After Someone Says That The Way Panic Attacks Are Portrayed In Movies Is Nonsense, People Start Sharing What They Actually Look Like
Cinema has long been notorious for its portrayal of mental illness, often driving further stigmatization of those who suffer from it. On-screen, we often see caricatured and exaggerated versions of people suffering from various mental illnesses that are simply inaccurate. Sadly, for so many people out there, movies are the only source of information they get about these issues, leaving them unable to show understanding and compassion to those who suffer from them.
The best way to combat the stigma and misrepresentation is through education and that’s exactly the course some people have decided to take. After realizing how romanticized panic attacks are in movies, one Twitter user decided to call them out in a tweet. The woman then clearly explains what panic attacks actually look like and why they are far from romantic.
Recently, a Twitter user brought attention to the unrealistic portrayal of panic attacks in movies
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After reading her explanation, many people out there who have been dealing with the same issues responded in agreement. To highlight her point, they started describing how panic attacks feel to them and how it differs from what they are used to seeing in movies.
While she agrees that it’s fine for filmmakers to show people having panic attacks on-screen, it’s important that they do it correctly
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According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, around 6 million adults, or 2.7% of the U.S. population, suffer from panic attacks that are caused by a panic disorder. While anxiety disorders are highly treatable, however, only 36.9% of those who suffer from it receive treatment.
People responded by sharing what panic attacks actually feel like
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Another common one to be over-simplified/trivialized in movies and even real life is OCD. "I always put my pens neatly in a line on my desk. Ha ha, I'm so OCD!" No, no you're not. I'm not saying I think people who say that have malicious intent, because I don't. But the trend of using the name of a mental illness to describe someone's appreciation of neatness makes it seem like OCD is more of a "cute quirk" and not the horribly debilitating disease it is.
I've had many panic attacks. My first was on the bus to work and it was terrifying. I thought i was taking my last breaths and it took all my effort to say i cant breathe before i collapsed onto the floor. The people on the bus were all staring and that made me even more embarassed. When the ambulance arrived they were very good and i have to give my thanks to he bus driver too, he made sure i was as comfortable as he could get me and kept opening and closing the doors as i was going from roasting hot to freezing cold in a split second and when some of the other passengers complained he said tough luck,. I have emphysema on top of it so it took me days to recover from it. I've had many more since then and the best way i can describe one is all the symptoms of a heart attack except for the pain. Even when you know its a panic attack, you seem to forget you've had this before and its like a new experience every time. The emebarassment from my first one was awful.
my doc has told me that when they are really bad i'll pass out but thats never happened to me, i can feel everything that happens the whole way through.
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Many years ago, I had a panic attack that resulted in me landing myself in the emergency ward of the hospital. I honestly thought that I was having a coronary. The symptoms that Kath describes are true.
Hollywood has romanticized depression and suicide for years, as if all that needs to happen is for someone to fall in love and they are cured...they aren't going to show the lifetime struggle of visiting doctors, being a burden on your family, having to go through hundreds of different medications because basically the Dr. just has to guess what might work for you and maybe they never find anything that helps so at the same time you better get cognitive therapy but don't forget to go through tons of shrinks until you find one that works for you but oops your insurance changed and now you have to start all over again..
I have a phobia of vomit and once I was in an airport bathroom stall and the person next to me started throwing up and it was the worst thing ever because I was plugging my ears but if I was going to get out of the bathroom I would have to unplug my ears and unlock the door and run out but there was a huge line of other people in the bathroom and it was the worst. Being trapped in a bathroom stall with my trigger constantly going off right next to me just plugging my ears but still being able to hear, pacing and hyperventilating and crying was not an experience to be romanticized at all
My spouse also has emetophobia. This is one of the toughest phobias around, but therapy and anti-anxiety meds really helped. It also didn't help that her mom was well meaning, but a mental-illness denier.
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I *hate* TV/movie portrayals of mental/emotional health problems. It's always solved in an hour. Yeah, as if...
Movies make it seem like mental illness is not that big of a deal or you belong in a mental hospital.
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I've had anxiety attacks, and I've had stress attacks, but not panic attacks. Here's a description of my worst one: I heard deafening sounds of tornado sirens, was paralyzed, saw demons, screamed.. I felt tormented. Hallucination after Hallucination, siren after siren, second after second. I felt insane. I felt earthquakes. I felt impending doom. And this tormenting lasted 30 minutes. Movies need to learn
That sounds horrible. Hope your doing better now.
