Panic Attacks

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When I Realized These Physical Sensations Were My Version of Panic Attacks

For so many years I had no idea what they were. It has only been in the last two weeks that I have made the connection of the physical sensations I’ve experienced and how they coincided with anxious times in my life. Everything I ever remember hearing or reading about panic attacks mention shortness of [...]

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A tired woman sitting in bed with her head rested on her forehead

Megan Cuzzolino

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Panic Disorder

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When I Realized the 'Weirdest Hangover I've Ever Had' Was Actually a Panic Attack

It began as a pretty typical Saturday morning in Boulder, over three years ago. I woke up in my big comfy bed in my sun-drenched condo, feeling like a pile of garbage. Despite leading what I thought was a “healthy” lifestyle, I had a tendency to go to happy hour after work on Fridays and [...]

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Thought Catalog

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Panic Disorder

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4 Things You Shouldn’t Say to Someone Having a Panic Attack

This piece was written by Gaby Dunn, a Thought Catalog contributor. Panic attacks send adrenaline all over your body. When I have one, my heart races and my hands shake like someone’s doing brain surgery on me while I’m awake. The rest of my body might shiver or tremble. My arms sometimes feel numb. It [...]

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MightyTogether 17h

I'm new here!

Hi, my name is bluebird_410. I'm here because I just had something on my heart that I wanted to share. Last March 10, 2025 I was spinning out of control and in the midst of a panic attack, I overdosed. I was on the phone with the suicide hotline unable to breathe, heart racing and shaking half to death. The panic would not stop. It was relentless. I told the person talking to me that I needed to calm down so I took a clonazepam- yes prescribed. It didn’t work. I continued taking them until I had consumed 10. By then the police were at my house along with the paramedics. I was out of it and told them that I had taken 10 pills. I also tried to convey to them the other medicines I was on. During this attempt apparently I said I had taken 8 tramadol. I was trying to tell them I took 2. It was put in my medical records as an opioid overdose with suicidal intent. That was not the case. It was an diazepam accidental overdose. Having this in my medical records has destroyed me because no doctor wants to prescribe decent medications that might work to ease my severe chronic pain, I understand why - their license that they worked so hard for would be on the line. It is sad that no doctor seems to believe in me now and no one will provide me with medicines that work. 7/10 is my daily pain score on just about every day. I remember the medics gave me Narcan and I did not respond. If it was an opioid overdose I would have. Furthermore, I did not want to die. If I had I wouldn’t have been on the phone with the suicide hotline person in the first place. I just wanted the panic to stop and to be able to breathe. Now whenever someone looks at me they see what I did and not who I am. It hurts, the stigma hurts. Instead of trying to help me, everyone judges me. Doctors look at me funny and nurses patronize me. Everyone wants to help in general but the sad reality is no one is there when someone like me comes back out of that rabbit hole. Those who say they want to help should see the person who needs help as a whole person or they will finally succeed in acting out their intent. People like me need a community of love and forgiveness not anger, I don’t have anyone except my husband who helps as much as he can. I am bipolar. I was diagnosed at 12. I am a survivor of severe childhood trauma. I am the child in the book who wore long clothes in the summer to hide the bruises, who didn’t believe in herself because she was told on a daily basis how stupid she was - the one that everyone stayed away from and laughed at because of her smelly hand me down clothes. You probably would have laughed and stayed away yourself. Everyone did. My childhood was lonely. Now I spend many days writhing in agony because I can’t get necessary pain meds because lots of the medical community think I am just out to score. I am not and my proof is I still have a box of tramadol a year and a half later. I would not still have these medications if I was an addict. I use them sparingly and am terrified about what I will have to endure when they run out. I have been judged, found wanting and abandoned. I know the inability to get necessary pain medications is my fault, but the failure of others to listen and take the time to really see me is not. I have decided to share this deeply personal moment in my life because I want to advocate for those who are mentally ill. My bipolar disorder is part of what makes me who I am. I have bad days - really bad days and I have good ones. My new primary care doctor is trying to get my medications straight. For 20 years I was so heavily drugged I was not myself and drug interactions existed from doctors carelessly prescribing drugs without taking the time to look at the other medications I was on. I left my psychiatrist for this reason and I am actively seeking a new one - one who doesn’t violate HIPPA by talking so loudly about me that I can hear him in the halls while waiting for my turn to see him in an empty room. I am not the only patient he talks or complains about either. I am seriously considering TMS to rewire my brain and fight the depression and fight my fibromyalgia. My POTS and malabsorption syndrome I guess I will just have to live with forever. Chronic illness is no joke. I am not looking for anything except support. Please see past the stigma. Please help those who fight mental illness everyday without pointing the finger and laughing at who they are. I hope as a community we can stand together and educate bringing awareness about those who are different and ways to meet those individuals needs. Being me is tough but I wouldn’t trade being me for all the world. Thanks for reading and God bless. If anyone reading has thoughts of self harm please call the suicide hotline or get help. I may live with stigma but at least I will get to see another day. Thank you.

#MightyTogether #Anxiety #Depression #BipolarDisorder #Migraine #Fibromyalgia #PTSD

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Nox Cinis Caelum WonderPup

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@puppy_nox

21h

Today is just not a good day. I really wanted to go to the mall. Stupid migraine from hell.

