Last February, Texas had a severe snow event and almost the whole state lost power. Today we are facing another winter weather event. Although the news keeps telling us that it isn’t a repeat of last February, I can understand how everyone is worried about the weather.
The whole situation reminds me about dealing with anxiety attacks. Having an anxiety attack feels like I am going to die. My hands shake. My heart races. I can’t breathe. I have a sense of impending doom. It feels like someone is right behind me and I feel those pin pricks on the back of my neck. The worst part isn’t that I feel like I am going to die; it’s feeling like I am dying and then not dying. The horrible painful sensation doesn’t go away. At least, if I died, it would be over with. Eventually, the sensation dissipates. My life goes back to normal. Except, I start thinking about the next attack.
When that next attack comes on, no matter how bad it is, the anticipation of it is always far worse than it really is because I have built it up in my mind. It is just like this winter weather event. Thinking about how bad things were in February, makes me even more nervous about tomorrow’s ice storm. The only way to get through it is to realize that whatever happened before isn’t going to happen tomorrow and even if it does, I survived it then and I can survive it again.
That’s how I face my anxiety attacks now. I don’t worry about how they felt in the past. Just because they were difficult in the past doesn’t mean that it is going to be difficult this time. In fact, I have had so many anxiety attacks of varying degrees, I never know how bad my attack is going to be. So when I have one coming on, I just take it one minute at a time. I always take a minute at the beginning and I remind myself that whatever comes, it’s going to be okay. I have survived lots of anxiety attacks and I will survive the one that is coming on this time, too. I know I will. I have faith in it. God tells me so.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
