ANXIETY & BURNOUT BLOG

You're loading the dishwasher, or sat in a meeting, or driving somewhere you've driven a hundred times before, and out of nowhere your heart starts pounding so hard you can hear it in your ears. Your chest tightens. You can't get a full breath in. You genuinely believe something is seriously wrong with you. If you've just had your first panic attack. I want to say something before anything else: panic is the top end of an anxiety experience, and although it's very intense — y

You're the one people describe as having it all together. You know your triggers. You've got your breathing technique, your morning routine, your way of talking yourself down when things start to spiral. You've been managing anxiety for years, quietly and competently, without anyone really knowing how much effort it takes. Which is exactly why the panic attack made no sense. If your anxiety has always felt more or less under control, and then suddenly it wasn't, you're probab

The panic attack itself lasted a few minutes. The fear that it might happen again has lasted weeks. You've started scanning every room for the nearest exit. You've stopped going back to wherever it happened the first time. You check your heart rate without meaning to. A part of you is on watch now, all the time, waiting to see if today is the day it happens again. If this is where you are, I want to say something clearly: the fear afterwards is not an overreaction, and it isn