Panic attacks, for lack of better word, SUCK. Being a student, I’ve experienced my fair share of stress and anxiety, but panic attacks are thankfully not a regular occurrence in my life. This semester, however, has been a particularly stressful one, and right before exam season came to a close, I had a panic attack. I know this because: a) I did what any self-respecting Grey’s anatomy aficionado/wannabe doctor would do by promptly looking up my symptoms on WebMd and confidently diagnosing myself as having just had a panic attack and b) I texted friends of mine who I know have panic attacks and shared with them what I had just experienced.
Not sure what it says about me that my first thought when I calmed down was, “This might make for an interesting article topic…,” but I remember being thrown off by the unexpected nature of the panic attack. Having never experienced anything like this before, when it was happening I didn’t know what to do to calm myself down. What was worse is that when the initial panic attack faded, I was still left feeling shaky and lightheaded for the rest of the day leaving me unable to focus on my assignments. I’m not entirely sure what triggered the panic attack. I think it was just a culmination of a very stressful semester that just wouldn’t seem to end. I had an essay due in two days time and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through it and on top of all that, it was also for a prof that I absolutely love so I didn’t want to just submit trash.
Basically, I was putting a lot of stress on myself and talking myself into a frenzy. If you’re a student, you understand what I mean. Life doesn’t come with a “pause” button and the reality of being a university student is that we sometimes feel as though we have no choice but to put our marks before our well-being. Sometimes taking a step back and relaxing might make us feel guilty. If you’re anything like me, you have different ways of dealing with school related anxiety: a) you stress yourself out to the point where you have a panic attack, b) you hide underneath your covers and ignore your responsibilities in the hopes that they’ll simply go away (i.e they never do), and c) you beeline for the kitchen and start shovelling Nutella into your mouth because even though everything sucks, at least you still have chocolate (but I’ll save my unhealthy relationship with food for a later article). None of these things are productive or healthy, so what to do?
When it was happening, I immediately started shaking, my heart started racing, I was having difficulty breathing and I couldn’t gather my thoughts. I was trying to figure out a way to calm myself down but as much as I was trying to, I couldn’t think clearly. I was scattered all over the place. I was pacing because I couldn’t sit still, but eventually I forced myself to go lie down for awhile because it didn’t seem like it would end and nothing else was working.
Tell someone: When you’re having a panic attack, it sort of feels like the whole world is working against you and nothing is going to be okay. I found that talking to people after had a calming effect and helped give me a little perspective.
Give yourself a break: I was working on an essay and I’m sure fellow students will understand this: when you like the prof, you really don’t want to let him or her down, so you just put a crazy amount of pressure on yourself. Step away from the screen and breathe. When I was having my panic attack, all I could think was “Holy hell, I’m losing control of everything, but I can’t lose control now because I have an essay due in two days, and if I don’t work on it now, I’m never going to get it done on time, it’ll be terrible, I’ll fail and my average is going to sink like a rock in water.” Don’t talk yourself into a frenzy, you’ll just make it worse and it’ll last longer.
Self-Care: I’m always going on about how my friends and everyone around me should take a break and practice self-care, but being the hypocrite that I am, I obviously never take my own advice. Self-care is necessary so check out these tips and remember to be kind to yourself.
I had the chance to talk to two friends about panic attacks, anxiety and the effect they have on their day to day lives so check out what they had to say:
Q: What do you do during the panic attack to calm down? And what do you do right after it’s done?
A: Honestly, the more I fight it, the worse it gets. So I often just let it happen because I’d rather have one for 10 minutes, than for an hour. I typically just let the people closest to me know what’s going on and I try to figure out exactly what triggered it (i.e. major or minor stressors). I try to talk myself out of my repetitive negative thinking, which tends to bring on the panic attacks. There’s not much else to do other than to assess the situations so that I can prevent them in the future and be more aware of how my body reacts to stress
B: Since anxiety is not a rational disorder/state of mind, having a panic attack can happen (and does happen) at any given time. The crappy reality of panic attacks, for me anyways, is that I kind of just need to wait them out, breathe deeply and if I can, I try to distract myself by playing games on my phone or taking a nap; sometimes it works, sometime it doesn’t. My body typically goes into self-defence mode during a panic attack and I have the urge to throw up because that means I get to leave whatever situation has caused the attack. It actually hit me really hard this summer. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and a panic disorder after two really bad attacks. One of these attacks caused my body to shut down and I couldn’t hold down food for about 27 days.
Q: How have these panic attacks affected your day-to-day life?
A: My anxiety and panic attacks started happening so often that I’d have episodes every other day. It became out of control. My panic attacks have never been so bad that I needed to take time off work, but I definitely got help from both my doctor and a psychologist pretty soon after they started appearing.
B: This summer was really bad. I could barely get out of bed, walking would make me dizzy, I couldn’t eat and almost lost my job because I couldn’t do basic tasks. I’m now on a daily medication that adjusts my serotonin levels and for the most part works to keep the panic attacks at bay. I have another medication, that I take in case a panic attack does happen, and it calms me down and usually puts me to sleep.
Editor’s Note: This article describes individuals’ personal experiences with panic attacks and should not be used for medical advice. If you think you may be having panic attacks, please consult your doctor.
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