What to Do When You Have a Panic Attack on Vacation

cheryl

cheryl

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What to Do When You Have a Panic Attack on Vacation - Afar

Travel can be rewarding and freeing but it can also provoke anxiety. Here, experts offer coping and calming strategies to take with you on the road.

A few years ago, on a sunny Saturday morning in August at a little breakfast spot around the corner from Wrigley Field, my sister started having a panic attack. It seemed to be out of the blue. We were enjoying a weekend getaway the month before my wedding. Outside, the crowds for the day’s Cubs game were starting to fill the street. Inside, my sister’s face went white; she said it felt like her throat was starting to close up.

Panic attacks are the abrupt onset of intense fear paired with a slew of uncomfortable symptoms, including shortness of breath or a fast heart rate. These attacks can be a characteristic of panic disorder, which is an anxiety disorder defined by unexpected, repeated waves of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms. They may be triggered, but they can also be random. Anxiety disorders are the most common travel-induced mental health problems, according to research published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.

“Anxiety thrives when we don’t have control and when there is a lot of uncertainty,” says Julia Martin Burch, Ph.D., a staff psychologist at the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program. When you’re in a new place, stuck in a middle seat, or even dining in a crowded restaurant, there’s a great deal of unpredictability. “[Panic is] particularly uncomfortable when you’re traveling because you don’t have the routines and comforts of home,” she says.
 
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