Panic Attacks Disorder

2 Responses to “Has anyone every had a panic attack where your left arm and other limbs get tingly?”

1. Trahern B Says:
   June 11th, 2009 at 10:19 am

   Panic attacks can cause a limb to go tingly because you are hyperventalating. In other words, not getting enough oxygen into the system and it makes a limb go numb.

   One can feel like the room is spinning, a feeling of paranoia, shortness of breath, feel like a heart attack… well.. here’s a list that a medical site claims.

   Rapid heart rate
   Sweating
   Trembling
   Shortness of breath
   Hyperventilation
   Chills
   Hot flashes
   Nausea
   Abdominal cramping
   Chest pain
   Headache
   Dizziness
   Faintness
   Tightness in your throat
   Trouble swallowing
   A sense of impending death

   My mother suffered horrible panic attacks for years. It’s something you can mentally work on. Destress your life, exercise and eat better all helps.

2. kureyon Says:
   June 12th, 2009 at 7:44 pm

   Yes panic attacks commonly cause tingling and numbness. It happens when you hyperventilate - maybe you felt like you couldn’t breathe properly yet you were breathing really deeply.

   When you breathe out, you get rid of carbon dioxide. If you breathe faster, you get rid of more carbon dioxide than usual, so less is left in your blood. This changes the pH of your blood - it gets more alkaline. This then has lots of other effects, one of which is to make you very tingly and dizzy and generally feel weird. This is why people are sometimes told to breathe into a paper bag - they breathe back in some of the carbon dioxide they just breathed out, so they don’t get rid of som much.