The Dos and Don'ts Of Helping Someone During A Panic Attack

Excuse my crude drawing but this is something really important that really needs to be talked about. I have panic and anxiety attacks on a weekly (sometimes even daily) basis and they are normally in public for that is when I am usually in my biggest state of panic or anxiety. Being around others can make the attack even worse for some people don't know what to do while I am going through this. I am not saying that these people are bad or anything. I am sure they have good intentions but just aren't used to these kinds of scenarios. Here, I have created a list of dos and don'ts of what you should do when helping someone during a state of panic. Remember: I am not a professional and though I know from my own experience and research, I am not able to fully cure a panic or anxiety attack.
Do:
Try and understand the situation. This DOES NOT mean press the person for questions but at least try and figure out what is causing this person to panic. Even if you don't get it fully, tell this person that you understand how they must be feeing. A lot of the time, I get really upset for I feel as though my emotions are stupid and as though I am just blowing everything out of proportion.
Don't
Do not joke around. One time, I had a panic attack on my friend's bed while another friend was over and the two of them just kind of began joking around about me having an attack and almost making fun of the things I had told them about what panic is. I did not tell this story so I could rant about how thoughtless they were acting (they are lovely people just a little clueless when it comes to this) but to say that I felt really terrible that my friends didn't realize how serious this was.
Do:
If this person is in a crowded room, tell people to back away and take the person out of the situation. No one likes being crowded around especially in a situation like this. If there is not another room this person can go into, inform people what is going on and clear out the space around the person having a panic attack.
Don't
NEVER tell someone having a panic or anxiety attack to "just calm down". Breaking this sentence down, every word counts. The use of the word just is extremely impactful. "JUST calm down." as though calming down is some extremely easy activity to do when you're brain is rushing and you're in such a state of panic. You should help this person calm down but merely telling them to will not just do nothing but hurt them even more.
Do:
Ask the person if there is anything you can do to help them. Sometimes, the thing this person needs the most is just to be left alone. If this person just wants their space, respect that and leave them alone. In some cases, the most helpful thing you can do is leave.
Don't:
I realize that someone breaking down like this can be rather frightening but saying that out loud to your friend who is going through this attack can make their experience even scarier. What you have to realize is that this person is going through a lot all at once and really shouldn't be focusing on what their friends and the people around them are saying. If you are scared, though you shouldn't be, get someone that can actually help instead of making it worse.
Do:
Tell this person you're here for them. A lot of times, people really don't feel as though others care for them. Telling someone this can really make a person feel better.
Don't:
Don't ever tell a person going through an anxiety or panic attack that it is nothing or what they're feeling is stupid. Though anxiety attacks only last for a few minutes, so much goes through you when you are having one. Though it may be hard to put yourself in the shoes of this said person, telling them that their feelings are invalid is not the way to go.

These are just a few things that are really important to learn about what to do when someone around you is having one of these attacks. To learn more about them, I suggest going to Psych Central.com I also have an amazing song the lovely, Peej Liguori covered that really gives you a good understanding of what an anxiety attack is.

-Ann

Sunday Diary: Who You Are Is Not What You've Been

The air is brisk as I walk past all the same familiar homes. The leaves crunch under my favorite black boots. You can smell Autumn in the air. I walk up the stone pathway of the elementary school I used to attend. I soon stop and sit myself down on the prickly grass. It is slowly dying just like all the other nature around me. I am just there in the front of the school cross legged as I check my phone. I am not even really sure what I am doing here. I just like the scene. I like the welcoming doors and rainbow sign that tells you when all the events are. It sure is much happier and cheery than the middle school. I pick myself up, about to leave, when I spot three familiar steps. The same stone steps I sat on every morning of fifth grade. I used to always want to be the first to sit on them so I could brag to my friends. Now, I find there to be comfort in being the last to get to school. The setting is beyond peaceful. There are no cars or shouts or even voices to break this moment. I close my eyes, thinking back to my times in fifth grade. I used to cringe at every single one but now I am at peace with these experiences. My actions are not erasable and therefor the only thing I can really do is just not care about them anymore. As Taylor Swift once said, who you are is not what you've been. This makes me think about how I should really come to peace with all those terrible memories. So what if I was a bitch a year ago? As long as I am not that person in the present, I am fine.

