Commentary from April 26, 2017
This strip is about panic attacks. It was on my to-do list for a very long time, but I was never sure about how to go about doing it. A few weeks before doing this, I received a mail on tumblr asking me for such a strip, and I thought it was time to set myself to work on trying to depict it.
I’ve had a couple of panic attacks, and I can tell you they are terrifying experiences. I don’t think I can properly communicate the terror in a comic, but I can try. My first one happened over twenty years ago and I can still remember those feelings, as well as afterwards when I had my breathing back to normal and I was moving, but it took me a long time to talk after that. I don’t know how it compares to PTSD but panic attacks do mess you up.
I’m hoping this comic will start some conversation about panic attacks. I am still weary of them and it took me a long time to get over the circumstances that brought them about.
I’ll do more strips on this in the future if I can find a way to say something new about it. But like bipolar (which I still haven’t gotten around to doing) it’s really difficult to do strips about something like this in the confined space of 4 panels. But it’s worth doing and I hope to make a comic about the subject that is worth the time.
I’ve had a couple of panic attacks, and I can tell you they are terrifying experiences. I don’t think I can properly communicate the terror in a comic, but I can try. My first one happened over twenty years ago and I can still remember those feelings, as well as afterwards when I had my breathing back to normal and I was moving, but it took me a long time to talk after that. I don’t know how it compares to PTSD but panic attacks do mess you up.
I’m hoping this comic will start some conversation about panic attacks. I am still weary of them and it took me a long time to get over the circumstances that brought them about.
I’ll do more strips on this in the future if I can find a way to say something new about it. But like bipolar (which I still haven’t gotten around to doing) it’s really difficult to do strips about something like this in the confined space of 4 panels. But it’s worth doing and I hope to make a comic about the subject that is worth the time.
Nailed it. I really thought I was dying when I had my first one.
after suffering 7 attacks and 5 n a row in a single week they became normal for me …
suffocation, muscle strain, unreal fear of something, the body crawl itself into a ball or simply loses balance and falls into the ground, very heard to breathe, attacks so suddenly and it’s very hard to fight away.
but after getting many i got used to them
Still not so sure about the “irrational” part for all cases.
Fuck yes!!!
Pardon my language but that’s exactly how I felt
oh no
After the first eruption, the anxiety volcano finally knows how to stick it to us again and again.
I was “lucky” in that mine were caused by my antidepressant, and therefore could be gotten rid of. I had the rising tide version where panic just steadily ramps over time until you can’t physically sustain it and pass out. Unfortunately, it hit while I was out. I had an errand, and I always hate driving. I thought it would fade after. I thought maybe I just needed to put food in me. After doing that, it was no longer very safe for me to drive, but I was near a place I worked for two years. Called my sister, so I could talk to someone, and just let myself drive home kinda on autopilot.
After that, I knew the symptoms well enough to get home ahead of them, and under covers.
I know mine don’t look quite the same, but the reason I was having trouble driving… I was drifting a bit like that. Needed the calming conversation about my niece and nephews to stay present. I was slipping, briefly, repeatedly. I’d like to think that if the phone call hadn’t helped, I’d have had the sense to pull over, but that would have meant paying for a cab… and having a working brain, which was kinda the fail.
Yup. I haven’t had a panic attack in ages. But I’m still real anxious, and damn if I’m not terrified of them coming back.
Is that a new character?
I’m still catching up, but I hope we see further development on this! I know my first panic attack I really thought was “just a headache” in the beginning. But when I ended up feeling like panel 3 and like I would actually DIE if I stopped pacing around and around (knowing that was irrational, but it’s how I felt) I knew it was something more. Just curious about the follow-up because when you don’t know with heart pounding and shallow breathing and all that you HONESTLY feel like you might be dying! Or at least like it must be something physically wrong. I know no one actually said “JUST a panic attack” to me, but when I heard “panic attack” I filled in the rest and definitely felt like I was being seen as making a big deal out of not much at all.
I still remember my first…with my current depressive episode they have become so commonplace that I’ve chosen to be medicated for them…because they’re happening 3-5 times a week. I’ll get them at work, at the the grocery store…and surprisingly in my own living room.
A few months ago, I experienced an unprecedented episode of my anxiety about 15 years ago.
I was submitted there is a situation of extreme stress and was the trigger for a crisis, but unlike any other, this did not happen in minutes. It became more intense and then I fell to the ground having something like a seizure. I struggle without stopping, not having control of my body, without being able to ask for help. A horrible desperation took hold of me. Luckily my brother ran up to the room and tried to keep my head still so he would not hurt me anymore. It was very scary!
Unfortunately it is a consequence of extreme anxiety attacks. And this time I could not control myself. 🙁
Over time there is always a terrible newness in mental illness. I’m on my limit!
* I’m sorry for my English.
Wow, you captured the panic attack in vivid detail. My first one was almost exactly like that. I suffer from PTSD, DID, and Depression so when I found this site, to see all the people who have had similar experiences and have gone though this, it inspires me to soldier on.