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0 By Ella Taylor
Panic Attack
I’m sitting at my desk, headphones in, listening to the new Shed Seven album. My hand is in a lot of pain from the car accident a couple of weeks ago.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I can feel the anxiety creeping in. I try to control my breathing, but it’s not really helping. That awful ‘butterflies’ feeling in my stomach is building up and getting worse. I feel shaky and like I’m not really here. I’m outside my own body, really spaced out, and I need to take my mind off of it before it gets worse. I realise that the worst thing that could happen right now is that I could pass out due to the short breathing.
It’s not the end of the world, I’m not going to die, even though that’s what it feels like! Once the painkillers for my hand kick in I will hopefully be able to calm down.
The pain is just making me think back to the accident, and that’s what is making me feel like this.
Feeling Calmer
Writing it all down as it’s happening is helping a little though. I need to attempt to calm my mind down, and I love the headspace app for doing this.
I’ll go and do a short meditation now. Unfortunately there is not one free quiet space in this entire building! I had to do a short 3 minute ‘reset’ meditation at my desk instead.
Finally, I do feel calmer, and those horrible butterflies have gone from my stomach. The good thing is that once I’ve completed a headspace meditation, my breathing stays deep and calming for quite a while after.
Reproduced with permission, originally posted on Ellas mental fitness
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