How do you get your anxiety attacks?
We are all different in our own ways. Yet the struggle we share coincides sometimes.
Personally, I have a different experience when it comes to getting anxiety attacks or i might feel so.
I'd really like to know how you feel when you get anxiety attacks? Would it be like everyone else or do you have peculiarities that might be different from others?
Being different when i get my attacks have made people underestimate how much i suffer. People often be like, hey, you aren't even struggling that much or hey that's not how an anxiety attack looks like, you're totally fine.
So what exactly happens to me?
When i get an anxiety attack, the first thing that happens to me is choking. I just cannot breath so i end up gasping for breath for a few seconds. I try to calm myself down when I'm in public because i cannot show that im actually having an attack. I take a lot of deep breaths and panic internally. I curse myself for being so weak and then give large painful taps on my face to awaken myself. I zone out occasionally after an attack and sometimes even become hyperactive. (There are times i get mild tics which might get worse if things aren't getting any better) . After this tiny lil experience, i just become extremely weak to a point where i find it hard to walk or talk. I keep quiet the whole day and then go to my room and lie down like I've never seen my bed ever. I end up losing that whole day to being constantly tired and sad.
So, this is how things are for me. What do you do when you get an attack? How fo you feel?
@blissfulSky8162
i couldn't relate with this much lesser. everyone is different and it does not mean that the other person suffered lesser.
@blissfulSky8162
It's difficult for people who don't suffer from anxiety to understand what an attack can look like, and even more difficult to understand that each person suffers in their own way.
For me, my attacks start with me being nervous about something. I start thinking and thinking. My heart rate goes up and I get shaky. The more I think, the more"unhinged" I become. I can't eat. I start thinking about everything bad that I believe has happened (even though there is no evidence that anything bad has happened) and I start rocking or tapping a foot or just anything where I start moving around a lot. I bounce from room to room trying to resolve the issue in my head. On terrible occasions I'll drive myself to the point of tears.
Yeah, I feel like my whole chest has been stuffed with a piece of cloth and I can't breathe as deeply as a normally can, all the sounds around me suddenly sound too loud, and it feels like I'm in an elevator that dropped too fast, I recently learned about grounding which is literally focusing on your surrounding and telling yourself that the fears or memories are not as solid as the things that surround you, and you are safe in this moment .
When it happens I can't breathe and my heart feels like it's getting teared apart or as if someone sit down on it or grabbed it and squeezed hard. My stomach tightens until it hurts and I usually can't eat a lot that day. Sometimes I feel like fainting, my sight goes dark and I have to sit down.
I recently learned about grounding techniques. Last time touching the grass and moss helped, or hug from my husband, putting my hands to cold water. Getting deep breaths, focusing on what is here and now and telling myself I'm okay and safe and I need to be present.
And as you wrote, it's definitely a lot harder when other people don't get what you're going through.