I felt like I was dying. My lungs felt like they couldn’t hold any air. I couldn’t breathe. The room felt hot and I began to sweat. I was panicking, should I leave the class and miss out an important lecture? Or should I stay and hope that whatever I was experiencing would go away and no one would notice that I was losing it?

The anxiety was getting to be too much for me and I decided to skip the rest of the class lecture and go to the campus clinic.

After going to the school’s health clinic I was told that I was experiencing a panic attack. I was scared, was I going crazy?

Anxiety has been a part of my life for years. I didn’t know what it was, it just felt normal to experience until someone told me that it wasn’t.

Luckily, I was told that I could talk to a counselor to sort out the issues that were going on in my life that were making me get panic attacks.

These past months I’ve learned that anxiety should not be something that keeps you from doing things and that there is always help.

Being in college can become a big stressor in all our lives, and sometimes anxiety and stress can feel overwhelming to the point of wanting to just die. But after going through the abyss, we should realize that there is help out there for people who feel like there is no one who cares.

No one should judge someone who is going through anxiety and stress because it can happen to anyone. I never thought it would happen to me. Students should realize that they are not all perfect and there are times where they won’t be able to control everything, and that is ok.

In retrospect, I can say that going to the campus Student Health Clinic was the best decision I made that day because I learned more about myself and why I had a panic attack.

If you have a mental health issue like anxiety or feel like there is no one there to help you, do not be afraid to look for help.