In an attempt to get over my panic and anxiety disorders, I decided to go on vacation and do everything that triggers my panic mood. In my case, it’s the open water. Surrounded by my best friend, I thought nothing could go wrong. I went into the sea, and I did panic, but realizing that I’m panicking made it easier to control my emotions. Luckily, I stepped on a coral and cut my feet; obviously my panic attack reached an uncontrollable level.
I asked my friend to get me out; he screamed at me and said to stop being dramatic and swim myself out. In an attempt to talk with him about how I felt, I was told to stop being a girl and to man up. Misogyny aside, I was disappointed at how my very own best friend, who’s been with me for a while on the trip, dealt with the situation.
It shocked me how a well-rounded person, who knew me quite well, and should know about mental and psychological disorders react that way? It was a realization that in Egypt, we have no clue about these things, no idea that they aren’t a choice, not for attention, not for sympathy and more importantly, not an attempt to act “girly.”
1) It’s simply not a choice
People could get panic attacks from the silliest things ever. All it takes is a simple emotional trigger and all we feel is that we have no control over the situation, start sweating, have unorganized thoughts, and we certainly can’t “snap out of it.”
2) Support us, don’t control us
As a person who’s been working on the disorder for so long, I know how to deal with the situation. Most people do know how to calm themselves; all we need is for people to support our decisions and not make things worse. Trying to take control might have good intentions, but they surely do make the panic worse.
3) Not everyone deals with panic and anxiety the same way
While the dominant emotions and trail of thoughts are usually the same, not everyone knows how to calm themselves the same way. Thinking you could “fix the situation” because you met someone who dealt with it in a certain way before won’t really work!
4) Don’t ever belittle the situation
It might seem dumb to you – it’s always dumb to others – but it’s a big deal for us! It literally feels like the end of the world. We usually know it’s not worth it, but we simply can’t do anything about it. Most people joke and make fun of panic attack patients; we could laugh about it too, but only because we’re trying to not actually panic!
5) We hate having panic attacks way more than you think
We’re having a dominant emotion controlling everything in us and trust me, if we could not have this feeling, we won’t have been panicking in the first place.
The simplest thing you could is to have empathy. It’s a real emotion, and a real struggle. Have some compassion for others around you, and it’ll all be great!
