I’ve had lots of different types of panic attacks, what kind of panic attack are you trying to describe?Sort of a fear of the unknown type? In the scene, the character hears something outside scraping the door and window, before jiggling the handle. I’ve known some people to have slight panic attacks when situations like this arise, but have never asked how it felt/what they were thinking/how to help. Basically, a ‘simple’ panic attack, if that makes sense?
That mostly makes sense, yeah. A small one like that I would aquate it to the panic attacks I get when I have an asthma attack. So that could range from just shortness of breath and some tears. It would feel like something is pushing on your chest really hard and someone sucked all the oxygen out of the room. If it’s bad enough then it can lead to hyperventilating which is a lot more tears and broken talking between breathing. If that goes on long enough (like a few minutes depending on the person if it gets bad right away which it can it might just be a few seconds) they will collapse, not pass out though. I guess they would go into a like fetal like position, backs against the wall if they can, knees tucked to their chest but not too tightly because that hinders breathing. They would either hug their knees or grab their head.
Thoughts wise it’s basically lots of racing thoughts of “oh my god I’m going to die I can’t breath how will I get out of this I’m going to die somebody help me.” Even if they have a lot of panic attacks and know that they have panic attacks they will think like this, uncontrollably fast and it take a long time for any coherent thoughts to break through. If someone is saying something to them it will probably take them a few seconds to register what they said and might ask for a repeat of the question. That will last for a usually a few minutes after the panic has subsided and may last for up to half an hour.
And if they attack is severe enough it might cause all of their muscles to seize up, making it almost impossible and painful to move. I know the last huge panic attack I had I had to get my boyfriend to slowly move each of limbs to get feeling back into them. I was crying and snotting everywhere but I literally could not get my muscles to cooperate to ever wipe my face. (that was one of the worst attacks I’ve ever had though) Seizing is likely to happen and the severity depends on how long they’ve been having the attack before someone intervened.
As for care, I know I personally like to have someone in close proximity to me, that I can grab if I need to. If they have a comfort item bring it to them (I use my pillow, it’s soft and squishing and I won’t hurt it from hugging it too hard). Don’t let people crowd them and ask too many questions, it will make the panic worse. Placing a hand on their shoulder or back and moving it in a soothing motion helps a lot, especially if the muscles are tightening up. Soft comforting words are helpful and always ask if they need anything. If they do ask for something to make too many sudden movements and try to move smoothly but quickly to get it. If there is someone else there get them to go get it and stay with the person. If they are too confused to know what they want water is always a good idea, or if you know their comfort item get that. Something easy to eat can help with the aftermath, like a piece of chocolate or a sandwich that’s easy to bite through. Help them clean themselves up if they’re ok with that, and try to keep them away from anything stressful for a while, it’s really easy to have another attack.
A side note if it’s really severe then screaming uncontrollably might happened. I do it in small bursts but I’m sure there are some people who just don’t stop. Also they might throw up, especially if they start hyperventilated.
And now you have a novel about what panic attacks are like! I wrote way more than I meant to but it’s 2 am and I don’t care. If you have any follow up questions I’m happy to help.
gamerfreakathon 