Dear Melanie,
O.K. - here is a perfect example of a 'panic attack' - I'll describe two that I recently experienced:
When I was running out of the movie theatre in a state of panic, tunnel vision honing in - hearing nothing but the beat of my heart, seeing the mouths moving on the faces of the people around me but hearing no sound just the fuzz in my head - I was no one, just lost in the crowd - I ran in the bathroom to find solace, found none, ran back out to the maze of a 24 movie theatre - I was 'peaking', freaking, out of control - all I could think of was to find a police officer, a stranger - and when I did make my way to the police officer, he did take me in his arms, told me everything was going to be o.k., he would take care of me - and he did, he called the paramedics - then, while he was consoling me in front of probably 100 people (I did not care) a wonderful lady, a professor at FAU in a beautiful black suit with sweet eyes - looked into mine - she saw me having trouble from way across the crowd - made her way to me and said: Look into my eyes, I won't leave you, are you having a panic attack? She took me into her arms, her friend, who is a nurse, also put her arms around me - two strangers saw my plight, came to my side - I will never forget those two courageous, compassionate women - they stayed with me until my friends were found in the theatre - they even came inside the emergency vehicle with me - when my friends came, they even stayed to explain. They walked me to our car and we said a good bye only two people who share the same panic attacks can do. They were strangers that helped me through a horrendous situation.
There are many wonderful people out there in the world - I only hope I will be able to reach out and help someone like me someday, I will feel honored.
Here is an example of another one:
Joined: Jan. 2002
Dear Group,
I had a strange panic attack last night. Here I am, at home, having a pretty normal day, my friend calls and asks me to dinner. Fine, no problem. We drive to the restaurant, sit down, then all the sudden I started feeling 'wierd', the tunnel vision, fuzzy head, can't concentrate on anything but the fact I may be losing my mind type of 'wierd'. There was a light above the table that was blasting me
