Panic Attack vs Anxiety Attack: What's the Difference?

To my understanding, the main difference between the two is severity. Panic attacks can be shorter than anxiety attacks but much more intense, which is sometimes why they are mistaken for heart attacks. Like someone said earlier, anxiety attacks happen in response to a perceived threat. In my experience, things like going to my college classes has been that perceived threat, and the anxiety builds up over time until it’s pretty bad. I would categorize that as an anxiety attack. When I’ve had a panic attack, though, it came on more suddenly and was much more intense and had more physical symptoms. However, after it ended, I did feel exhausted and on edge well into the next day. Kind of like a panic attack hangover, which I’ve heard is pretty common from other people.

In aggreement with the previous comments quite often anxiety attacks will happen during a stress event but a panic attack can happen after the stressor has gone or with no trigger at all and when you least expect it. Many panic attacks have been mistaken for heart attacks because you can suffer similar symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pains or tightness in the chest and all other kinds symptoms.

Panic attacks are short lived, doesnt last longer than a few hoursm anxiety is slow progressing, slowly getting worse. You stay in that state for hours to days. Anxiety attacks always has a trigger while panic attacks dont always have one

according to google panic attacks are much more severe and typically occur without a trigger, and anxiety attacks are a response to perceived threat. so, if true, this means panic attacks are a mental health thing, and anxiety attacks aren’t