Since nearly everyone has had an experience of feeling startled, anxious, scared, or stressed, many people downplay the seriousness of a panic attack or an anxiety disorder. This isn’t helped by the fact that people often misuse the term “panic attack” to describe any moment of strong negative emotions.
First, remember that you can’t control another person’s perspective, and you don’t need someone else to take your experiences seriously for them to be worthy of treatment. If someone is committed to believing that your panic attacks can be “gotten over,” or that you’re exaggerating your symptoms, know that this person isn’t sensitive or safe for you and take some distance.
Scott Alexander, a doctor who runs the blog Slate Star Codex, has this to say about anxiety disorders on his page about treating anxiety:
Anxiety disorders are the most common class of psychiatric disorders. Their US prevalence is about 20%. They’re also among the least recognized and least treated. We have sort of finally beaten into people’s thick skulls that depression isn’t just being sad, and you can’t just turn your frown upside down or something — but the most common response to anxiety disorders is still “Anxiety? So what, everyone gets that sometimes.”
But it’s hard to describe how disabling anxiety can be. A lot of people with nominally much worse conditions — depression, bipolar, even psychosis — will insist that they want their anxiety treated before anything else, because they can live with the rest. On the other hand, while a lot of people with psychosis have enough other problems that treating the psychosis barely puts a dent in their issues, a lot of people with anxiety would be happy and productive if they could just do something about it.
For people interested in understanding, here are some resources to share:
- 5 Steps to empathy: what an anxiety disorder feels like (by me)
- A photo series depicting one artist’s experience of anxiety
- Selfies someone took before and after a panic attack
- Buzzfeed: cards your anxious friends would appreciate
- Buzzfeed: differences in how people see mental vs. physical illness
- XOJane: what it’s like to be paralyzed with anxiety at work
- Buzzfeed: I spent my nature retreat terrified my ac unit would kill someone
- Buzzfeed: 25 stories of living with panic & anxiety
- The Mighty: what it’s like to have a panic attack
- Fake Anxiety Magazine covers
- Anxiety illustration
This article is part of the “So You Had A Panic Attack” resource guide. Go back to the SYHAPA index page
