Get to know anxiety: Racing Heart - Shark warning prompts Bondi Beach evacuation

Get to know anxiety: Racing Heart




As a child I was extremely shy, I was extremely
anxious about things at school, participating in school.
So, I just thought that was quite
normal to be like that and to avoid circumstances.
I think before my first major panic attack,
I actually remember being probably 18, 19,
being with some friends at a cinema and feeling
my heart beating and thinking that it wasn't
quite right. And my first instinct was that,
could I be possibly having a heart attack?
I kept feeling the pulse rate going for the
entirety of the movie to make sure I was still
ticking. So...
Then in my early 20s, I was probably about
19, 19, 20, I woke up one morning and my first feeling
waking up was my heart. My heart feeling
like it was jumping out of my body, racing
a million miles an hour. Again, my innate
thought was, my natural thought was that I
was having a heart attack. From there I felt
like I couldn't breathe. I felt like,
I was feeling out of body. I felt like I was almost
dying. I was sort of leaving my body.
I wanted to pretend it wasn't happening. I don't like
bothering people.
I keep a lot of... Especially, at that age, I was keeping a lot of dramas
going on in my life to myself
and just putting on a brave front. And I remember one morning,
probably 3am, and I don't... I'm not religious,
but I prayed and said, andquot;If I can survive this,
I promise I'll go to the doctor.andquot; And I went
to the doctor, made an appointment, went to
the doctor a few days later and told him what
I was experiencing and got no resolution.
I ended up seeing seven doctors, seven different
doctors. When they couldn't easily diagnose me
they just sent me on my way not knowing
what to do. So, unfortunately my diagnosis
didn't happen till I was... I had given up
work, unable to cope, and ended up...
My life just kind of disappeared with anxiety. It
wasn't until I kind of gathered that
andquot;Is this agoraphobia?andquot; Someone said, andquot;Yeah. You
are.andquot; So I went and got books and I saw these
andquot;Aha, OK, I've got all these symptoms
but what do I do now?andquot;
I was so elated to have an answer finally. I knew what I was battling.
My key advice would be to talk, to talk, to not be ashamed
of what you're suffering
and to speak to family and friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bel-N89GRgo


Shark warning prompts Bondi Beach evacuation




Swimmers on Sydney's Bondi Beach were ordered
to get out of the water after a shark was
sighted by a police helicopter.
Lifeguards sounded the shark alarm and sent
out jet skis to patrol the area which was
around 150 metres from the shoreline at the
northern end of the beach.
Police suspected the animal was a bull shark
but said the water was murky which would have
made it difficult to identify the species.
All of a sudden we hear this siren and we
thought, andquot;I wonder what that could be.andquot; We
thought, andquot;Well, what do you know, a shark
attack, no what's the chances? It's Bondi
Beachandquot;! And sure enough, the siren went off
again and then the lifeguards came by and
said, andquot;Would all the swimmers please exit
the water.andquot;
We had just arrived, we'd gotten our feet
wet and we're ready to watch some surfers
and the alarm went off and we didn't know
what it was until the guy on the speakerphone
started telling us that we had to get out
the water.
Swimmers were allowed back into the water
around lunch time, about two hours after the
shark was spotted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8EQuDVBiAU