I'm absolutely miserable today. My tummy hurts so much and my head is pounding. My vision has been really off and double. I'm furious about how my strabismus surgeon won't help me.
I had a panic attack today. I clipped my nails so I wouldn't rip them off. I've been sitting on the couch with Pauley for about 4 hours and she didn't seem to notice I was struggling. So I dunno.
I'm feeling very sad. I'm also feeling very alone.

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WanderingGuitarfish7

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@wanderingguitarfish7

So alone

I’m so alone. I’ve had panic attacks and cried for 2 weeks so far.

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WanderingGuitarfish7

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@wanderingguitarfish7

Panic attack from loneliness

Have you ever had a panic attack from loneliness? I am right now.

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Bicultural Empath

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@emotionallybilingual

Bicultural Empath 3w

Good morning, Today is Saturday September 5th.

⚠️Childhood enmeshment teaches you to survive by managing everyone else's emotional weather while permanently abandoning your own. #Anxiety #CPTSD #BPD #Enmeshment #Trauma #NoBoundaries #Family #Moms #dads #neglect #PanicAttacks

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gato

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@gato

MightyTogether 3w

I'm new here!

Hi, my name is gato. I'm here because

#MightyTogether #Anxiety #Migraine #PanicAttacks

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Nathan Feiles, LCSW-R

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@nathan_feiles_lcsw

Relationships 4w

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Reconnecting To Fulfillment After Relationship Trauma

If you are navigating the aftermath of a toxic or painful relationship, the process of healing from relationship trauma can help you to reclaim fulfillment and reestablish your own sense of self. Confidence, agency, autonomy, and even things like personal preferences can become diluted or abandoned after a traumatic or abusive relationship. The weight of certain emotional experiences (including family and relationship dynamics going back to childhood) can feel heavy, often showing up long after the relationship end. This may present as anxiety, panic attacks, difficulty trusting others, or struggling with closeness and intimacy, and more. While these reactions are common from the residue of a traumatic relationship, it is possible to eventually start embracing healthier relationships and intimacy and finding fulfillment again.

The Reality of Emotional Wounds

Relationship trauma isn’t always related to physical abuse. It often stems from repeated psychological and emotional experiences like gaslighting or betrayal. After continuous painful interactions, your mind learns to constantly brace for the next incident. This can leave you feeling on edge, anxious, and exhausted, even when nothing is happening. You might find yourself overanalyzing text messages, catastrophizing, or feeling a surge of panic when someone raises their voice or you start to sense anger or disappointment from them. This survival mode likely served as a necessary way to protect yourself in the previous relationship. However, while necessary then, in the aftermath of the relationship it may now be more of an obstacle to moving forward.

It makes sense that the tendency would be to stay guarded when you've been hurt. While it is useful and important to remain aware of things like red flags when meeting new people, there's a line where the guard might start to erode intimacy and leave you feeling unfulfilled in new and current relationships that aren't toxic or traumatic. Learning where this line (and other lines) are for you is an important part of healing from relationship trauma.

Rebuilding Your Internal Foundation

After a complicated relationship, people can often lose touch with their own sense of self because those feelings were ignored for so long. When in a toxic or traumatic relationship, people can disregard their own needs to the point of not knowing what they are anymore. It may have become difficult to have any room to make decisions, to embrace autonomy, to say "no", to do things like eating what you want to eat, have hobbies, and more. When in a controlling, abusive, or toxic relationship, people can often shrink and shed parts of themselves in order to take care of the partner who may become abusive (emotionally or physically), angry, neglectful, etc. It is important after a relationship like this to rebuild a sense of self, and regain (or gain for the first time, perhaps) self-confidence and a sense of agency and autonomy that a traumatic relationship has a way of diminishing.

As you move forward from a toxic relationship, you may start to see a shift in how you view connections—away from something scary or daunting, and towards something that can be hopeful and exciting. Part of healing from relationship trauma involves learning what a healthy, secure attachment looks like. This is where therapy often comes in for people who have been through relationship trauma. Many people haven't had healthy relationship dynamics before in their lives, going back to family life growing up. Discovering who you are, learning and developing your own boundaries, and understanding what you don't want in your life are all parts of the process of healing.

Finding Meaning

As you continue to heal, some days may feel like several steps forward, while others might feel like a step back. This is normal as you work through the impact of a painful relationship. Overall, the process of healing aims to keep old memories and painful emotional experience from controlling your current and future happiness. These old and painful memories don't only live in the conscious mind, but also unconsciously and in the body. For example, when intimacy starts to present itself, you may not being consciously thinking, "I don't want this," but after a traumatic relationship you might find yourself recoiling at the possibility of intimacy, wanting to run away from the relationship, or trying to avoid moments that could lead to intimacy or any perceived threat or pain. These patterns are common after relational trauma, and where the attention is needed as you heal.

You don't need to be alone in this. It can often take the help of an outside view to see the patterns or refine dynamics we've carried over the course of our lives.

#Relationships #Trauma #MentalHealth #Anxiety #PanicAttacks #PTSD