Catch it early and nip it in the bud.
I have a perfect storm happening in my life right now. Work has become a place of pressure, I’m doing an MA in Creative Writing and Christmas is coming. On top of that I have a stinking cold complete with headaches and runny nose, aching limbs and eyes that don’t feel like opening.
Yesterday, I started to have the feeling that something bad was coming. It felt like doom. It felt like I was going to have to do something that I didn’t want to do. It felt bad.
Over and over I searched my mind for a cause. It couldn’t be the Masters because I’d just got my first assignment back and it was marked as a distinction. It couldn’t be my work because I had a plan and was rigorously sticking to it come hell or high-water. It couldn’t be Christmas because, well, that’s a time of goodwill and all of that. And it couldn’t have been the cold because I know that these things pass. So what was it?
Having scanned my mind, environment, relationships and body and found nothing threatening I told myself not to worry and I went to bed.
This evening, the feeling of impending doom returned, but this time I was ready. I told myself that it was nothing but a feeling and that everything was okay and, to my happiness, it agreed and it passed over and left me with a delicious sense of well-being. It came back a couple of times after that, and again I went through the same process and it receded.
And that, for me, is how to cure a panic attack: find that it has no basis in reality and tell it to pass. And it does.
And now – roll on wellness, productivity and success. I wish you all a beautiful day, season and life.