Panic Attacks

Following on from my last post I've decided I would talk about my anxiety problems. After I wrote my last tweet I finally built up the courage to tell my friends and to make people aware of the problems I suffer with anxiety and how over the past couple of months I have experienced many panic attacks and anxiety problems.

Yet after I told my friends this, many where unhelpful and thought I was just telling lies to seek attention, even though I have experienced negative views there are a handful of my friends that have been there and do show support.

So I've decided I'm going to talk about what to do when you or someone arounds you is experiencing these problems, because having people show negative attitudes towards you can send you right back into panic mode. But first here is a little bit about it.

On my last post I talked about the current problems I'm facing right now and how this has trigged my anxiety. Resulting in me having lack of sleep and my physical health being impacted greatly. This has trigged my digestive system to temporally shut down, resulting in me having nausea all the time. It also has left me with recurring tonsillitis. So with all these problems it has impacted on my school life leaving me with even more stress.
So my best advice would be if you see someone suffering with these problems is to help them and offer support, not discourage things they say. For I know it takes a lot of courage to admit and tell people about these problems so when someone is shown to be unsupportive this can lead the person into a another attack. I've experienced this, leading me to have five panic attacks in one day. Trust me they aren't a nice thing to go through. It's only made even worse by the uncertainty of when and where these will take place.

When having a panic attack, you feel like your whole world is ending. Even though each panic attack is different here is a bit more information on what I experience, the attacks normally start with a crushing pain on my chest resulting in a struggle to breath and result in an increase in short breaths. This then leads me to have a pounding headache with ringing ears, I then suddenly get a hot flash and then the nausea and dizziness starts to occur. For me these attacks generally take place in the space of 10-20 minutes. I have experienced these in lessons, at home, in the night, in town, on a train and in a car. These occur as your brain begins to think you are in a dangerous situation so your body begins to release adrenalin into your bloodstream causing your blood pressure to drop, and in many cases leading me to faint. I don't really know what triggers these episodes but mainly these are triggered when I become upset or worried. Hense why they are called anxiety attacks.

Ways to control your attacks are to take your self out of the situation and to relax, and breath deeply. (Experienced words from my Therapist) if you see someone having an anxiety attack then help maintain there calmness, if within a group take them away, and help them to breath properly and to cater for there needs.

To be honest if someone does share there problems with you no matter what you think just try and be respectful towards them and don't think that they are lying because it takes a lot of courage to talk about and it only takes one negative comment to shatter that courage and send them into another panic attack!