Panic Attacks & Anxiety disorders | Your Daily Dose

|Understanding It|

     When I first started to realize that something was wrong; that other people didn't feel this way on a normal basis I wanted to learn more. In my 6th year of school I was put into a class to "help us on our journey to finding the career best for us" and I realized what i wanted to do. I wanted to understand myself more, know the facts because maybe if I knew what it was exactly I could overcome it. From that day on it was settled i wanted to study psychology.I wanted to know why people have these issues. I wanted to help people, because in this day and age all these professionals that are there to help you, know nothing more than what they have seen in movies or read in a text book. For someone to understand the feeling they had to have experienced it. While I realize I am no doctor or no type of special help I thought maybe if I put it out there I could help the people who have told their friends or family members to just "Get over it" and to "Put yourself out there" realize the only thing they are doing is making it worse. It's like telling someone who afraid of the dark to let you lock them in a dark room and when they tell you they want out and that they don't like it you simply tell them its okay, stop worrying, everyone is afraid of the dark a little, so was I, just get over it.... It's just not that simple.

  Many people are unaware of what Anxiety Disorders are...

     What exactly is Anxiety Disorder?

Now, Anxiety is a normal human emotion. Everyone will experience it once in their life and there is no doubt about that, but Anxiety Disorders are a little different. An anxiety disorder can completely disrupt a persons normal every day life to the point where it can consume them. An anxiety disorder is a serious mental illness. For people with anxiety disorders, things like worry or fear are constant and overwhelming, and can be crippling.

There are 4 Big Anxiety Disorders:

  

   Panic Disorder - People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. A panic attack can give you feelings of choking, chest pains, sweating, and heart palpitations. A panic attack can strike at any moment with no warning and can also be triggered by and intense feeling of worry or stress.

   Social Anxiety or Social Phobia - This disorder involves an overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. The worry often centers on a fear of being judged by others, or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or lead to ridicule.

   Specific Phobias - A specific phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation. These are things like, a fear of heights, or being afraid of snakes. The level of fear is usually inappropriate to the situation and may cause the person to avoid everyday situations.

   Generalized Anxiety disorder - This disorder involves excessive, unrealistic worry and tension, even if there is little or nothing to provoke the anxiety.

   While symptoms will vary depending on the type of anxiety disorders the general symptoms may be:

  -Feelings of panic, fear, and uneasiness

  -Problems sleeping

  -Cold or sweaty hands and/or feet

  -Shortness of breath

  -Heart palpitations

  -An inability to be still and calm

  -Dry mouth

  -Numbness or tingling in hands or feet

  -Nausea

  -Muscle tension

  -Dizziness

                                                                                             

    For almost 8 years I put off telling people about the constant battle I was having with myself on a daily basis. I wouldn't talk to my friends because, why would they understand? and I held back on telling my family because the comments were always the same "It will pass" "Its all in your head" or my personal favorite " Why don't you just stop worrying about it". That one always makes me laugh. What people tend to forget is that talking about something as personal as this disorder is hard and when they put it off as something that you should just "stop" it makes you feel worse. Like you're burdening them with you problems and when you leave they talk about how stupid you sound worrying about things that shouldn't matter

      In my 18 years of life I have been lucky to only have to experience 2 panic attacks, but I can say they were the scariest moments of my life. Since about the age of 12 I have been struggling with social anxiety and a mild case of generalized anxiety. While things are getting to be less difficult they are a far way from easy. There has been times when I have lied to friends when they asked me to hang out because it doesn't matter if i'm in a room full of people who asked me to be there I feel like no one really wants me there. It's like that small nervous feeling you get when you walk pass a group of people whispering and laughing so you think they are talking about you, except, its not a small fear anymore. Its a nagging feeling you have in every room you walk in or out of. You stay close to people because you're scared if they have a moment when you're not around they are going to laugh at you. In your mind no one ever wants you around and it doesn't matter if they tell you other wise. The only times you can feel comfortable enough to be somewhat normal is if you're surrounded by people that make you feel that way and even then you will fight trying not to stumble on your own words. But, social situations aren't the only times I get this strong feeling of dread and stress. I can't do normal things either. Like every time I step foot into a car and that door shuts my heart starts to race. My mind goes through all of the things that could go wrong; All of the things that could kill me. So, I've vowed that from now on I'm going to work on all of these issues. and sharing this little bit is helping already, but, I have also realized i'm going to have to do it alone, because every time I've shared a step up on the latter with people, they just knock me down three more. They don't take it seriously. They take it as a joke. That me not being able to do things is ridiculous and childish. But the truth is they don't really understand; No matter how much they want to pretend they do.

           "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal" -Albert Camus

                      

                                    -Until tomorrow,xo