-Ann

The Girl Who Never Sleeps

OK so I seriously am wide awake and it is one o'clock in the morning and I cannot go to sleep and I have a new room for I moved up to the attic and I just don't know what to do with myself. Oh my God and I have no idea what to do with myself. Bed selfies? Why not.

Ok look at the middle picture and tell me I do not look exactly like Carrie Hope Fletcher. Try to forget the giant Edward Cullen poster above my head... I am having a serious problem in which I cannot choose between listening to Sleeping With Sirens or All Time Low or just watching Supernatural. So I have this giant jar of trail mix that I'm binging on right now. Ok I seriously do not deserve to exist if this is what I do at 1 am. Now I want to light a candle but I don't have a match or lighter. Life is not OK. It is seven O'clock in the morning in Italy. I'm hoping Pietro is up so he can make me feel a little less pathetic. Wait, who is up at seven in the morning on a summer day? OK pause for a second to show how perfect my room looks. This was taken a couple days OK by the way so it doesn't look exactly like this.

I think I should go to sleep now....

-Ann

Sunday Diary: Jedward and Fears Of The Grinch

Dear Blurg,

This week has been what you call a hot mess. Three post ideas. One was published. Two are works in progress meaning, things that I have to stare at until I finally delete them for I can't stand seeing drafts in my post list. So before I begin to talk about this week, I have something MAGICAL to show you guys.
So I was bored at home and scrolling through DFTBA.com because I have no better things to do (how about those 2 posts?!) and began playing around with the little music thingy about the search box and then saw the writing above the search thing. The exact words: "Looking for something specific?" with the word "looking" and being on DFTBA.com (cough cough John Green) I typed in "Alaska" just for laughs. To my surprise, under my words was the sentence "Is that you Pudge?" a Looking For Alaska reference. I am proud of John and Hank for thinking up that one. Big thanks to the Green brothers for giving me that entertainment. 

Jedward

Onto relevant topics, this week has been the most frustrating music wise. My speakers were jacked up to the point where the instrumental was blasting yet the lyrics were basically a whisper. No no that it is not the worst part. The only song I could almost hear was Jedward's "Give It Up" OK OK back story about Jedward being on my Spotfiy... I have my Jedward moments... Was this God's punishment to me for being an awful new Jewish adult? Why couldn't P.O.V work? You might be asking "Why the hell did you just not listen to music if you hate the song that's playing?" well my little clueless friend, I CANNOT BLOG WITHOUT MUSIC. 
Thursday was a half day and you know what that means! Instead of being social, I spent those two extra hours watching Doctor Who and blogging. Go Ann. I then went to sewing in which I made multiple mistakes with the bodice of my shirt. Reasons why Ann's a fail (yay!). My family then went to school in action night at my middle school in which I dissected a frog for people to gag at including myself. We walked past the science fair where we saw some sixth grader with a robot. I'm not kidding a robot. Overachiever much? Compared to my project last year...(a mess of glitter). We then went back to the house with my sister's friend Carly and they watched "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" I found my new biggest fear. The TV is in the same room as the computer and I knew I had to work on a new post so I put my headphones and tried to get Jedward to drown out the Grinch. That things is freaking scary. I would include a picture of this terrifying creature but that would require googling it and then having to look through thousands of pictures. As Alex Day once wrote, "No one understands me." 
Friday was a day off for the middle school while my sister's school still had classes. TV to myself! I had exhausted all my Doctor Who episodes in my DVR and had to turn to MTV. Awkward and True Life marathon for about a couple hours... Being lame, I got bored quickly and spent the rest of the time laying in my bed hoping to fall asleep. My mom got home a couple hours and out of sympathy for how pathetic I was, she got me out of bed and my pajamas to go thrift shopping. Where I was a total idiot and wore heels. HEELS. Whose terrible idea was that? Oh yeah me. I ended up getting only "a bit" (a ton) of clothing and having to turn down a gorgeous, long, homemade dress for the reason that I seriously had nowhere to wear it. 

