Had a panic attack in front of everyone.. Embarrassed!

[Anxietysufferer92]

You may have seen my previous thread about worries (back pain, breast pain, moles, etc). I read the dailymail about a girl who had melanoma even though the dermatologist said it looked fine and now this is another worty to add to my list! Last night I was tossing and turning and had night sweats, this morning I came to work and all of a sudden my mind started thinking death and my chest and back began to hurt and I had to sit down and started crying really loud (all employees came and calmed me down) asked what was wrong i just said I was not feeling well, then they asked me to go home which I did.. And i feel so mortified! I am still panicking my boyfriend is trying to calm me down but I keep pacing up and down, taking painkillers, etc. Why is this happening :'(

[Sam Winter]

these moments happen I had three days in a row where I couldn't calm down, if we see something that "triggers" us then its hard to calm down trust me I've been there a million times lol
as for being embarrassed don't be its a thing that happens to alot of us my sister had a panic attack in front of her co workers once and even passed out, and they was fine in fact they was just really worried about her wellbeing

[Pamplemousse]

Welcome to the world that is the full-on public anxiety attack experience :(

You asked 'why is this happening?'. Anxiety attacks exhibit many symptoms, but the classic ones are those that you have just had. And it is no more than that - an anxiety attack. You need to calm yourself much more than painkillers, it will pass. You've now got something in your head that is irrational and trying to take over, and you are the person best placed to confront it, and beat it. Try and forget what you read in the Daily Mail - the article was printed because it was the exception rather than the rule and it serves that rag's agenda well. (I wouldn't dignify it with the title 'newspaper'). The sensationalist "Person makes one mistake that proves fatal" sells papers (or these days, generates clicks and traffic) much more than "Person gets it right 99.99997% of the time". There is also, sad to say, an ever-increasing anti-science 'retreat from reason' occurring in some parts of society.

I've had one or two at work, in front of my colleagues too - the last one (some years ago now) had me run to the toilet in hysterics, and I can still see the puzzled looks on the faces of my colleagues (one in particular) as I left the room...

What was interesting was their reactions to it afterwards.

Some took the mickey for weeks, months afterwards. Others were much more understanding and sympathetic, whilst most never mentioned it again. There was a thought-provoking poster campaign on the Tube years ago highlighting this difference in attitude, especially amongst young males. It showed two photos of a teenager in different circumstances, and the captions went something along the lines of "When his leg got broken, everybody wanted to talk about it" (it was a footballing injury IIRC, with his mates surrounding him) but in the second frame the caption read "but when his mind was broken nobody wanted to talk about it". Apologies for the likely inaccuracy, but it was years ago!

A lot of people feel very uncomfortable about mental health issues; for my colleagues the hardest bit to reconcile was how someone who in his normal line of work relies upon cold logic and clear thinking for time-critical results can suddenly go so wrong, so quickly.

I hope that by the time you read this you're feeling much better :)