Anxiety panic attack Racing thoughts tachycardia

A Panic Attack

Those who have ever suffered an anxiety attack know just how unpleasant the experience can be…

Suddenly, out of nowhere, you feel an unexplained shortness of breath. Your heart starts racing to what feels like a million beats per second.  All you can think is,

“I can’t breathe! I’m having a heart attack!”

Your breath becomes one with your racing heartbeat.  You hear and feel both, consecutively, getting louder and louder within the walls of your head. Obsessive thoughts of dying rush again and again through your mind like a broken record. You try moving, running, screaming, in the hopes that this will go away, but it’s no use.  You are trapped. With each endless second that passes, things only gets worse. You convince yourself that this is the end of you, your life.

‘I’m going to die!’

If you happen to be in a room with others while this is all happening, those others become surreal and seem to be in another world.  They are incapable of calming your fears even if they try to.  You are completely alone in this detachment from reality.  It’s a certain kind of living hell that only you are suffering.

‘I’m going out of my mind!’

The palms of your hands become clammy.  You break into a cold sweat.  The empty breaths, the speeding heartbeat and the racing thoughts continue.  They get worse and worse, louder and louder.  You freak out again and again.

‘I’m going to die!’

You are rushed to the emergency room.    Once there, your vitals are checked.  The doctor reassures you that you will be fine.  What you are experiencing is nothing more than an panic attack.  You don’t believe the doctor or any of the nurses who attend you.  They tell you that you will be given something to help you relax.  You don’t think that anything can aid.

‘Don’t they understand that this is it for me?’

Reluctantly, you take what they give you.  Another twenty or so minutes go by and the suffering continues.  Then finally, just as all hope was lost, the little magic pill you were given starts to work its magic.  The calmness settles in.  Your breathing and heartbeat become normal again.  You are fine.  You survive.

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