Panic Attacks I Hate Them

[Nicole0317]

I'm kinda new to this
I absolutely hate panic attacks I have them almost everyday and I can't stand them and I almost had one during a session and for those of you who don't know I have only been to 3 sessions with my T and am 14.
Anyways what do I do if I have one during a session or while I'm at school. I've had quite a few at school and it sucks because I look like an idiot sitting there in class especially when the whole entire desk starts shaking and I'm hyperventilating and just praying that no one asks me why. And then at therapy it's only almost happend once but thankfully didn't and the smallest things can trigger things as simple as someone opening a door the make a certain noise or someone saying something about IT(aka trama) then I'll flip out? So what do I do?

 

[Deleted member 1860]

You're in the United States so you're entitled to disability accommodations if you have an official diagnosis. I don't know how it works on a high school level, but every college in the USA has a disabilities department which handles accommodations for disabled students. (PTSD qualifies as a disability.) I suggest talking to your guidance counselor to see what sort of accommodations you can get. When I am about to panic or have an episode, I simply walk out of class. (This accommodation is in my file and I am entitled to it.) My instructors all know that I need time to myself to calm down. At the beginning of the semester I explain to them that I sometimes get anxious in class and need time to myself to calm down. They all understand. I know that in high school you're not permitted to simply walk out of class like in college, so the overall dynamics are a bit different, but seeing as how you have these panic attacks, its not unreasonable to request time to yourself to calm down, and to just walk out into the hallway outside of the classroom in order to catch your breath.

 

[Nicole0317]

But I'm in 8th grade I don't think they would let me do that I mean usually I just ask to go to the restroom but you know my panic attacks last 10-20min and well it dosen't take that long to go the restroom so I'm not sure on that

 

[Chava]

Fear of panic attacks themselves certainly made my life miserable for a while. Do you have a school counselor or psychologist who is aware of your situation and can inform the teachers? Teachers don't need details. But you could be excused if needed. If you need 10 minutes or longer, that should be okay. Maybe if you felt like you had an escape, or a place to go to if you started feeling panic symptoms, they would lessen in intensity. ?? I've done this in the past...where I had panic attacks I found an escape or an out of sorts...and the panic actually lessened a lot in those situations.

As for meeting with your therapist, please don't be afraid of panic attacks but let them know you are afraid of this. In therapy you can hopefully work on ways to notice the symptoms and find things that help calm you. Certain ways of breathing help me, or laying on my stomach. But I had to have a sort of safe space to test some of this out.

 

[Nicole0317]

Well panic attacks always seem to get worse when I'm laying down so that dosen't work and it takes a lot for anything to work sometimes my heart rate gets up to 210 when it's really bad

 

[Chava]

I'm saying work on finding what helps you, hopefully with your therapist. It's also good to know what doesn't help (like laying down does not help you). I have different kinds of panic and they take different responses, but it has take a while and being able to first work on feeling safe vs trapped (like I'd imagine feeling trapped in class when you are feeling panic symptoms).

And does anyone at your school know what is going on so that they can advocate for you (without having to give out any details)?

 

[Nicole0317]

Not really I'm mean to teacher now that I panic sometimes because we have lecturer at our school that comes on Thursdays to talk about a topic and that topic is replayed to what happened to me so it gives me panic attacks so I can't stay in the room in that class on Thursdays and the teacher knows I can't be in there and the other teacher sort of knows because I have to go to her classroom during that class since she is an elective class but I defdinetly would of fathered them not know but I didn't really have a choice

 

[littlelostchild]

Can your parent or guardian talk to the school? We have a Special Education department that would help with this. I am at a school that goes up to grade 8. We have students with many different needs. Some use a 'break card' that they put on their desk when they need to go to our resource room for support. Perhaps you could do something like that. We have students with anxiety issues that we provide support for.

 

[Nicole0317]

That would be a good idea except first of all there are a lot of rude bad kids at my school that seem to think no one on the world matters but them so if I put a break card or whatever my school would call it on my desk then I would have several kids ask me what it is which would cause me to panic more and there other reasons I'm just not going to get into and I wouldn't be able to go to a room with other people in it either bevause In my situation when I have a panic attack if other people are their it seems to get worse for certain reasons I think maybe one of them could tell my teachers and they might be okay to let me just leaves the room to calm down or whatever maybe idk they might not let me

 

[littlelostchild]

Maybe you could use a signal so your teacher would know why you are stepping out of the class.

 

[Nicole0317]

Maybe that would work but I would have to attempt to bring it up with my T. Which isn't easy for me to do

 

[Chava]

I know it's hard to internalize, but it really is none of the other kids' business why you leave. Also, even though they will be curious at first perhaps, the majority of them are honestly more interested in their own issues and will not really be thinking about what is going on with you. I left class a lot in school. A couple kids asked once, I said I didn't feel well or totally ignored them. And then that was done. I just left when needed and it was no big deal.

Good if you can talk to your parents/guardians and therapist about finding a way to simply leave class without any big signal or disruption. If you didn't have the added fear of trying to hold it together in class, if you knew you have a safe escape, I really wonder if everything would feel easier to tolerate and you could even begin to find distractions that work well for you. I loved school for busying my mind and getting into projects I loved. But it wasn't always easy, for sure.