Lieze I really do think you're ok - we're probably all experiencing panic attacks in similar and different ways. The important thing is that sharing our experience breaks the isolation of it. This is my experience (in grisly detail). For me, at the beginning of a panic attack my heart races - the onset is very rapid. During my first panic attack my heart rate was so high that I recall thinking that my heart was barely pumping - it was next to useless - I had a feeling of suffocation - I couldn't get any oxygen - my throat closed over and I was unable to speak - I was gasping for breath. My clearest recollection of my first panic attack is of standing in a crowded room with people staring at me with a mixture of curiosity and contempt. In particular, I remember the pale eyes of one man who was staring at me intently, but not moving to help me. When my heart rate slowed, I felt faint, light-headed and exhausted - as though I had run a marathon (I guess my heart HAD run a marathon). I was much sicker in the couple of days afterwards - much, much more fatigued. And, of course, crushed and humiliated. I remember crying through most of the night afterwards, then getting up in the morning, putting on my lipstick and going back to work. This pattern has been repeated many, many times - the racing heart, suffocation, inability to speak, gasping for breath, being viewed as a basket case (and feeling like one), crying all night and picking myself up in the morning and going back. I haven't had a panic attack now for more than six months - not because I worked out how to stop them (I haven't - I've tried many techniques and approaches, but nothing stopped them or reduced their frequency or severity), but because I stopped resisting - I have an agreement at work that I will no longer be placed under the conditions that trigger my attacks. I'm also managing my dysautonomia better now - this has had a bigger impact than any of the techniques and approaches I tried over many years. Lieze, I think we're all ok.