My friend Chris wrote a very funny and very useful article about dealing with panic attacks. I assume, like he does, that many people reading this are creative nerdy types who are prone to anxiety and worrying (this is where I point to myself, but act like we're all supposed to pretend I'm not really doing that) so I present it here as a public service, and as a way to introduce you to one of my favorite people in the world:
If you frequent this site I’m going to guess that at one time or another you may have enjoyed the crippling embrace of a panic attack. How could I predict such a thing??? Because people who suffer from anxiety tend to be smarty-pants-creative types, aka NERDISTS. Folks not blessed with the gift of self-awareness don’t really understand the rush of liquid fear that floods the body. They just think we’re being “kooky.” I have a joke in my act about trying to describe the feeling of a full-blown panic attack: “Imagine being F*CKED in the HEART.”
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[After a severe panic attack while in college] a friend of mine pointed out, “Oh yeah, that’s a thing. Lots of people have those.” The sheer knowledge that I wasn’t a freak helped ebb the panic tide for a while but every now and again I’d still get the hilariously familiar, “No…wait…THIS time it’s something fatal.” I’m here to tell you that not only are panic attacks NOT fatal, but I don’t get them anymore. THAT CAN ABSOLUTELY HAPPEN FOR YOU. In this article I’d like to share a few tips that I’ve learned over the years while navigating the anxiety steeplechase.
Chris is hilarious, and if the two of us got together to do a Podcast, it would be awesome. In fact, I'm going to call him now and bug him about doing that. You can follow Chris on Twitter, if you enjoy amusing tweets. He's @nerdist.
