I had learned that panic attacks were intense anxiety attacks that usually have some triggering mechaism (an event or stimulus) that elicits them and can result in difficulty breathing, sweating, and heart palpitations. However, people, doctors, and other therapists diagnose other anxiety attacks as panic attacks, and I am not sure it makes a difference. Both can be debiitating and people are often not very perceptive, except about their own feelings. They know they have a problem, but they do not know why. I am often told that people don't know why they have the feelings that they do, maybe they are embarrassed by their reasons. It makes help them difficult.