New here - Panic Attack or something serious

[katiejayne8]

Im at work and suddenly felt completely ill! Like a wave washed over me, dizzy, light headed, faint, shivery, chest pain. I am still feeling like it 30 mins later but it seems wave in intensity. I’m trying to calm myself down but I’m not sure this is normal? My hands and feet are tingling! Help. 21 year old female.

 

[Cuchculan]

I am sure your own first guess is panic attack / anxiety. Because you posted it on an anxiety forum. If you thought it was anything worse I would guess you would have rang an ambulance up by now. Not sure if you have had panic attacks before. good fact to know is that nobody has ever died from one. What happens during a panic attack is actually to protect us. Odd as that sounds. We sweat to keep us cool. The blood can rush to the places where it is needed. Hence you can feel dizzy and the likes. All about getting the breathing back under control again. In through the nose and out through the mouth. Try and avoid gasping for breath. That will only make you worse. If you can find a distraction use it. Be it music. I know you are in work. So finding a distraction might be a bit harder. Just find anything to help you take your mind off of yourself. What you are doing is thinking inwardly. Focusing on the bad things you feel. That only makes them worse. I know it can feel horrible. I know it is not nice. I know it will be hard to do anything that I have told you to do. But that is what we do to calm back down again. First we get the breathing under control. Once we have that right other things will simply fall into place for you.

 

[katiejayne8]

Thank you, that does help. Although over an hour on I still dont feel 100% I'm not feeling anywhere near as bad which makes me think it must be anxiety otherwise I would have got worse not better? So I will try to relax and breath to calm back down. Thanks

 

[Cuchculan]

Try to find something to focus on in the place were you are at. Could be anything at all. Even if you have a coin. Take it out. Place it in your hand. That is what you are going to focus on. The weight of it. The feel of it. Use it to take your focus away from yourself. Because once a panic attack kicks in we simply begin to focus on ourselves. Which doesn't really help at all. The coin can be the distraction. Once you focus on that alone you might begin to breathe in a normal way. Because your mind will stop racing. Which is all it has been doing. Racing away with thoughts. That it could be something worse. We have to break that chain of thought. If it was anything worse an hour later you would be on the ground. But you were not. It's just uncomfortable. Not nice to go through. I have been through many over the years.