Panicking is the natural result of anxiety. Imagine a fibonacci spiral, at the beginning you have the seeds of anxiety. Let’s say these seeds proceed and manage to complete a whole three cycles, you are therefore three cycles closer to panic and feel three times more anxious… and so on. At a certain point (for this metaphor to work let’s say its a shell) you exit this shell, the spirals are finished: at the end of them, there’s panic.
Like for a hermit crab forced out of its shell, you feel displaced, uneasy and definitely in danger. Internet, psychologists and a lot of other professional figures will suggest mindfullness or similar to deal with this feeling and calm down, but personally not only does it not work on me… Since it hasn’t in the past, I’m to stubborn to try.
This is probably why I stupidly let myself spiral into panic and when I do, I panic hard! I therefore presente to you a very simple guide on how NOT to NOT panic (or… how to panic):
- Feel the anxiety. If something is bothering you, don’t adress it. Let it do so;
- Repress. Once more, keep on not adressing it, just send it to the back of your mind. In my experience, this can be done for minutes, days or even years, depending on the thought;
- At this point you should feel your anxiety growing. Good, it means it’s working. This is the moment to start thinking about what’s bothering you in an obviously very unproductive and obsessive way. Don’t think of solutions, just let the problem stick in your mind;
- Dwell on the issue, don’t let your thoughts deviate from it. It has to be your waking thought and last thing you think about before going to bed;
- Don’t discuss it with anyone, they will offer help and often will manage to;
- Let your mind explode. There’s no way to tell when this will happen, everyone has there own spirals, but it will, I promise;
- PANIC. PANIC. PANIC.
Yours sincerely,
Dysfunctional Girl
How NOT to be functional 