Hi, can you explain the difference between switching and a panic attack? I tried to explain what switching is like for me by showing the person a switching simulator, but they said the video looks like a panic attack, and I'm confused.
that person may be plural
switching and panic attacks are different and basically unrelated experiences that can sometimes trigger eachother or happen at once in people who experience both. a switch is, as basically as i can explain it, a swap between states of identity or mind. this can be triggered by anything or not triggered at all. common symptoms for this are dissociation (feeling detached from your body, surroundings, and self), spacing out, blacking out, loss of bodily control, headaches, and dizziness, but it's also common for this to happen with no symptoms at all. one state of identity goes, another comes in. this can be positive, negative, neutral, what have you.
outwardly, switching tends to look like someone is falling asleep, spacing out, or sometimes even having a seizure. a lot of times it's also noted that a person's posture, mannerisms, voice, etc will suddenly change, although this isn't always the case. switching can last anywhere from a second to several hours or even days, maybe even months depending on the system. the most commonly stressful part of it when it is a negative experience is that it's disorienting, and in some cases causes severe amnesia
panic attacks are a sudden, often untriggered (though they can happen if someone is already scared for any reason too) descent into terror. the person in question will often without warning begin reacting as if they were more scared than they've ever been in their lives. common symptoms include shaking, hyperventalating, low oxygen symptoms as a result of the hyperventalating, high pulse, crying, sweating, nausea, a feeling of impending doom, psychosomatic illness or pain, and a feeling like you're dying or dead. it's usually very difficult to calm someone who is having a panic attack down, but in most cases they're better with supportive company. the onset of these symptoms happens rapidly, for instance for us we experience a drop in our blood pressure and heartrate before they suddenly spike and the rest of the symptoms basically come crashing in from there. another person we knew would suddenly gasp for air as if they'd just lost all oxygen in seconds
panic attacks are almost always a negative experience for the person having them. outwardly, they can look very obvious or more subtle (someone shaking, breathing heavily, clearly sick or distressed), but they usually impede whatever the person was doing before the attack. they tend to last around 5 to 30 minutes, although in many sufferers they can come with a "train" or "rolling" effect in which multiple panic attacks happen back to back until the person calms down, which can make it seem like one very long one. these can also look and feel similar to meltdowns in autistic people and can indeed co-occur, though meltdowns are better known for being triggered by overstimulation
i hope that helps! at the end of the day, these are all very medicalized definitions of things that can be very muddy or have a lot of overlap, so it's not like someone needs to constantly sort out the specifics of what is a switch and what is a panic attack, but it can be helpful if someone has both and they only sometimes coincide
