Hey there.
So it's 4:22AM in NYC and I just got home from being stuck in an elevator with 17 people for little more than a full hour.
Wow, what an experience, living through one of my nightmares.What better way then to deal with panic then to get stuck in a packed elevator for an hour, just as a side note the max occupancy was 9 people, we had 17. Next time you read a max occupancy note, don't ignore it. We eventually got out through the elevator escape vent with the help of good old FDNY.
Anyhow. I post a lot of advice on these forums, but by no means I am anxiety free myself, i try to do a lot of what I advise other people to do and until tonight I was definitely not ready to be stuck in an elevator.
At first a flush came over me, you all know the flush, its fun, it lets you know "oh hai, here i am, my name is panic" then disbelief, is this really happening to me? really? to me? REALLY??? You feel like you're in a fantasy, you're in a dream, pinch me, im going to wake up any second now right? NO. This is reality. It sets in hard.
Thought's race, but here is the thing, I got a bunch of thoughts like "we are not going to get out of here, im going to panic and faint, im going to black out, what if the air runs out? what if we have to sit here the full night?" i pushed those thoughts away as soon as they got to me I replaced them with "fire dept. will be here soon, there is def an air vent here, it might get hot but we are all here experiencing the same thing and you are no different than other people", i coupled it with breathing, i breathed slowly and deeply with my stomach, making sure I took nice concise breaths with my stomach only and exhaled nice and long. I kept distracted by listening to other peoples conversations and jokes and when the fire dept. got there I kept distracted by thinking about what they are doing and following their flashlights which we could see through the elevator shaft, i kept reassuring myself that someone is here on the other side and close to us, they will get us out no matter how long, but we will be out and someone is close.
I didn't get a panic attack. I got a few flashes of anxiety, but i think that's understandable given the situation. Overall I didn't really freak out, i didn't have too bad of anxiety too, i was able to stay focused and concentrated, i was a little foggy but attributed that to the time of night, i mean it was about 2AM.
I made it and I feel great !!
I learned a few things that I wanted to share. Thoughts. Thoughts are very important, if you let your thoughts consume you then they WILL. If you can set your thoughts to positivity and let those consume you then you WILL feel better, you will feel safer.
Breathing. I always emphasize breathing, but wow. I mean, really, it is the best tool in your arsenal when shit hits the fan and you feel your thoughts start to race, just start breathing, it will most certainly calm you down.
Even in some of the worst situations there is a way out, don't forget that. Your body is resilient and will respond, some of your worst nightmares are nowhere as scary as you make them out to be. All in all while it was an annoying and perhaps somewhat distracting experience it wasn't all that terrible. Honestly all we did was stand for about an hour talking and then climb out. Not that bad.
Hopefully I can keep positive from this experience and it won't set me back, but we'll see.
Take care,
Stan.
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You did amazingly well, trapped in a lift with 17 people sounds horrific, especially for an anxity sufferer.
