{"id":622104,"date":"2026-10-06T08:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622104\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T08:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:42:10","slug":"how-to-recognise-a-panic-attack-and-help-someone-through-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622104\/","title":{"rendered":"How to recognise a panic attack and help someone through it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Also known as anxiety attacks, panic attacks can affect anyone, regardless of age, background or whether they have a history of anxiety. <\/p>\n

TV Presenter Alison Hammond, from Birmingham, recently spoke out about suffering a panic attack on live TV<\/a> while filming an episode of ITV’s This Morning, highlighting just how sudden and frightening the experience can be.<\/p>\n

According to the MIND mental health charity, panic attacks are an extreme anxiety response. They can develop quickly, and come with very intense symptoms. <\/p>\n

These are both physical and mental.<\/p>\n

Gwinnett, from Wolverhampton, said people who experience them often feel like their heart is racing, they feel a tightness in their chest and struggle to catch their breath.<\/p>\n

“It’s very frequently misinterpreted as a heart attack,” Gwinnett said.<\/p>\n

Because the symptoms can closely resemble those of a heart problem, she said people experiencing them for the first time should seek urgent medical attention.<\/p>\n

“If this is the first time you’ve experienced these symptoms, dial 999 and get yourself to Accident and Emergency as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

People who regularly experience panic attacks and recognise the symptoms may be able to treat it as a panic attack in the first instance.<\/p>\n

However, Gwinnett said any episode that feels different from previous attacks should be treated seriously.<\/p>\n

“If the symptoms feel different, get yourself to hospital.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Also known as anxiety attacks, panic attacks can affect anyone, regardless of age, background or whether they have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-622104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}