Knock, Knock! It's Anxiety!/January 18, 2007

Guess what happened to me at work today. No, really, guess. Take a whack at it. I wish it could have been that I found the corpse of an eighteen-thousand-year-old mummy inside one of the filing cabinets or that my boss promoted me to Vice-Prez of the company or something equally awesome. Instead, as I sat there working quietly in my cubicle, my heart rate started to climb. My palms grew sweaty. I felt light-headed. My whole body felt tingly and I could suddenly feel every vein in my body pulsating. My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it pounding the wall of my chest cavity. After all of that, I was just sitting there wondering, "What the hell?!" I didn't freak out until my right arm went completely NUMB!!!

I burst into tears, which wasn't good because I was already short of breath and ran into my boss's office. She had me perform a breathing exercise, which helped and she offered me some tea and insight about anxiety attacks. I was confused and frightened. See, right around June or July of 2005, I started getting these odd chest pains every now and then. I would feel really uncomfortable and it would hurt to breathe. Also, my left arm starting hurting a bit and feeling slightly numb. At first I worried that I might have a heart condition, but a good friend of mine assured me that the pain was more than likely stress-related. I took her word for it. Since then, whenever I have a lot on my mind, I get those odd chest pains; however, I have never had happen what occurred today. I actually had a full-fledged anxiety attack! I couldn't believe it. Our bodies are so cruel to us.

Apparently, a lot of repressed stress can suddenly resurface at any given moment as a panic or anxiety attack. It grabs you without warning. It is awful! Very scary. I seriously thought I was having a heart attack. Thank God that wasn't the case.

Not to intrude in anyone's personal life, but maybe someone out there could offer me additional advice about this topic? Do any of you (if you're comfortable with sharing your story) suffer from anxiety attacks? I'd really appreciate more insight on natural remedies or breathing exercises and such. Thank you in advance to anyone who decides to leave me a comment with a story or answer.

Peace and Love to all,
Silly Cake

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