{"quotes":[{"text":"And then it happens. The panic. It's slow at first, creeping through the cracks in my thoughts until everything starts to feel heavy. It builds; it becomes something physical that clutches at my insides and squeezes out the air and the blood.","author":"Sara Barnard","tags":["a-quiet-kind-of-thunder","anxiety","depression","mental-illness","panic-attack"],"id":27018,"author_id":"Sara+Barnard"},{"text":"The sky was so blue I couldn’t look at it because it made me sad, swelling tears in my eyes and they dripped quietly on the floor as I got on with my day. I tried to keep my focus, ticked off the to-do list, did my chores. Packed orders, wrote emails, paid bills and rewrote stories,but the panic kept growing, exploding in my chest. Tears falling on the desktick tick tickme not making a soundand some days I just don't know what to do. Where to go or who to see and I try to be gentle, soft and kind,but anxiety eats you up and I just want to be fine.","author":"Charlotte Eriksson","tags":["anxiety","be-okay","crying","hopeless","hurt","mental-health","okay","panic","panic-attack","panic-attacks","recovery","sad","sadness","self-destruction","self-harm","sky","tears"],"id":29591,"author_id":"Charlotte+Eriksson"},{"text":"Here are three separate but similar things: shyness, introversion and social anxiety. You can have one, two or all three of these things simultaneously. A lot of the time people thing they're all the same thing, but that's just not true. Extroverts can be shy, introverts can be bold, and a condition like anxiety can strike whatever kind of social animal you are. Lots of people are shy. Shy is normal. A bit of anxiety is normal. Throw the two together, add some brain-signal error - a NO ENTRY sign on the neural highway from my brain to my mouth perhaps, though no one really knows - and you have me.","author":"Sara Barnard","tags":["a-quiet-kind-of-thunder","anxiety","mental-illness","panic-attack","social-anxiety"],"id":30594,"author_id":"Sara+Barnard"},{"text":"A panic attack is pathological exaggeration of the body’s normal response to fear, stress or excitement.","author":"Abhijit Naskar","tags":["human-mind","mental-health","mental-health-stigma","mental-illness","neuropsychology","neuroscience","panic-attack","science-of-mind","wisdom"],"id":176723,"author_id":"Abhijit+Naskar"},{"text":"The worst part about anxiety attacks, is that you’re aware it’s irrational and sometimes unexplainable, but knowing that gives no aid what so ever. In most cases, it deepens the anxiety as you realise “if I know it’s irrational, why can’t I stop it… Oh god I can’t stop it” you begin to believe you are no longer in control of your mind. That. That is fear.","author":"Ami Desu","tags":["anxiety","anxiety-attack","anxiety-disorder","anxiety","control-your-mind","control-your-thoughts","mental-health","mental-illness","panic","panic-attack"],"id":232788,"author_id":"Ami+Desu"},{"text":"Yesterday it was sun outside. The sky was blue and people were lying under blooming cherry trees in the park. It was Friday, so records were released, that people have been working on for years. Friends around me find success and level up, do fancy photo shoots and get featured on big, white, movie screens. There were parties and lovers, hand in hand, laughing perfectly loud,but I walked numbly through the park, round and round, 40 times for 4 hoursjust wanting to make it through the day.There's a weight that inhabits my chest some times. Like a lock in my throat, making it hard to breathe. A little less air got throughand the sky was so blue I couldn’t look at it because it made me sad, swelling tears in my eyes and they dripped quietly on the floor as I got on with my day. I tried to keep my focus, ticked off the to-do list, did my chores. Packed orders, wrote emails, paid bills and rewrote stories,but the panic kept growing, exploding in my chest. Tears falling on the desktick tick tickme not making a soundand some days I just don't know what to do. Where to go or who to see and I try to be gentle, soft and kind,but anxiety eats you up and I just want to be fine.This is not beautiful. This is not useful. You can not do anything with it and it tries to control you, throw you off your balance and lovely waysbut you can not let it.I cleaned up. Took myself for a walk. Tried to keep my eyes on the sky. Stayed away from the alcohol, stayed away from the destructive tools we learn to use. The smoking and the starving, the running, the madness,thinking it will help but it only feeds the fireand I don't want to hurt myself anymore.I made it through and today I woke up, lighter and proud because I'm still here. There are flowers growing outside my window. The coffee is warm, the air is pure. In a few hours I'll be on a train on my way to sing for people who invited me to come, to sing, for them. My own songs, that I created. Me—little me. From nowhere at all. And I have people around that I like and can laugh with, and it's spring again. It will always be spring again.And there will always be a new day.","author":"Charlotte Eriksson","tags":["a-new-day","alcohol","anxiety","art","balance","be-okay","chest","coffee","crying","drinking","ed","fine","flowers","focus","grateful","gratitude","happiness","hope","hopeful","hopeless","hurt","inspiration","joy","lovely","lovers","madness","mental-health","music","new-day","okay","panic","panic-attack","panic-attacks","park","recovery","sad","sadness","self-destruction","self-harm","sing","singing","sky","smoking","songs","sound","spring","starving","tears","walking","well-being","wellness"],"id":234210,"author_id":"Charlotte+Eriksson"},{"text":"Ever been in a spelling bee as a kid? That snowy second after the announcement of the word as you sift your brain to see if you can spell it? It was like that, the blank panic.","author":"Gillian Flynn","tags":["anxiety","anxious","blank-mind","brain","forgetting","going-blank","lost-thoughts","panic","panic-attack","spelling-bee","the-human-mind","the-mind","thinking","thoughts"],"id":450854,"author_id":"Gillian+Flynn"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":7,"pages":1}}