is to recognize that none of this is your fault, but rather a neurological reaction of the brain, and to seek professional help.
