On my way home I had one of the worst panic attacks I’ve had in my entire life. I was driving Home from my peer support specialist class which is a bit far from me, my whole body was tingling, my heart beating really fast, and my whole body felt like it was going to give out and I would faint. I made it home thank God but I’m worried that these panic attacks will make it so I can’t do my job at work. I am going through a meditation change right now as I mentioned before. This has all been affecting me so much 😢

I see you're worried. However, I admire your persistence in living your life and working toward helping others ☺.

Thank u. I appreciate it! I really thought that being a cpss is what I wanted to do but now I’m not sure. I do want to help ppl but currently I think I need to focus on my own recovery first. I going to give looking for a job in that field time and stay with my current job. I have 2 days left in the course and graduation is Friday. It’s very important to me that I make it through and pass. Even if I never end up pursuing it as a career. I’m just not in any right state of mind to be making any changes or big decisions right now.

Sending you hugs 💚💚

So sorry this happened. For future reference when I have panic attacks while driving, I try and find a parking lot or a place to pull over to calm down, cuz it can make driving unsafe to be panicking. But yeah sometimes it’s hard to think to do that in the middle of a panic attack. But yeah, I can’t guarantee you won’t have a panic attack again because I don’t know, but I do know from experience that you do learn skills to cope with them. If they start to become a problem and you have a psychiatrist, then maybe talk about medications. I have an as needed benzodiazepine I take, my panic attacks used to be debilitating beforehand. Keep in mind with those that they can be addictive. Other than that things like breathing slowly and using grounding techniques can be helpful during panic attacks. Or even doing something to distract yourself, I often do drawing or painting, or even just scribble or smear paint around aimlessly. I know some people make themselves panic kits to have on hand, or lists of coping strategies because sometimes it can be hard to think what to do when panicking.