Camden
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2021
- Messages
- 292
- Reaction score
- 185
Well, I had a rocky start to my day. For the first time in a while, my early morning anxiety made me feel sick to my stomach and zapped my appetite. My whole body felt tense and tight as I went about my morning. I took some pepto and ate some mild oatmeal for breakfast and felt a little better.
When I went to leave the house and get in the car, things went south fast. I began feeling tearful and my face began feeling hot and prickly. Then the dreaded “I can’t breathe” feeling hit me and I flipped out. I pulled immediately into an empty parking lot and stopped the car.
I literally could not catch my breath, and I was screaming and crying. The inability to catch my breath made things 10 times worse. I reclined my seat to lay flat, and thought hard about the breathing exercises from my Calm app. The 4-4-8 breathing techniques saved the day while I laid flat as I could in my car.
I called my aunt, and she kindly stayed on the phone with me until I arrived safely at work. She helped talk me down from my anxiety in a compassionate and rational way. Having an aunt who’s a retired counselor is a blessing, especially on bad days like this.
The thing that upsets me the most about today’s attack is that no particular thought set it off. More like a vague cloud of stressful tasks and situations going on at work and with my family. Horrifying that it hit while I was driving. I got into that parking lot just in time.
When I went to leave the house and get in the car, things went south fast. I began feeling tearful and my face began feeling hot and prickly. Then the dreaded “I can’t breathe” feeling hit me and I flipped out. I pulled immediately into an empty parking lot and stopped the car.
I literally could not catch my breath, and I was screaming and crying. The inability to catch my breath made things 10 times worse. I reclined my seat to lay flat, and thought hard about the breathing exercises from my Calm app. The 4-4-8 breathing techniques saved the day while I laid flat as I could in my car.
I called my aunt, and she kindly stayed on the phone with me until I arrived safely at work. She helped talk me down from my anxiety in a compassionate and rational way. Having an aunt who’s a retired counselor is a blessing, especially on bad days like this.
The thing that upsets me the most about today’s attack is that no particular thought set it off. More like a vague cloud of stressful tasks and situations going on at work and with my family. Horrifying that it hit while I was driving. I got into that parking lot just in time.