The symptoms experienced clearly vary from person to person, but I also think they vary from attack to attack.
For example, I had my first panic attacks when I was about eight years old. In those days, I had chest pain and hyperventilated. I went to various doctors, only to be told I was perfectly healthy and fine after God knows how many tests.
I had those on an off since, varying from simple hyperventilation and nausea, to one of the worst when I was 14. With that one, I felt like I was falling off of a tight rope. My stomach twisted and flipped, feeling like it was getting wringed out. I was only on the third floor, but it felt like vertigo. Black spots worked their way into my vision, a cold sweat danced across my forehead, and the room began spinning as if I was in the midst of some sort of carousel. Sure, I did take artistic license in describing it, but those were the symptoms I felt with that particular one.
The last panic attack I had occurred after my best friend's mother passed away. I couldn't stop shaking or crying, and pins and needles enveloped my entire body, from my fingertips and toes to my ab muscles and chest.
With all of them, I had trouble collecting my thoughts and felt terribly apprehensive.
I'm not sure that there's ever such a thing as a "normal" panic attack. I would certainly say there are common symptoms (i.e. hyperventilation, panicked thoughts, dizziness, nausea, etc.) but I don't know if they're always identical.
