Fifteen minutes later, he had another panic attack, this time pushing him over the edge.
“This time it was even worse. I started shaking, I couldn’t see, my heart was beating as if I had run a marathon and I couldn’t breathe.”
“I had to go somewhere else and I had no idea why,” he continued.
“I later found out what I was experiencing was diagnosable and manageable, but in that moment I thought my career was over. Something had taken control of me without my permission or understanding, preventing me from being myself.”
Since then, Nate has sought help from a psychologist who has taught him how to deal with his panic attacks if they return, and although they have returned, he now approaches them from a different perspective.
“I understood that things like anxiety and depression were real, but I didn’t realize that sometimes we don’t have full control over our brains, or the ways in which they can get out of control,” he writes.
“The feelings still come back from time to time – in fact, even as I write this, just reliving my experiences makes me a little annoyed – but talking about my anxiety and getting treatment means it’s something I can live with and can manage.”
Since Tuesday, Nate A.B.C. We have support from our team, but also from the millions of Australians living with anxiety and panic attacks, for many of whom mental illness impacts on their daily lives, including at work.
