Fight or Flight

Written 4/17/15 Danger! Sound the alarms!

Danger!
Danger!
You must
Fight or flight.
Sound the alarms!
The brain says.
Panic sets in
Adrenaline coursing through your veins now.
The rhythm of your heart
Beats to exceeding speeds.
The temperature rises in the room
As your heart beat increases
But you find its really only you.
Your stomach sinks
As if you're on a roller coaster.
Trying to fill your lungs
You gasp for air
Only to find the oxygen has escaped you.
A tingling sensation overcomes you
As your body goes numb.
All you can do now is pace
Like a caged animal
And wait. . .
(End)

Author's Note

This is how panic attacks are, at least for me.

Reviews

[....................]

It is an automatic response that sends the body into turmoil, indeed... well-captured in this poem, Ashley... it's one of those things that is born out of the twisting of our wiring with our environment... my sister is like this...

[GreenEyedPoet]

Yup, it's our fight or flight mode - it's basically over active and it sucks!

[....................]

ah, yes, I can see that... I am sure there are some sort of exercises you can do but I don't know any...

[GreenEyedPoet]

When I have one I just try to deep breathe and get through it as best as possible. Not much else I can do lol.

[....................]

lol at least that's something... breathing is always good; when it stops, then you are in trouble lol

[GreenEyedPoet]

Haha yes I know.

[....................]

My attempt at dry humour... do you think i will cut it as a stand-up (or sit-down) comedian? lol

[GreenEyedPoet]

Maybe, ya never know! lol.

[....................]

oh, no.... the infamous 'maybe' - there goes my dreams of making it to Stand-up lol... just kidding, another failed attempt at dry humour

[GreenEyedPoet]

Haha maybe is better then a 'no' though! lol.

[....................]

true... but it's almost like, "don't call us...we'll call you" lol

[GreenEyedPoet]

Haha yea I guess so.

[Dani The Unreviewed]

Well described. Absolutely a brilliant write. I'm a ratin it 100#

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thanks IM! :D

[Dani The Unreviewed]

You are welcome :)

[B]

I think this is bravery coming to light

What a very well written piece ?!!

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thank you Nisreenaa! :)

[B]

My pleasure

[Sami Khalil]

A powerful write with a great descriptive nature of this condition. Excellent...:)..............

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thank you! :)

[Sami Khalil]

You are welcome...:).....

[sereenaoutloud]

You feel the anxiety building up with this one!! My mum has suffered these for as long as i can remember...horrible things that just happen at random for her .. She calls them "the bully".
Great write greeneyes :)

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thanks hun!
Yea they are terrible things! They are always random for me too, and usually I don't even know what caused them. I had been doing better with them, up until Christmas, but the day after Christmas I had one. And they've been happening very so often since then.
Kinda funny because I was talking to MS about them last night and I hadn't had one in a couple weeks and then I had a small one earlier today! Ugh lol.

[sereenaoutloud]

oh no, glad you are abel to talk about them though and have people support you!! (me included of course) Yes with my mum they come on out of no where and then she will get a bunch over a period of time.. then they will go away again until they decide to pop the ugly head back up!

[GreenEyedPoet]

I don't talk about them as much as I probably should. I'm an open book if people ask me about them (or anything else for that matter) but I don't usually bring these things up. But it's ok because those who do know and have shown support are who matter anyways. :)
I did figure out why I had that one after Christmas, haven't figured out any of the others though lol.
I hope your mom one day stops having them, I know they are no fun to deal with, esp when you don't know what is causing them in order to fix that issue.

[Brian]

You totally capture what is such an inescapably sick feeling.

[GreenEyedPoet]

It really is a horrible feeling!
Thanks for the review Brian!

[Brian]

Isn't it though? I hope you have a lovely night.

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thanks! You too! :)

[Brian]

Always! :)

[SleeplessVolcano]

Powerful descriptions! They are like enemy attacks......though to attempt to muster enough reinforcements during the attack is too late.......that should have been done in advance.....to have that elusive 'red button' of escape is always ideal.......I guess in time our defences gets stronger? :)

Great poetry!

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thank you SV!
Well yea having reinforcements in advance would be nice, but it's hard to make that happen. Since panic attacks are usually random, and you can't always be ready for them. I know I have never been ready for them lol.

[~]

wow.. sorry :( how often do you get these attacks? You've done an excellent job describing them.. i could really feel the fight or flight feelings.

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thanks MS!
For many years I used to have them several times a week. But within the last couple of years they've calmed down a bit, don't know why really. For a while I had actually stopped having them. But they've started happening again recently. I had my first one in a while the day after Christmas and have had a handful of them since then.

[~]

awww... sorry to hear that. I hope that you remain strong when they are over you.

[GreenEyedPoet]

There isn't much you can do when they happen, other then just wait it out. Sometimes having a distraction helps, but depends on how bad the attack is and how long it lasts.
But I've always gotten through them one way or another, so it's ok!

[~]

good to hear!! :D

[GreenEyedPoet]

And just an fyi, no I didn't write this because I had one lol. I was just randomly thinking about them and how I read years ago why they happen (it is literally that for some reason your brain thinks you're in a dangerous situation. So it goes into in fight or flight mode lol).

[~]

yay!!! happy for you :D

[GreenEyedPoet]

:D.........

[Jamestown]

Yes very familiar with this feeling, had it very often in my past,
some people love this feeling and others don't, I'm sure you
can probably guess which one I was, but I will say this I don't
miss those highly intense moments, well written piece!
Thanks for sharing and b-blessed!

[GreenEyedPoet]

Thanks James!
Those that love these kind of feelings are adrenaline junkies lol. They aren't really experiencing a panic attack lol. But yea I bet you don't miss them! I wouldn't either! I don't have them as often as I used too, thank God!