Panic Attacks: The Longest 2 Minutes of Your Life

My head is a marvelous place, I just wish I wasn't in it all the time. I'm practicing patient impatience; kicking rocks off a cliff whilst I wait for the spinning to stop.

Waiting, waiting, waiting - wanting something different. Different how? That's key. Wondering, am I really that stressed?

Signs of stress and anxiety:

• Feeling like you understand the kettle and this boiling-over thing
• There's so much tension in your neck and shoulders you make Atlas look like a wimp
• Your cereal doesn't go "snap, crackle, pop" so much as "flop, crunch, crash"
• Realizing that your main sources of anxiety relief are wine, Valium and Girl Scout cookies.

OK, so maybe I understand the kettle a little too well, and my shoulders may have developed an overly intimate relationship with my ears. But it's no big deal, right?

It's all in my head. Or so several doctors, and various acquaintances have gone out of their way to inform me.

Sure it is: Much like that cavity you're studiously ignoring. Except this is a little harder to ignore because it really is in my head. It never goes away completely. Things improve, I have my stable, apparently 'normal' moments but that's not quite the same. I'm more or less stuck dealing with it, trying to find better ways of being within my own oftentimes terribly uncertain experience.

How to manage anxiety and panic

If you're restless and uneasy, try to be patient with that. Even if the world isn't. Even if it means taking more breaks than you'd like and remaining mindful of the very fear and worry which seem to be causing the problem.

Try to incorporate new things, like meditation, into a stress-busting routine.

The anxious mind insists that there's catastrophe on the horizon, when it just isn't so. It makes the world feel like too much and some days I just want to forget the psychobabble, leave off the self-help and minimize to my heart's content. I'd feel better, for a while. Maybe I could even pretend it's fine.
I could. But I'm pretty sure it isn't the best idea. It wouldn't get me anywhere but right back where I least want to be:

The average panic attack.

Honestly, there's no such thing. There's nothing average about an anxiety attack (panic attack). It's a thoroughly weird mental state consisting of 2 parts terror, 1 part utter confusion and a few ounces of pure adrenaline jacked into your veins.

In the search for allies, I have found that time is one. Did you know that most panic attacks last 2-3 minutes?

They feel like forever but put that in perspective. 2 or 3 minutes. That's half your average Mp3. It takes longer to sharpen a pencil! Not a huge chunk out of your life, so I can sort of understand how people might think that's not such a big deal. But those few minutes can change the way you live your life in some really dramatic ways (watch Panic Attacks Can Be Frightening).

Common reactions to panic include:

• withdrawal from things/people/places you previously enjoyed;
• loss of appetite;
• feeling like you can't ever really breathe;
• increased worry and propensity to fear the unfamiliar;
• muscle tension and/or weakness;
• thoughts that you're going crazy and shouldn't tell anybody about what you're experiencing;

and a whole bunch of other incredibly normal responses to what just isn't an OK-feeling thing.

Hang in there, no matter how long or short your panic attacks may be. If you've survived one, you're strong enough to overcome them. Having a few more mental hurdles to leap doesn't make you weak or lesser-than, and there are more ways than you'd think to beat anxiety and manage your panic attacks.