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Panic attack is paralyzing fear, literally. When im in panic attack more I became me paralyzed, i camt move, just freeze up. Then i cant breath, cant swallow, shake, feel like im going to throw up, and all of my sense become over heightened. And over stimulating. I have to close my eyes because i feel like thats my only escape.
Agreed! And those who don't have panic attacks will watch, look at me remark how it doesn't look like it's a big deal. When you feel like you're dying it's a VERY BIG DEAL.
My anxiety attacks are horrible. I can't breathe, I can't speak, I can't move, my vision gets blurry, it gets so hot that I think I'm about to pass out. If anyone touches me or gets too close it only makes it worse, makes me feel super claustrophobic. I had one in school once and I just had to stumble into an empty hallway and sit on the floor and cry for 15 minutes before one of my friends who also suffers from them and knows how to handle me when I have them came and sat across the hallway taking deep breathes and telling me to concentrate on the sound of her breathing. Seriously, I am so thankful that we have each other because understand and she's the only person who really knows how to help me.
that's so sweet omg I hope y'all get to stay together for as long as you can <3
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PTSD, too. I actually think Hunger Games did a decent job of portraying it-- the way Katniss wakes up screaming and has meltdowns and sees things. That felt pretty accurate to me. After I was assaulted, I lost 15lbs in a month (and I'm super thin to begin with) because any food would make me nauseous, I slept an average of 4 hours a night, and I would walk around in broad daylight with my hand on a canister of pepper spray. Once you start to get better there are triggers, but in the thick of it, your entire world view is distorted. It literally taints every single minute of your life.
...descriptions accurate. Glad I got some help so I now know what they are. They got a little less intense after that.
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I really appreciate the descriptions. I've never had panic attacks, but I have had anxiety attacks. This post helps me see the difference. I definitely agree that it's over-romanticizing to imagine that a partner can magically solve mental health issues with little effort.
It feels like dying and like it won't ever get better, the room is too big and too narrow at the same time, I feel numb and trapped. Don't touch me, don't tell me to just "snap out of it". It's not pretty, it's not romantic and it's not an occasion for someone to swoop in and play the hero.
I suppose mine are more like anxiety attacks. My breathing gets very shallow and quick. I'm not hyperventilating but I'm quivering inside. It feels like the power lines sound when you stand near them and hear them "singing". Panic attacks, on the other hand, wow. It's all I can do to force myself to remain seated. If I were to stand up, I believe I'd run outside and try to climb a pine tree! That's the typical "fight or flight" feeling but there's no fight in me...just flight!
If anyone wants to see a show that portrays mental disorders properly, I highly recommend Mr Robot.
I feel like another thing they picture as a thing of romance is asthma attacks. I don't have asthma, but my mom does, and she says it's near immpossible to breathe without her inhaler, and it is very unlikely that my dad is able to just hug her and it immeidently stops.
this reminds me of the time i had a sort of "black out" panic attack (meaning i lost all sense of my surroundings at some point so i wasn't aware people had came over to me to see if i was ok or how long i sat there for) then my boyfriend quoted Alastor from Hazbin Hotel, saying "you know, someone once told me to smile because you're never fully dressed without one." because i was crying hard. i stopped, looked him in the eyes (which i don't normally do except when i feel threatened), and said "did you really just quote Alastor to cheer me up?" he just looked at me and smiled and i was able to calm down and i wanted to hug him so bad (i'm not even a hugger)
I already panic when people touch me, so I'm just thankful that whenever I have an attack, it's in the middle of the night, or like 3-5am, and not in the middle of class or with my friends or with my family. Everyone I know is so f(rea)king touchy-feely, and like ok I get that it calms YOU down to be hugged or whatever but PLEASE I've told y'all SeVeRaL TiMeS tO nOt ToUcH mEeEe deaR JESUS. I explained this to my counsellor and she said "...So... You're like a cat?" and I was like swEET JESUS YES JUST DON'T TOUCH ME AND WE AIGHT!! Maybe like 3 people I know know not to touch/bother me if I'm feeling the bad boi feelings, because it will just put me into a downward spiral. uGH. Well thanks for reading my rant <3 Love ya, stay safe n' inside, have a nice day, and I wish you no panics for as long as it's allowed
Does anyone else feel at the start like their lower back is on fire and someone is stepping on their spine?
