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PANIC ATTACK - COVID19

How to cope with the fear of the unknown

By Emma WolffPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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27.05.20

“In this article I simply attempt, to encourage you to breathe as calmly as possible under panic or stress over COVID19 and just as importantly, remember to keep a healthy routine to maintain or better your health conditions during these vulnerable times.”

5 KEY - FUNDAMENTAL HEALTH HACKS

1. Stretch & Fitness

2. Meditation & Breathing

3. Lots of Water

4. Healthy food & enough food too

5. Sleep

With the outbreak of COVID19 all around the world today, us autoimmune patients are naturally and reasonably going to feel more vulnerable

Last week I had a health scare, after 7 years of good health. For the entire week before I had been ill with fatigue, nausea vomiting, and body aches. It was only later that I felt somewhat shortness of breath.

I am a 24-year-old patient with Lupus SLE but I also have had deep vein thrombosis (DVT) since the age of 12 years old. For the past 7 years, I have been stable on my blood-thinning medication. Reasonably I knew that the side effects could be just about anything and just like for anyone, that is the sad truth about this international virus we call COVID19.

I have always managed my medical scares with positivity and instinctively stayed calm, but with the COVID19 outbreak, I couldn't help but panic. I had never experienced a panic attack before in my life and I have no doubt that there are plenty of cases where people are having symptoms and instinctively panic starts to creep in.

When you have an autoimmune of any sort, long enough, you learn to understand your body.It is vital during this time, to listen carefully to your body and keep up healthy eating and sleeping habits.

I calmly called 111 because I just knew that this feeling was not familiar to me, not like a clot nor like the flu. I had no fever and no coughing, just shortness of breath.

When I called 111 the first lady who answered asked for some thorough information. I then received a second call back from another person. I soon realized that my symptoms were not serious enough to be prioritized. The second person started to give me a hard time, at this moment I calmly but firmly had to express the full extent of my health condition and made it very clear that I am a high-risk patient and that I was sure something was not feeling normal. Regardless of how minor it could be, the stress and panic alone can cause so much damage to your previously controlled health state.

Finally, I received a call back from my doctor and made my way to the doctor's rooms. I had everything checked out; lungs, heart, oxygen, and blood checked.

I was relieved to hear it was my blood. My blood was extremely thin and heading to critical state but it wasn’t COVID19 and immediately my stress levels started to decrease and my side effects eased just enough to feel okay.

Just like an autoimmune illness, your blood is affected by stress, this can be not only emotional stress but physical, even simply overexerting your body, lack of sleep, food, or water. Often I seem to find my stress is unnoticeable until my body reacts, I tend to push my body to its limits sometimes and I’m sure many people with immune compromising lifestyles can relate to this.

A balanced lifestyle is the most challenging yet the most rewarding of all, so here I urge you to keep a close eye on your habits, routines, and stress levels, not just emotionally but physically.





panic attacks
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About the Creator

Emma Wolff

South African / Irish living in England

* My Lupus Lifestyle @lupus_wolff

* Travel blog @transcendtraveler

* Interior Design @emmawolffinteriors

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