Just an update on my week-long break from posting…
You might deal with panic attacks.
I’ve dealt with them for the past five years, I take medicine, and it helps.
Sometimes though I don’t take my medicine, and that’s what happened last week.
Panic attacks can make you feel like you’re dying, and there’s such an overlap between panic attack symptoms and heart attack symptoms that the internet is awash in articles, explaining that overlap and the key differences.
I know the literature, front and back, five years into this.
Whenever I have a really bad panic attack, I remind myself a) no matter how much I feel like I’m dying, this is just anxiety and b) I seem to have good cardiovascular health, so yeah, it really is probably anxiety.
I’ve been through this so often, and I’ve never gone to the ER for a panic attack.
Last week, I finally did. I knew it was probably a panic attack, but this one set a new bar for me, and I went in.
And yup, heart was fine, everything was fine, and I left with the diagnosis I already had. Anxiety.
So that explains the break in posting.
It can sometimes take a little bit to recover from an attack like that. You know how exhausting it can be. It can leave you on edge for awhile, and ultimately, to some depression that saps your mental energy.
Further, it’s been difficult to fathom how the Ukranians are going through all this so bravely, while I’m having panic attacks out of the blue.
That’s a cognitive challenge that can make you feel seriously discouraged about yourself and trigger some self-loathing, no matter how much you know that one of the hallmarks of panic disorder is that it’s often triggered by nothing discernible.
But I’m ok. Just took a break.
If you struggle with this, too.
Find a psychiatrist here.
Find a therapist here.