I get "rage attacks" where instead of panic, my anxiety will default from flight (panic attack) to "F*****G FIGHT ME!" I mean, I was literally driving the other day and thinking about how anxious I am about my family losing the unemployment benefits and leaving me the sole worker. Boom. Out of nowhere, I was suddenly shaking with anger, hyperventilating, tunnel vision... Literally a killing rage. My adrenaline was roaring like I was getting ready to fight a f*****g bear. It was crazy intense. Anytime I get frightened I will default to anger which has served me well and thwarted at least one attempted mugger who just was not here for the sudden berserker. Bipolar rage is a really common condition, and I have bipolar, so...IDK, you draw your own conclusions. All I have to say is that anxiety attacks can take many different forms.
With mine, I can't breathe, I shake, in tears, my heart and head are both racing. My body is numb and I can't focus. It sucks. I've found a few methods to ground me when I feel one start up such as meditating, but sometimes they come on unexpectedly and there's no time to ground myself.
I thought the anxiety attacks in Iron Man 3 were pretty good, very similar to mine. There's a ridiculous trigger. he could still think rationally, and understood what was happening. Just thinking rationally doesn't allow you to control the anxiety, he had to wait it out, breathe, pause for a few minutes. It's definitely not on the scale of panic attacks.
The first time I had a panic attack I thought I was having a heart attack. When I went to the doctor, they had to explain panic attacks to me. It was terrifying. It came on slowly, just a building of anxiety and paranoia, then I started having trouble breathing. My heart was beating so fast I could feel it throughout my whole body, and not knowing what was happening to me made it worse. After I found out it wasn’t a heart attack at the doctor, I still had panics attacks sometimes. But knowing what it was definitely made it easier, and not last as long. My first attack was probably at least two hours long, not including the buildup of it and the recovery time. The ones I had after being diagnosed lasted closer to 10-20 minutes. At this point, I haven’t had a panic attack in over 4 years! It can get better, nothing is hopeless because things are always changing within ourselves and outside of ourselves. It just takes effort, dedication, and patience with yourself.
I had my first panic attack at school and it was bad I was scared because my teach thretened to hit me and yelled at me all the time and my chest was tight my vision was blurry and was sobbing and I was just shutting and opening my locker iver and over again to creat noise over my loud sobbing, and at one point I fell to the ground and a teacher tryed to help me up and I was just shakeing even harder they almost called the police, I almost blacked out in the middle of the hallway. I switchd schools about 3 days after because of how many kids would make fun of me calling me ¨Mr.dramtic¨ Thankgod for my mom-!
Idk maybe Im watching the wrong movies but rarely do they label their episodes as 'panic attacks'. Maybe they make it seem less bad because what they're portraying isn't a panic attack and its 'just' a severe 'freak-out'.
Or movie dogs: spend all day or night indoors and lounge casually while people make dinner, have a drink, or lounge over breakfast.
Yeah just like if you're drowning, just breathe. Or if you're starving just eat. Or if you're getting stabbed just don't. You know it's so simple, I really don't understand why people struggle at all. Everyone just must be whiners.
Load More Replies...
Another common one to be over-simplified/trivialized in movies and even real life is OCD. "I always put my pens neatly in a line on my desk. Ha ha, I'm so OCD!" No, no you're not. I'm not saying I think people who say that have malicious intent, because I don't. But the trend of using the name of a mental illness to describe someone's appreciation of neatness makes it seem like OCD is more of a "cute quirk" and not the horribly debilitating disease it is.
I've had many panic attacks. My first was on the bus to work and it was terrifying. I thought i was taking my last breaths and it took all my effort to say i cant breathe before i collapsed onto the floor. The people on the bus were all staring and that made me even more embarassed. When the ambulance arrived they were very good and i have to give my thanks to he bus driver too, he made sure i was as comfortable as he could get me and kept opening and closing the doors as i was going from roasting hot to freezing cold in a split second and when some of the other passengers complained he said tough luck,. I have emphysema on top of it so it took me days to recover from it. I've had many more since then and the best way i can describe one is all the symptoms of a heart attack except for the pain. Even when you know its a panic attack, you seem to forget you've had this before and its like a new experience every time. The emebarassment from my first one was awful.
my doc has told me that when they are really bad i'll pass out but thats never happened to me, i can feel everything that happens the whole way through.
Load More Replies... Many years ago, I had a panic attack that resulted in me landing myself in the emergency ward of the hospital. I honestly thought that I was having a coronary. The symptoms that Kath describes are true.
