A Panic Attack is an intense state of fear that occurs for no apparent reason and is characterized by the following symptoms, though you only need to experience four of them to classify your condition as a panic attack:

-Shortness of breath or smothering sensation.
-Dizziness, unsteady feelings, or faintness.
-Accelerated heart rate.
-Trembling or Shacking.
-Numbness or tingling sensations in fingers, toes or lips.
-Chest pain.
-Flushes or chills.
-Fear of going crazy.
-Fear of becoming seriously ill.
-Sweating
-Choking
-Nausea
-Feelings of unreality.

If you experience an attack with fewer than four of the above symptoms is called a limited symptom attack. Panic attacks have different time frames, they can build gradually over a period of several minutes or hours or strike very suddenly. While they can last from a few minutes to several days, most usually don't last more than half an hour.

When anxiety or panic is felt regardless of where one is, it is called spontaneous anxiety or spontaneous panic, depending upon the degree of intensity. If the anxiety or panic occurs only in a particular situation , it is called situational or phobic anxiety or panic. If anxiety or panic is triggered by simply thinking of a particular situation , then this is called anticipatory anxiety or anticipatory panic.

People with anxiety-related problems often feel that they are alone and are the only ones that suffer form this problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to the National Institute of Mental Health anxiety disorders are the most common mental-health problems in the United States. During any given six months, about 9% or 16 million people in the country will suffer from any of the known anxiety-related problems. Also, during the ocurse of their lives, anxiety-related problems will affect about 14.6% or 26 million people. From this it is very clear that anxiety problems are not rare but quite common in the United States population.