CoffeeTattoos

First off, I want to apologize for this post being rather short. I am currently dealing with a family matter that is preventing me from being in the correct headspace to really do too much writing right now. I will do by best to keep posting on Fridays, but things may be on the shorter side for a while.

Panic attacks are awful.

They’re the worst thing I can imagine. I’ve had a couple, and I can honestly say that I would not wish that on even my worst enemy. Well, there may be a few people I would. Panic attacks are really that bad.

My lovely friend Sarah Fader has written about living with panic disorder many times before. So, while I’m sure she could do a wonderful job explaining it, much better than myself, I’m still going to try my hand at putting my experiences and advice into words for y’all.

My first panic attack was back in like Feb 2013. I was at a huge mall with a friend. We’d gone looking for a pair of shoes for me for this fundraiser I was gonna be working at. Everything was going fine till we went to the food court. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to eat.

I remember looking around at all the different places, and all the people, just feeling like I was trapped.
My breathing got shallow.
My heart started racing.
My head was starting to spin.
I didn’t know what was happening, but I knew I had to go somewhere else.

My friend kept asking me what was happening, if I was okay, if there was anything they could do.
I didn’t know what was happening. I had absolutely no clue I was having a panic attack. It had never happened to me before.
Everything at that point was overwhelming and scary. Like nothing I’d ever dealt with before.

To cope with them, I really don’t have any advice to give you. All I can really do is tell you what I do to get through them.

To be completely truthful, the only thing I really do is whatever I can to distract myself from the situation that’s caused the panic attack.