Panic attacks and visual distortions?

[Iwillbwell]

Does anyone experience this when they feel panicky? Sometimes when I have a panic attack, I notice that some things look larger and stand out more. It's really scary because I feel like I'm loosing it. The other day, I was driving and all of a sudden I started to feel really anxious and overwhelmed with fear. Then everything around me looked bigger. Like the apartment buildings seemed so huge and the windows we standing out a lot more. Can anyone explain this?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Some of my clients experience something very like that.

I think it's caused by the same things that cause the panic attack in the first place.

Consider what happens in the course of a normal fight-flight reaction:

1. something happens in the distal external environment to cause an orienting response - a sound, a movement, a smell, etc. - this might be something dangerous so you need to pay attention to it - or it may be nothing
2. if the stimulus (sight, sound, odor, etc.) increases in intensity (gets closer or louder or stronger), you mind and body starts to prepare in case it turns out to be a threat to you
   • adrenaline is released and sent to the muscles
   • non-essential systems like digestion are slowed down to provide more resources to the brain and muscles
   • cortisol is released which has the effect of increasing perceptual alertness
3. as a result of item c above, all of your senses are heightened, more acute - you are hyperalert, hypervigilant, you notice small things in the environment aorund you that normally you'd ignore - your vision seems more clear and intense; your hearing is more acute

Now in a panic attack, you are not necessarily responding to a potential threat in the external environment but your mind and body is reacting as if you did.

That's why your perceptions change and things around you may seem different.

 

[forgetmenot]

What i feel is like everything is closing in on me. Like things are closer than they are Maybe that is what is happening in a way for you. It feels like things just jump out in front of your face. Anxiety does some strange things to the brain sometimes. Have you talked to you doctor about it at all.

 

[Iwillbwell]

Thanks for the explanation David. Violet, I have mentioned this to my doc and he says it's because of my anxiety. Despite this, I still feel like there's something else going on because I feel out of touch with reality. I experience depersonalization so often that it's like I'm in a dreaming when I'm awake.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I still feel like there's something else going on because I feel out of touch with reality. I experience depersonalization so often that it's like I'm in a dreaming when I'm awake.

Yes. That too is part of the exaggerated fight-flight reaction of panic disorder, again very likely because of the infusion of cortisol. Many of my clients experience that when anxious. Your doctor is correct. It's just the anxiety/panic. There's nothing else going on.