Hollywood has romanticized depression and suicide for years, as if all that needs to happen is for someone to fall in love and they are cured...they aren't going to show the lifetime struggle of visiting doctors, being a burden on your family, having to go through hundreds of different medications because basically the Dr. just has to guess what might work for you and maybe they never find anything that helps so at the same time you better get cognitive therapy but don't forget to go through tons of shrinks until you find one that works for you but oops your insurance changed and now you have to start all over again..
I have a phobia of vomit and once I was in an airport bathroom stall and the person next to me started throwing up and it was the worst thing ever because I was plugging my ears but if I was going to get out of the bathroom I would have to unplug my ears and unlock the door and run out but there was a huge line of other people in the bathroom and it was the worst. Being trapped in a bathroom stall with my trigger constantly going off right next to me just plugging my ears but still being able to hear, pacing and hyperventilating and crying was not an experience to be romanticized at all
My spouse also has emetophobia. This is one of the toughest phobias around, but therapy and anti-anxiety meds really helped. It also didn't help that her mom was well meaning, but a mental-illness denier.
Load More Replies... I *hate* TV/movie portrayals of mental/emotional health problems. It's always solved in an hour. Yeah, as if...
Movies make it seem like mental illness is not that big of a deal or you belong in a mental hospital.
Load More Replies... I've had anxiety attacks, and I've had stress attacks, but not panic attacks. Here's a description of my worst one: I heard deafening sounds of tornado sirens, was paralyzed, saw demons, screamed.. I felt tormented. Hallucination after Hallucination, siren after siren, second after second. I felt insane. I felt earthquakes. I felt impending doom. And this tormenting lasted 30 minutes. Movies need to learn
That sounds horrible. Hope your doing better now.
Load More Replies... Panic attack is paralyzing fear, literally. When im in panic attack more I became me paralyzed, i camt move, just freeze up. Then i cant breath, cant swallow, shake, feel like im going to throw up, and all of my sense become over heightened. And over stimulating. I have to close my eyes because i feel like thats my only escape.
Agreed! And those who don't have panic attacks will watch, look at me remark how it doesn't look like it's a big deal. When you feel like you're dying it's a VERY BIG DEAL.
My anxiety attacks are horrible. I can't breathe, I can't speak, I can't move, my vision gets blurry, it gets so hot that I think I'm about to pass out. If anyone touches me or gets too close it only makes it worse, makes me feel super claustrophobic. I had one in school once and I just had to stumble into an empty hallway and sit on the floor and cry for 15 minutes before one of my friends who also suffers from them and knows how to handle me when I have them came and sat across the hallway taking deep breathes and telling me to concentrate on the sound of her breathing. Seriously, I am so thankful that we have each other because understand and she's the only person who really knows how to help me.
that's so sweet omg I hope y'all get to stay together for as long as you can <3
Load More Replies... PTSD, too. I actually think Hunger Games did a decent job of portraying it-- the way Katniss wakes up screaming and has meltdowns and sees things. That felt pretty accurate to me. After I was assaulted, I lost 15lbs in a month (and I'm super thin to begin with) because any food would make me nauseous, I slept an average of 4 hours a night, and I would walk around in broad daylight with my hand on a canister of pepper spray. Once you start to get better there are triggers, but in the thick of it, your entire world view is distorted. It literally taints every single minute of your life.
...descriptions accurate. Glad I got some help so I now know what they are. They got a little less intense after that.
Load More Replies... I really appreciate the descriptions. I've never had panic attacks, but I have had anxiety attacks. This post helps me see the difference. I definitely agree that it's over-romanticizing to imagine that a partner can magically solve mental health issues with little effort.
It feels like dying and like it won't ever get better, the room is too big and too narrow at the same time, I feel numb and trapped. Don't touch me, don't tell me to just "snap out of it". It's not pretty, it's not romantic and it's not an occasion for someone to swoop in and play the hero.
I suppose mine are more like anxiety attacks. My breathing gets very shallow and quick. I'm not hyperventilating but I'm quivering inside. It feels like the power lines sound when you stand near them and hear them "singing". Panic attacks, on the other hand, wow. It's all I can do to force myself to remain seated. If I were to stand up, I believe I'd run outside and try to climb a pine tree! That's the typical "fight or flight" feeling but there's no fight in me...just flight!
If anyone wants to see a show that portrays mental disorders properly, I highly recommend Mr Robot.
