Should You Confide in Your Friends About Your Panic Attacks?
Imagine sitting in the gymnasium at your childs school while youre having a full-blown panic attack. There are people all around you and if you get up to leave the gym everyone will be staring at you. Your heart is racing a million miles a minute. Your face and body are drenched in sweat from heat to toe like youve just run a marathon. What a nightmare!
Unfortunately, I dont have to imagine this because I lived it. This happened to me in the spring of 2005 and was the worst panic attack Id ever experienced. I felt utterly humiliated as other parents that I knew sat beside me and wondered what the heck was wrong with me.
To me the only thing I could do at that moment was lie, so I told other parents that I was having trouble with hormones and hot flashes. I felt sure I couldnt admit that I was having a panic attack because these people would think I was crazy. My child went to school with their children, who would sometimes come over to my home. There was no way I could admit the truth.
The only two people to whom I ever confessed my panic attack problem were my sister and my best...