forum Can someone please help me write a panic/anxiety attack?
Started by @CW-BornConfuzzledLeftILoveYa
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I've had panic attacks before. It tends to vary, but for me my throat closes up, my palms get sweaty, my vision blurs and I feel dizzy, there's a ringing in my ears, and I can't really move or breathe for the duration of the attack. Not the most descriptive on my part, I know, but it's hard to explain. You just feel so cold and scared and alone, it's difficult for me to calm down fully for a while after one. Hope this helps.

Kellsey

Not sure if you'd still like help with this, but I can describe what my panic attacks are usually like.

First, not all of them are of the same magnitude. I've had ones that I could hide and ones that just burst out. The worst ones always start with a kind of cold, prickling feeling in the back of my neck, and I get this sort of moment where I realize what's gonna happen. It feels kind of like when you get a nosebleed, you can kind of feel this snap and then the blood starts flowing. Kind of like that.

A panic attack is just intense, absolute fear, so you'll see a lot of reactions to fear special to certain people I assume? In my case, when I'm terrified, my first instinct is to crumple into a ball. So, during my panic attacks, I have a tendency to put my hands behind my head and kind of shrivel into myself. Kind of like the fetal position, but not so tightly. If I'm standing when it hits, I go into a crouch, if I'm sitting, I just kind of bend over my knees. I also cry uncontrollably. Not sobbing, just nonstop tears. I start to tremble, my heart beats really fast, so fast it's like it's in my ears, and it feel like there's something in my throat. I can still hear things and see things, but I don't process them, and I kind of blank. Except there's something usually running through my mind. For example, I once got onto the train back to my university from home, so of course it was packed. So packed, there were no seats, and I had to stand in the crowded isle while more people came in. I started to work myself into a panic attack, and all I could think was "I'm not okay, I'm not okay, I'm not okay…" Another time, I had a really bad one in front of my friends. I'd never had one in front of people before, and I was really embarrassed, so all that went through my head was "Oh no, oh no, oh no." I was also muttering it out loud, because blanking means I have no control over what I say in that moment. Like, I can't keep my thoughts, they just come out (only during really bad panic attacks.) My psychologist recommend reciting things or grounding myself to help calm down.

Grounding is basically forcing yourself to find something real and tangible and describing it. So, let's say you're in the middle of a panic attack. You're losing yourself need to ground yourself, so what do you pick? A chair. You say, "the chair is orange, it has four legs, it's made of wood, it's hard to sit on, the back is curved, etc." This doesn't work well for me personally though. You can also try recitations, which I do. Instead of allowing myself to say whatever my brain comes up with ("oh no" is not good because it can escalate a panic attack, since it's essentially you telling yourself you're screwing up, so my psychologist says), I say something like "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. My psychologist recommended I say "I'm safe, I'm safe, I'm safe," but it's a little too complicated for me in that moment.

Finally as I wind down, it kind of just stops. The tears still come for a bit, but they're more of an afterthought, and I still tremble a while after. My thoughts are jangly, kind of jumpy, and I'm especially hypervigilant (I have anxiety so I'm always on my toes, but panic attacks heighten that.)

And that's it! I hope that's helpful. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions :)

@n o s t r a d a m u s location_city

I have mild OCD, generalised anxiety disorder, and very very mild bipolar 2.
I can generally describe a panic attack as feeling like you are drowning without a way to get to the surface. They become significantly more horrible if I am in a public space (my worst one happened on a train in the city). My throat completely closes over and i have trouble breathing -like when you feel like you are about to cry - and I get an odd metallic taste in my mouth. I almost immediately tear up and my eyes itch in a way that feels a lot like hay fever. There is also a feeling of being watched (especially in public places), and my skin crawls like there are a million little bugs all over me. There is also a want to just fold into a little ball. During my panic attacks I hate being touched.
As a coping mechanism, I monitor my breathing. My psychologist recommends breathing in on a 4 count, holding for 2, and releasing for 6, but I have a thing about threes and those numbers add to twelve which is four threes so to make it nine (three threes), I breathe in for 3, hold for 2, and breathe out for 4 (my OCD at it's finest right here).

@Fraust

I've had a panic attack only once, but I think I can still help. I was riding bareback on a horse (for a lesson) and nothing was going right. I pretty much just lost control of the horse and panicked. I started crying on the horse, I was hyperventilating, I couldn't move, and I was just terrified (I'm not typically afraid of horses, mind you). It felt as though time stood still for me, but everything else kept moving. Like I was powerless to stop anything that was happening. I was trapped within my own panicked mind and I couldn't go on for a good ten minutes. I didn't have any techniques, really. My trainer just stopped the horse for me and was talking to me, but I couldn't hear her. Eventually, it sort of died down, and although I was still crying, I had regained control for the most part.