Question

Darcy is sitting at her desk in her office one day when, without warning, her heart begins racing rapidly, she has a sensation of being “out of her body,” and she experiences dulled vision and hearing, rapid breathing, and sweating. She thinks she is having a heart attack. Nothing she is doing seems to have caused such an episode. Her symptoms MOST resemble ______.
(A) a panic attack
(B) generalized anxiety disorder
(C) agoraphobia
(D) dissociative amnesia

Answer 1

The correct answer is A. A panic attack

Explanation:

In psychology, a panic attack refers to a short period (around 30 minutes) in which individuals experience sudden, abrupt and intense fear, this can be caused by a specific trigger or occur without any identifiable cause. This occurs with symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, feeling dizzy or weak, sweating, having breathing difficulties and feeling a loss of control. Besides this, panic attacks different from anxiety disorders because anxiety feelings and fear occur all the time and from agoraphobia because this occurs in places the individual perceives as difficult to escape from.

Considering this, in the case of Darcy her symptoms resemble a panic attack, because the anxiety and fear appear with no reason, instead of linked to a phobia or a regular condition. Also, she experiences symptoms such as feeling dizzy or faint, sweating and losing control that only last during a short time or episode.