We were interested in the news that a young woman who has suffered from panic attacks and generalized anxiety throughout high school is dramatizing the experience in a film called “Reach,” which she hopes to take to film festivals and then use to educate others about anxiety — especially amongst teens. The excerpt below, from The Daily Herald’s article about the film, includes some information about anxiety in high school-aged people. If you live in Northeast Ohio and recognize yourself or someone you love in this article, we hope you’ll reach out for an evaluation and/or information on the treatment of panic and anxiety disorders.
When (filmmaker Kelsey) Sante’s anxiety would strike beyond her control during high school, she’d just want to be alone.
“When you’re starting to have a panic attack, you need to be with other people, but I would isolate myself,” she said.
She’s learned others can ground an anxious mind and bring its racing, worst-case-scenario thoughts back to reality. But within the halls of Neuqua, she hid to hide her worries. She’d get stuck in her thoughts, the ones that made her feel like she was in “a large amount of trouble” even when she wasn’t.
Throat closing in, heart rate increasing, head spinning, muscles tensing, temperature rising. That’s what it feels like to have a panic attack, said Katie Connolly, a licensed clinical professional counselor…
For some people, panic attacks are situation-specific, Connolly said, cropping up only when a person encounters something they fear, say, heights or tight spaces. People without clinical anxiety or panic disorder can manage those attacks by avoiding the feared situations.
But when panic hits without warning or before activities that can’t be skipped — such as driving — that’s when the condition needs treatment, Connolly said.