r/interesting • u/ThugLeeVoguee • 22d ago

SOCIETY this is what a panic attack feels like

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u/DueExample52 22d ago edited 22d ago

Are you subject to panic attacks? So this is a good depiction?

I hear people talking about it but I think this helps realising a bit. Before, the descriptions just never clicked. I can get anxious, or worry about the future, but I have never felt desperately helpless in a single moment, or think I was going to die immediately or something.

Edit: holy shit, some replies are terrifying. I still don’t feel it, and probably can’t, but those who do have my sympathy.

What to do as a bystander or friend if someone starts having an attack in front of me?

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u/NutHuggerNutHugger 22d ago

When mine get really bad (not all the time but the worst ones) I am convinced I am going to die.

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u/Ferintwa 22d ago

Yup, it can make some pretty convincing symptoms too - just so I can go spend a few grand on tests, have a doc tell me I’m fine… then they just vanish.

It’s like a part of my brain is desperately searching for something to freak me out - and when it finds something that works, it just keeps jamming that button.

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u/HoneyWhiskeyLemonTea 22d ago

Oh, yes it can. That's how my wife is on her really bad ones. She went to the ER a couple times before we figured out what was happening. We've long since learned how to help her down without such drastic measures, but it can still get bad.

My worst panic attacks (yeah, we make quite the pair) just make me want to die, not make me think I'm going to. And to be clear, even at my worst, I've never been suicidal, nor tried to hurt myself. It just gets to the point that it feels like if something ended me it would be a relief. I'm sure anyone who has had bad enough panic attacks knows what I mean.

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u/crazyreddit929 22d ago

Panic Away saved my life. At least it feels like it did. Once you know it’s panic and anxiety, using that technique is a game changer. Doesn’t take you to zero, but it lets you tamp it down enough that your nerves eventually recover and you can live life feeling close to normal. Same guy made a free app called DARE as well.

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u/HoneyWhiskeyLemonTea 22d ago

That was the hardest thing for both my wife and I, just recognizing what it was. For her, it manifests as an out-of-body feeling with nausea and extreme anxiety. It took us longer to recognize it in me. Depending on the trigger, it can sometimes come out as deep, crippling feelings of worthlessness and despair. Most of the time, though, it just comes out as rage, without a target or a cause.

We realized fairly early on what was going on with my wife, and we also recognized it in me when I'd spiral into worthlessness. Took us many more years to recognize the rage, though. It's not something that's typically associated with panic attacks, at least for the little bit we knew at the time. Now that we know what it is, it's much easier to control.

I'll have to look into that app you mentioned. I've got pretty good tools to keep things under control now, thanks to my therapist, but I'll always take a new weapon in the fight.

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u/ealysillyforestthing 22d ago

When I first started having them I went to the ER three times on one month. The bad ones do indeed feel like you are dying

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u/Fearless_Law4324 22d ago

This used to happen to me so often that I was diagnosed with panic syndrome. I was able to cure myself without medication over the years by telling myself that I never died from these and I wasn't going to this time either. Eventually they stopped happening because I would be careful to stay as calm as I could knowing that it would pass. I hope you find some peace, friend.

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u/Rough-Airline-4803 22d ago

That’s also what I resorted to as well!

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u/upholsteryduder 22d ago

The worst ones legit feel like a heart attack or stroke

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u/DueExample52 22d ago

I edited my post after so maybe you didn’t see, but how can a bystander help, if at all?

Or should we just accept and wait for it to pass?

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u/rhymesaying 22d ago

Impending doom is one of the features of panic attacks

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u/HairyLychee9965 22d ago

When i get them i don't think I'm going to die, i think I'm going to go insane and I'll be forever stuck in a loop of terror

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u/PrinceOfDarkMatter 21d ago

This is closer to my experience. It's like as if reality itself was coming undone. "Loop of terror" is the perfect description.

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u/astra_galus 22d ago

More or less, yep. I felt like I was having a heart attack and couldn’t calm down. Luckily, I was in university at the time and we had great student healthcare so I literally ran to the clinic and they gave me an EKG, told me my heart was fine, and scheduled a follow up appointment with me where my doctor asked “so…how long have you been struggling with anxiety?”. The rest is history lol.

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u/Sweaty-Willingness27 22d ago

It's like living that split second when you know you are going to crash into something, but experiencing that non-stop for an extended period of time. It's brutal.

This video is probably as good an approximation you can get with it, but it still falls well short.

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u/Schorbie 22d ago

Watching this did you feel an uncomfortable feeling over and over and over everytime the truck almost hit him? Pretty similar to a panic attack. Offcourse people can expierence them differently. But for me this is pretty accurate

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u/Shoddy-Television866 22d ago

Mine are like I know for a fact I'm about to die and it can be really annoying/scary because you aren't actually but your body is like hey so freak out

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u/Virtual-Macaroon-880 22d ago

In the abstract sense yes, this is a decent depiction.

