Each year, one in 20 Americans will be diagnosed with panic disorder [source: National Alliance on Mental Illness]. That means millions of people every year experience repeated attacks of fear in response to ordinary situations. What's that like? Severe panic attacks can actually look a lot like heart attacks: pounding heart, dizziness, chest pain, and ... you guessed it, sweating. That same sympathetic nervous system that gets activated during a heart attack and makes you sweat does the exact same thing to your body during a panic attack.
Given that panic disorder causes attacks that come out of the blue, people with the condition live in continual fear of an impending attack. But some sweat-inducing panic attacks do come from a direct cause. We'll tell you about those in a second.