Do you ever get a sudden overwhelming feeling of acute and disabling anxiety in public? In other words, do you ever have panic attacks in public? I know how bad panic attacks are and how bad they can be when you are alone in public.
I remember one time, three years ago, when I was about to do my first school speech ever and I was completely alone on a stage in front of more than 50 people. I started talking, then I suddenly stopped, looked around the place, and saw the people looking at me, wondering why I stopped. The teachers were worried but they wanted me to finish my speech as soon as possible. I had that feeling of not being able to breathe and I thought that I was dying. I was shaking and had to stop everything and run backstage where my friend was waiting for me. She didn’t know what was happening and I didn’t want to worry her, so I went to an empty room and tried to recover by myself.
I was struggling and no one knew. Today, I manage to help myself get through panic attacks in public on my own. I know that I’m not the only one who struggles with panic attacks, so I want to help you get through them step by step. Hopefully, when you do it right, you’ll manage to get through the panic attacks.
Step 1:
Forget everything around you and focus on yourself because it’s all about you now. Go to an empty room if you can.
Step 2:
Breathing exercises are important for calming down. Take a long, deep breath in through your nose, first filling your lower lungs, then your upper lungs. Count to three. Exhale slowly through pursed lips, while trying to relax the muscles in your face, jaw, shoulders and stomach.
Step 3:
Are you shaking? It’s fine, put your hands tightly together and do the breathing exercises. It helps a lot.
Step 4:
Close your eyes and make a mental list of things that make you happy, to put you at ease. The things can be books, people, or whatever you want.
Step 5:
Remember that you are now in a battle between yourself and the panic attack; the panic attack is trying to give you negative thoughts, so repeat the compliments that people always give you. When you repeat something, your mind will be convinced by it.
Step 6:
Remember that you are not alone in this. At any moment that you undergo a panic attack, there’s more than 1 million people around the world who are going through one too. We will get through this together: you, me and everyone else who is suffering from a panic attack.
