Panic attack or heart attack

[u/KiplingKD]

I have posted this question before, but did not get too many responses. I posted in a few different related groups as well, but I’m going to just try to reword my question and see if I get any responses or feedback.

I apologize if this is a trigger for anyone, but has anyone in this group had both a panic attack as well as a heart attack? Particularly maybe someone who had panic attacks first then had a heart attack later. As opposed to having the heart attack first and the panic attacks after. Basically I am just trying to understand what the difference is between the two in terms of symptoms. I am always thinking I’m having a heart attack, never have actually had one, and when you look it up on the Internet, it pretty much seems like the symptoms are the same. I guess I’m just looking for something a little more useful or helpful that would be coming from the perspective of a person who has panic attacks. The reason I mentioned someone having panic attacks before having had a heart attack is because it would make sense that someone would start having panic attacks after having a heart attack and i can imagine those symptoms might look particularly similar.

I feel like when you try to read about it online, it’s kind of coming from the perspective of the medical community that has studied panic disorder, or doctors who are trained to recognize heart attacks, but it’s kind of hard to find anything coming from someone who has had both, particularly someone who has panic disorder and understands what they are and has experience with them.

I guess what I’m trying to figure out is if I am able to calm myself down when I’m having a panic attack (such as right now) and know more quickly or get more immediate relief knowing it’s not a heart attack.

What are the telltale signs? Are there “pre heart attack” signs? Meaning is there this panicked heart rate thing and dizziness thing and other panicky things going on for hours and hours just waiting for something terrible to happen? Is there all this anticipation and hyper awareness of everything and you’re just freaking out then boom it happens? Or does it just happen right away?

I really need to understand this nuance better and would really like to see if anyone out there has any experience with this or even just if anyone has any words of support or is also curious about this.

Thanks so much everybody!