Your Everyday Girl

Anxiety or panic attacks have a way of catching you off guard. I recently had an experience while I was out at dinner, trying to relax with friends, but my mind had other plans for me. I started to feel an unwelcome sensation in the pit of my stomach, and my mind began to lose focus on my surroundings. All I could think about was how impatient I felt with the conversation at the table. I wasn’t angry, just restless. I did my best to hide it, but I knew I seemed completely out of it. I tried to focus on my five senses to calm down and center myself before allowing my anxiety to take the wheel.

I often present myself as a strong and confident person, but I deal with a bunch of external and internal stressors which tend to lead to an anxiety attack if it’s gradual or a panic attack if it’s unexpected. I try not to let either one take over, but it is something I have to deal with at times.

I’m not sure how you deal with your anxiety, but I tend to follow these steps before going into panic mode:

Stop what you’re doing. If I can’t focus then I know I need to put everything on pause.

Focus on breathing. I don’t mean shallow breaths, I mean breathing with intention. Make sure to inhale with intention and let out a huge exhale. Do this step several times in order to relax.

Concentrate on your five senses. Acknowledge the things you feel, smell, see, hear, and taste. It was a trick I learned a while back to use on my anxiety and/or panic attacks especially when I feel a weird sensation in my chest. I used to deal with panic attacks whenever I was far from home. I ended up quitting a job out of the blue because I had no idea how to reduce the attacks. I was also too embarassed to explain to my employer how I was feeling because I didn’t know that I was experiencing panic attacks. My only sense of relief was sticking my hand out the window to feel the wind on my drive back home. I would try my best to be present with that feeling because I just couldn’t get myself to relax or breathe properly.

Get away from everyone and everything. I will immediately remove myself from a situation, place myself somewhere quiet, and play LoFi music out loud to block out everything. This may be tricky if you are not at home when experiencing an attack.

Reflect on the experience afterwards. This may not be the greatest idea for everyone, but I’m the type of person who wants to know what I can do differently so that an anxiety and/or panic attack doesn’t stop me in my tracks. Do NOT fault yourself for an attack. Reflection is about understanding and accepting what happened in order to move forward.

Remember, what I share with you are tips that have worked for me. You may do things differently or you may follow some of these steps already. Please do share what you do to help with your anxiety or panic attacks. We like to think that we talk about mental health a lot, but I’m learning more and more that the topic is not discussed as much as I had hoped. There is still a lot of stigma when talking about mental health and exposing ourselves to others is not as easy as one would hope, but there’s always a first step. Even if the first step is a small one.

I’ll be sure to discuss mental health related topics more on the blog.

Your everyday girl,

Sara

P.S Make sure to check with your doctor to ensure that the symptoms you feel during an anxiety or panic attack are not caused by any another health related issue.