I’ve had severe anxiety my whole life, but I’ve never actually had any kind of attack before, so I always thought my problems weren’t that big.

Now as a 19 year old, the past few months I’ve actually been very depressed and so many stressful situations. It was around the evening when it happened, I was just on the couch watching tv when my heart fluttered a bit, and it didn’t feel right.

I jumped up and ran to get a drink of water, confused by why I was suddenly feeling so scared for no reason. Then that’s when my heartbeat got faster and my chest started burning, so I got my mom (Who was a former EMT)

She helped me breathe and checked my heart rate (It shot up to 168 BPM) and this feeling lasted for over two hours before I calmed down. I also broke down crying, and just thought back on every single bad thing that’s happened. It was the most terrifying moment of my life. I felt like I was going to die. I’m glad my mom was there in that moment, because I’m almost always home alone on days my parents work.

So I was just wondering, as someone who’s always had anxiety my whole life… why did it take like 17 years before I ever had a major breakdown? And, yesterday and today I’ve been going through the panic attack hangover, so will it happen to me again?

I’m honestly dreading that feeling again, and I just wanted to know if I should be prepared just in case, or tips on how I can avoid it?