Don't panic

[Phantom]

I was on a date. Now, it was like the fourth or fifth date, so by now I'd explained my Asperger's and anxiety. (Because I think it's a thing that people should know about if you're going to potentially be in a relationship with them.)

I'd never been to this movie theater before, it was in a completely new area for me and it was pretty packed. I started to have an anxiety attack as we were walking in. I felt it coming on, but I ignored it, or tried to. I used the first trick in my book to calm down - I took a bathroom break. I rinsed my face off with cold water, usually helps a bit, and I met her in the theater. Of course as soon as I sat down it became obvious that it wasn't going away. My leg was bouncing and I couldn't catch my breath for the life of me. She looked at me concerned and I gasped out that I was having a hard time breathing. I put my head down for a bit, taking deep breaths, and it passed in a minute or two and I managed to stay for the movie.

Luckily she understood and doesn't think I'm mad or something.

I know quite a few of us have anxiety or something similar. How do you deal with an attack when it happens? Do you have triggers? Like crowded areas, restaurants, or new experiences?

 

[Momo(th)]

I have to fight off attacks all the bloody time X_x

Usually it's crowds or too much talking, or whenever I have a flashback.

Recently though, I've gotten way better at fighting them though :)

 

[M&F]

I'm hemophobic. What exactly triggers it tends to be a bit of a crapshoot (a detailed depiction of a flesh wound is likelier to bring it on than a bursting mass of gore -- as a rule of thumb it seems that the problem is when it reminds me of the concept of circulation). I haven't ever passed out from it, as seems to occour with more extreme cases, but I've felt pretty close at some points (I think the current record holder is this one asshole biology teacher who felt the need to relay a story of when

Spoiler: in case there are other hemophobes here

he saw his grandmother having a neck artery pierced by a shard in accident -- suffice to say that blood pressure in arteries is high

. Also, he did it in a packed, musty and non-ventilated room). Other incidents include numerous accounts of desperately attempting to ignore biology classes on circulation, as well as hyperventilating because there was a (textually) graphic question about it on a subsequent test.

The most usual consequence is a general feeling of weakness -- I feel sore and have trouble moving around, specially where leg movement is concerned. I also tend to become extremely wary of what my arms and hands are touching. The more extreme occourances also lead to hyperventilation (as seen above), nausea and dizziness. When it occours, it tends to only get better with time -- fresh air helps, but otherwise, I can't seem to do anything about it.

 

[Vipera Magnifica]

I'm sure I have some kind of anxiety disorder, but I've never really experienced a full-on "attack". What I do often get is nausea and intense stomach cramps when I get overly nervous or excited. >_>

I need to see both a therapist and a gastroenterologist sometime in the near future. I'm not sure how, though.

 

[hopeandjoy]

I've only had an actual attack once or twice in my life, but generally I just... Uh... Run away...

Of course, it's been situations where I have a way out but still.

Crowds and loud noises trigger me it seems. And shame.

 

[Ether's Bane]

I'm astraphobic, which means I get triggered by intense lightning. However, it must be real lightning happening in real life. Images or videos of lightning are fine with me, and it doesn't apply to other flashing lights - just lightning.

My symptoms including becoming hypersensitive to touch and sound (which cycles back to my astraphobia, due to the thunder), and when I try to talk while I'm being triggered, I talk especially loudly and my brain races wildly. Not because I want to be loud - that's one of the visible (or audible, in this case) effects for me.

 

[Jolty]

i have social anxiety disorder
it gets better sometimes but in situations where there's loads of people i jut can't deal. dropped out of university twice because of it.

it's also bad when i have to interact with people for like... no set purpose... so talking to people behind a counter or something like that isn't a problem but when it's casual and i'd need to actually have a real conversation or something, i'm gone

i've been told i show signs of generalised anxiety disorder too but that's never been diagnosed. anyway my solution to most panics is run/hide. panic attacks for me involve not being able to breathe, not being able to make noise at all aaaand sweating. and the typical feeling of "i'm gonna die"

 

[Flora]

I probably have some sort of anxiety disorder, considering that a lot of people on my mom's side (including my mom herself) apparently have it, but I've never been diagnosed because my parents want a recommendation from my therapist or my physician for me to actually see a psychiatrist and a) i don't know how they expect my physician to know about this stuff and b) i think my therapist is convinced that all my problems are because i'm ~*~not trying hard enough*~*

but i do get panic attacks. rarely, but they happen. I think they're triggered by getting yelled at for not doing something someone never told me to do. And/or my claustrophobia combined with something else. (Example: I was at a very crowded party once and that just made me feel uncomfortable rather than full-on panic-attacky, but as soon as cops showed up i panicked. Badly.)

I basically had to teach myself how to deal with them (my mother told me if she can handle them I should be able to as well, which is a really great notion when I'd only had two or three ever, thanks mom), so mostly I just focus on breathing. Usually other people are pretty helpful too.

 

[kyeugh]

I don't know if I have panic attacks, but I come pretty close to passing out if I'm around a lot of people. I usually just look at the ground or something.

 

[Murkrow]

I don't have any anxiety disorders but I have passed out in biology class a couple of times. One of the times was during sex ed so as you can imaging the bullies never let me live that one down.