Anxiety Attacks..?

[FeistRawr]

I really am not sure if this goes here, but I couldn't really find anywhere else that this would fit in to. So I began this day by being super confident, and ready to face anything pretty much. But then, I realized that once I had gotten home, I left a 10 point project at school that I needed to finish by tomorrow. Some people might just be like, "Oh, it's just 10 points. It won't hurt my grade that much." But it really got to me. To the point where I pretty much went insane for a little. My logic was, it would hurt my grade in that class, which would hurt my GPA, which would look bad on my college application, which would mean I couldn't go to a good school, which would mean I wouldn't have my dream job, etc. I got really shaky and tense, and I felt like everything would fall apart, just because I'll only get partial credit for one 10 point assignment. It wasn't just the grade thing; I also had anxiety because my phone was acting weird, and my beautiful and awesome cello had broken. I almost hyperventilated. I'm feeling a little better now, but that's only because I took some of my anxiety medication. Would this be considered an anxiety attack? What are the symptoms of an anxiety attack even? Thanks

[~CourageousSurvivor~]

Hey there,

I am going to go ahead and move this to the anxiety section because I think it might get better responses.

I can relate to what you are going through. I know that I stress a lot with school and it can lead to a lot of anxiety. I have yet to find the proper coping skills but one thing that kind of works is reminding myself that as long as I did my best I should be fine. When you forget an assignment try talking to a teacher and explaining to them what happened while some teachers will not care a few will be a little lenient and let you turn it in late. Lastly, try rationalizing with yourself. Remember that ten points will not kill your grade. Ten points will give you a little boost but as long as you do good on your really important assignments ten points won't hurt you. Sometimes when you rationalize situations that are causing you anxiety it can really help.

I hope this helped in some way and if you need anything feel free to pm me.

Jenna

[Commiseration]

Hey Luna!

It does sound like an anxiety attack. Those can happen when you're really under a lot of stress. I use to have them ALL the time. I had horrid social phobia and whenever I'd have panic attacks it involved feeling dizzy, shaking, not being able to breath, crying, and yelling at anyone who tried to get near me... just a state of pure panic. Everyone who has them goes through it differently so there's no "right way" to have an anxiety attack or symptoms that apply to everyone. They are horrible though and I'm sorry you had to go through that.

The best way I found to get past them is to sit down, relax the best you can, and just focus on your breathing. Try to forget everything else except telling yourself to breathe. Once you've calmed down some you can start rationalizing what triggered the attack to start with. Getting yourself back to a calm state is the most important thing and you can deal with the problem that caused it after you get there.

-Sam-