Stop it Frodo

Saturday my parents went to a bat mitzvah and left Rachel and I at home. We spent our time doing three things: making club penguin accounts, playing club penguin, and going on neopets (I haven't been on in years) which I was WAY more exited about. I ended up naming all of my pets after youtubers: Emma Blackery, Charlie McDonnell, Alex Day, and Kristina Horner. I actually put hard work into creating them. Slow clap for Ann. Once my parents got back, we went to the extremely fancy mall to spend a Pandora gift card I'd gotten for my bat mitzvah. After looking through a catalog of adorable charms, I got a party dress in honor of this very blog (fashion). I think Pandora needs to make a charm of a girl with giant hair sitting in front of a computer with headphones to TRULY describe my blogging but this was good enough. Once we got back, I curled up with my mom's laptop and watched "50 First Dates" on projectfreetv.com. I am embarrassed to say I actually enjoyed an Adam Sandler movie. I then FINALLY finished a couple posts and the whole no music thing was running my Patience thin. This lead to about ten minutes of me beating up my speakers to make it work. Later on, my parents and I ended up watching "The Hobbit". Pretty mush day. Anyways, I remember my dad reading me this book back in about third grade but once the movie started I barely remembered anything except for two things: there we tow dwarfs named Fili and Kili. Nice job Ann. I found the entire movie a little distracting to the fact that Frodo Baggins who had about six lines and two minutes in the first scene was absolutely gorgeous and I spent the entire duration of the film hoping appear out of nowhere. But Kili was a little attractive and I could almost deal with Frodo not being in every single scene.

Today I spent my time reading through different blogs and found one of my new favorites: Peppermint Whiskers. Then scavenged through Tumblr for a total fangirl moment in which I found Dan tackling Phil. Is this how I spend my time? I then freaked out when Dan and Phil interviewed (my girlfriend) Perrie Edwards. I just realize dhow thirteen year old girl that sounded... I then went sneaker shopping. Whoo hoo. God I hate sneakers. I then reevaluated All Time Low's "Come One Come All" and realized that I found the song that describes me when I listen to Z100. Seriously that song is about killing a DJ all for the reason that his play list sucks. 
Play list 
"So go on and lock me up you better throw away that key before I find out where you broadcast from cause your play list is killing me."
-ATL
This week's play list is a bit different than most of my other Sunday Diary ones with artists such as Taylor Swift, and Luke Cutforth being added to the mix because even though I myself have been listening to them for forever, I though you guys would enjoy them now. I also put Lex Croucher's "Taking Back The Covers" music and a couple songs from Disney's "Tangled". There are also songs by R5 and The Ready Set for they are my guilty pleasure bands. Then the Pokemon theme song is just for laughs...
Sunday Diary 2
Life Scout Badges
I am EXTREMELY proud to say that I earned every single badge this week for childhood month!
Ride A Bike
The first time I ever rode a bike was in the summer before fifth grade. Before, I used to ride my Razor scooter EVERYWHERE. I seriously could ride that scooter at full speed. Anyways, one boring summer day, I found an old bike in our garage and kind of taught myself to ride. I don't regularly ride bicycles but if you sat me down on one, the chances of me falling on my face would be slim.



Skip Rope
I don't exactly remember the first time I ever skipped rope, but I am able to do it extremely fast and I used to have some crazy goal to do 100 skips...









Tree Climbing
My family and I used to go to this park right by the train station when I was little and there were these trees that were perfect trees for climbing. They were low to the ground but got higher as you climbed around the branches. My sister and I used to have races up them!




Trampolining
Back in fifth grade, when my family was trying to sell our house, we had a trampoline right in our backyard and we had the same one in our new yard for the Summer but had to take it down due to insurance issues. Meh. I am rather proud to say, I am capable of flipping on a trampoline!

Yo-yo
When I was in fourth grade, my dad went through a Yo-Yo phase in which he collected tons of yo-yos and I think even went to a convention... with so many of these laying around I taught myself to properly spin a yo-yo.