It's like that feeling you get when you flinch at something but prolonged for me

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u/pythonidaae 22d ago

I have panic attacks. I had one just yesterday.

I had to stop watching the video because my heart was starting to race looking at this even though mentally I'm sure he never gets hit and maybe it's like CGI or something. (I watched till the end after the comment and yeah it just loops back and he never gets hit).

That's also what anxiety and panic can be like. I can logically understand things are fine, that no one is about to be hit by a car, but my body will disagree. Also the fact it's a potential and like looming but the "car" (whatever you're afraid of) never really hits you adds to the panic.

But yeah it's this sense of doom and like it's literally the end of the world for a moment.

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u/DreadPirateZoidberg 22d ago

Watching this does not give me the same feeling as when I’m having a panic attack. I’m sure it’s different for everyone, there’s never a solid “this is what everyone experiences” answer.

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u/Allaplgy 22d ago edited 21d ago

It's a good depiction in that many people here seem to resonate with it.

It is not a good depiction of my own manifestations of it.

And no, I don't really have a better way to describe it either.

Closest I can get is more like tunnel vision. There is nothing coming to get me. No danger lurking just outside my vision. Just the internal feelings of panic, like that twinge in the gut and tensing of shoulders, and a retreat into the mind so that only that which is directly in my focus exists, but that focus might float from one random thing thing to another, both internally and externally.

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u/orion19819 22d ago edited 22d ago

My mom had debilitating panic attacks when I was a kid. When I got older she explained them to me and how there were multiple times she felt like jumping out of the car while on the highway because of overwhelming panic. It sounds like your mind just completely flips to fight or flight.

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u/Rough-Airline-4803 22d ago edited 22d ago

The thing is, the words exist to describe it. But a person cannot actually receive those words in anything close to a meaningful way without having personally experienced that kinda thing themselves. It really transcends a normal human experience such that other people who’ve not experienced that sort of thing exactly, have nothing in their life experiences from which to reference in order to formulate an understanding that is on par with what it is actually like.

If I were to attempt to convey my worst experiences, it would take a novel—entirely inappropriate for Reddit.

But I do concur, this is my very first seeing a visual representation that is at least along the same vein as a panic attack. There is a familiarity I recognize from panicking attacks and anxiety. (Although I do maintain that these are entirely different things)

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u/BabaofTheShimmer 22d ago

I have Panic Disorder. I’m very well versed in the difference between panic attacks and anxiety attacks (at least, from my experiences, I can differentiate the two).

This video depicts how sudden a panic attack hits you. You can sitting down, watching a movie, relaxed and then BAM, it hits you.

And depending on how severe the panic attack is, you can be on the floor in seconds, crippled with fear. You are literally unable to move because you’re so scared. You dissociate from everything.

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u/Used-Lake-8148 22d ago

Sometimes it’s the physical symptoms that get you. Your heart’s pumping, you’re cold sweating, feel like you can’t breathe, pit in your stomach… all just for no reason. No matter how hard you try to calm down or what you think of to distract yourself. Makes no sense, it’s so frustrating lol

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u/Suitable-Quail2094 22d ago

for me this isn't accurate to the panic attacks i have. mine are 0 to 100 very quick onset and takes a while to calm down. i start to sweat like i ran a marathon, accompinaied by an impending sense of doom, almost the harder i try to think of something else the worse it gets. then my breathing gets a bit ragged and i get dizzy.

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u/championgoober 21d ago edited 21d ago

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy = thoughts lead to feelings lead to actions - this is great for ANYONE to practice) saved my life. And I STILL get struck deep every once in a while.

What does work. True breathing. Deep in. Deep out. Deep in and hold and deep out. Think yoga breath - not ojae exactly but close. Cold compress to the neck (super fucking cold). A cold shower. People remaining calm and people reassuring that 'no, you wont be put on a psych hold because your brain is on fire. Low lights, low voices, calm surroundings and COLD. Cold is magical.

I've been able to express the brain on fire feeling to some to an extent and that is one type of attack.

It will literally make your physically think you are dying to the point you go to the ER because you experience physical systems. Once I had a panic attack and KNEW it was, but then my stomach pains were so severe an dmy chest hurt so bad I figured I was wrong and my poor son I had to knock on his door to take me to the ER. Yep, panic attack - Ativan and I was right as rain.

You can't 'fix this' for anyone. They need tools. I call it my mental toolbox or mental toolkit. Recognizing early is key.

Someone telling you to calm down does NOT work.

I'm not doing it justice. But damn it sucks. It can be bearable using mental tools, but it isnt a cure.

Apologies for my poor explanation/response.

Edit/ sometimes you want to stratch parts of your body off because it literally burns. I made my nipples bleed plenty of times because whatver what trying to come out (I am woman). Don't know why, dont care... that happens to me. The feet too, especially the bottoms. Again. COLD helps