I feel like another thing they picture as a thing of romance is asthma attacks. I don't have asthma, but my mom does, and she says it's near immpossible to breathe without her inhaler, and it is very unlikely that my dad is able to just hug her and it immeidently stops.
this reminds me of the time i had a sort of "black out" panic attack (meaning i lost all sense of my surroundings at some point so i wasn't aware people had came over to me to see if i was ok or how long i sat there for) then my boyfriend quoted Alastor from Hazbin Hotel, saying "you know, someone once told me to smile because you're never fully dressed without one." because i was crying hard. i stopped, looked him in the eyes (which i don't normally do except when i feel threatened), and said "did you really just quote Alastor to cheer me up?" he just looked at me and smiled and i was able to calm down and i wanted to hug him so bad (i'm not even a hugger)
I already panic when people touch me, so I'm just thankful that whenever I have an attack, it's in the middle of the night, or like 3-5am, and not in the middle of class or with my friends or with my family. Everyone I know is so f(rea)king touchy-feely, and like ok I get that it calms YOU down to be hugged or whatever but PLEASE I've told y'all SeVeRaL TiMeS tO nOt ToUcH mEeEe deaR JESUS. I explained this to my counsellor and she said "...So... You're like a cat?" and I was like swEET JESUS YES JUST DON'T TOUCH ME AND WE AIGHT!! Maybe like 3 people I know know not to touch/bother me if I'm feeling the bad boi feelings, because it will just put me into a downward spiral. uGH. Well thanks for reading my rant <3 Love ya, stay safe n' inside, have a nice day, and I wish you no panics for as long as it's allowed
Does anyone else feel at the start like their lower back is on fire and someone is stepping on their spine?
I get "rage attacks" where instead of panic, my anxiety will default from flight (panic attack) to "F*****G FIGHT ME!" I mean, I was literally driving the other day and thinking about how anxious I am about my family losing the unemployment benefits and leaving me the sole worker. Boom. Out of nowhere, I was suddenly shaking with anger, hyperventilating, tunnel vision... Literally a killing rage. My adrenaline was roaring like I was getting ready to fight a f*****g bear. It was crazy intense. Anytime I get frightened I will default to anger which has served me well and thwarted at least one attempted mugger who just was not here for the sudden berserker. Bipolar rage is a really common condition, and I have bipolar, so...IDK, you draw your own conclusions. All I have to say is that anxiety attacks can take many different forms.
With mine, I can't breathe, I shake, in tears, my heart and head are both racing. My body is numb and I can't focus. It sucks. I've found a few methods to ground me when I feel one start up such as meditating, but sometimes they come on unexpectedly and there's no time to ground myself.
I thought the anxiety attacks in Iron Man 3 were pretty good, very similar to mine. There's a ridiculous trigger. he could still think rationally, and understood what was happening. Just thinking rationally doesn't allow you to control the anxiety, he had to wait it out, breathe, pause for a few minutes. It's definitely not on the scale of panic attacks.
The first time I had a panic attack I thought I was having a heart attack. When I went to the doctor, they had to explain panic attacks to me. It was terrifying. It came on slowly, just a building of anxiety and paranoia, then I started having trouble breathing. My heart was beating so fast I could feel it throughout my whole body, and not knowing what was happening to me made it worse. After I found out it wasn’t a heart attack at the doctor, I still had panics attacks sometimes. But knowing what it was definitely made it easier, and not last as long. My first attack was probably at least two hours long, not including the buildup of it and the recovery time. The ones I had after being diagnosed lasted closer to 10-20 minutes. At this point, I haven’t had a panic attack in over 4 years! It can get better, nothing is hopeless because things are always changing within ourselves and outside of ourselves. It just takes effort, dedication, and patience with yourself.
I had my first panic attack at school and it was bad I was scared because my teach thretened to hit me and yelled at me all the time and my chest was tight my vision was blurry and was sobbing and I was just shutting and opening my locker iver and over again to creat noise over my loud sobbing, and at one point I fell to the ground and a teacher tryed to help me up and I was just shakeing even harder they almost called the police, I almost blacked out in the middle of the hallway. I switchd schools about 3 days after because of how many kids would make fun of me calling me ¨Mr.dramtic¨ Thankgod for my mom-!
Idk maybe Im watching the wrong movies but rarely do they label their episodes as 'panic attacks'. Maybe they make it seem less bad because what they're portraying isn't a panic attack and its 'just' a severe 'freak-out'.
Or movie dogs: spend all day or night indoors and lounge casually while people make dinner, have a drink, or lounge over breakfast.
Yeah just like if you're drowning, just breathe. Or if you're starving just eat. Or if you're getting stabbed just don't. You know it's so simple, I really don't understand why people struggle at all. Everyone just must be whiners.
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