Panic Attack

Experimenting with 2nd person POV

It comes out of nowhere. 

One minute, everyone is minding their own business, and then something triggers it 

realizing you forgot to do your homework  

and all of a sudden, Panic. 

Your eyes water and you find it hard to breathe. 

You're feeling a mixture of emotions, but mostly just stress, anxiety, and, most prominently, fear. 

You can feel the eyes of everyone in the room, which only causes you more anxiety. 

You excuse yourself from the room, finding instead a quiet corner in which to huddle, away from all other humans. 

As tears stream down your face, you try to remember what calms you down. 

Music, rhythm, patterns. 

You tap Morse Code on the floor, simple things like your name, calm, as well as some other words and phrases you have memorized. 

You're good at memorizing things; it calms you down. 

You sing to yourself, a song with a steady beat that doesn't change its rhythm, a song you have also memorized. 

Remembering something you read on the internet, you lean forward, exhaling slowly, and eventually your breathing finds rhythm as well. 

You're surprisingly thirsty. 

You pull out your water bottle and take a large draught. 

You're fine now. 

You were always fine.

 

What was that? 

It was nothing. 

Things like that never happen, not to you. 

You are in perfect mental condition and never once in your life experienced a Panic Attack.

Author's Note

Okay so I have this notebook that's full of unfinished plots, random drawings and doodles, and stream-of-consciousness poems and stories, and I was flipping through it and came across this story and I decided to post it. So sue me.

Sorry it's a bit short. (Everything seems longer as it's being written, right?) I added the spaces and paragraph breaks so you know how to read it. So I guess it's kind of like a poem? I wrote it originally as a story though so that's what I'm posting on here as.

PS. Sorry I haven't posted anything in AGES and sorry I gave up on all my books. School has been really demanding this year and I barely have time to think, let alone write. So I guess that's one of the reasons I have that notebook. Also stream-of-consciousness is really the only way I can write, so I can't just sit myself down and say "ok you need to write 500 words today" It has to come to me.

Reviews

[Felicity's Eve]

Wow... I've had panic attacks before but there's no way I could describe it like this. I've learned how to suppress them, but the memories of my past ones always haunt me.

Really great write. I love the way this flows. The presice and short sentences really fit the rushing painic you described so vividly.

Great write. :)

A well-deserved 100/100