I’m 15, a sophomore in High School, and have been dealing with anxiety for years. When I was younger, I didn’t really understand what “anxiety” meant, but then when I got to high school, I found that there were lots of people like me. A lot of them had more severe anxiety than me and they would talk about how they got panic attacks. Some people say having a panic attack is like having extreme anxiety. It didn’t seem that bad just hearing about it. Until you experience it there is no way to understand the feeling.

The first time I had a panic attack, I felt like my body was giving up on me. My face was numb. My hands were crumpled in fists and I couldn’t move them. Eventually my legs gave out too. I felt my eyes closing and opening as my vision was getting more and more blurry. I was terrified and didn’t understand what had just happened to me.

The next day shortly after coming to school, the same thing started happening again. My friend walked me over to a chair and tried to give me water, but I couldn’t swallow the water because my mouth was completely numb. My vision was a complete blur at that point. A teacher ran over and laid me on the ground. She tried to help me breathe but nothing was working. After 30 minutes, the teacher is suppose to call 911 to help stabilize the student. I was laying on the floor and could barely see anything but I could hear everything, and I heard the teacher calling 911 and reporting that a student was almost unconscious and needed help breathing. For a second, I was worried about that student and freaked out that 911 was coming to my school, but then I realized that student was me. This made the anxiety even worse. When you are in the middle of a panic attack, the last thing you want to hear is that someone called 911. I remember the EMT’s running in the building, and instead of feeling a sense of relief that I was getting help, I felt completely overwhelmed.

After having that happen to me, I realized how important mental health is, especially for teenagers. Not very many teachers know how to handle this kind of situation, and I think that’s a serious issue. I’m just one of many people who need a better support system at school. It can actually save people’s lives. I am lucky that I was OK after those episodes. Suicide is the third leading cause for death for teens. Schools can’t just dismiss mental health anymore. This should be a priority and its not. It’s become too big of an issue to push aside.