5 Techniques/Strategies I Used to Survive Hundreds of Panic Attacks
There is no one method guaranteed to work for all, meaning it is smart to know multiple
Your heart is thundering at one-eighty beats a minute. Your aching chest feels tight, as though your heart is being squeezed. You are sweating, your extremities are tingling, buzzing. Your head is splitting open. Waves of anxiety swell from the pit of your stomach and radiate across your body. You cannot focus. You cannot think. You cannot breathe. You are gasping, hyperventilating, as though there is no air left to breathe. You know, you know, this is a heart attack. You will die. Or you will go insane.
An excerpt from a psychological horror novel? No. A panic attack. One of hundreds I faced over a nightmarish eight-year period, from 2013 to 2020.
The American Psychological Association (APA) defines a panic attack as:
…a sudden onset of intense apprehension and fearfulness in the absence of actual danger, accompanied by the presence of such physical symptoms as heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, chest pain or discomfort, choking or smothering sensations, sweating, and dizziness.
The APA also states panic attacks cause fears of dying, going crazy, or losing control. Most panic…
