Connor

My name is Connor, and I am 14 years old and here is my story. One day, at school, the whole school went to mass for Christmas (I go to a catholic school). Me being me, forgot to take my OCD medication that morning, so my serotonin levels were crazy. Naturally I had a panic attack while in mass. One thing to understand about my panic attacks is that when I get one, I cannot talk or hear except my intrusive thoughts, and I rub my knuckles together or bounce my knee. So when I didn't respond to my friends or sing, which I usually do, they got worried. I explained to one of my best friends, who also has bad anxiety, what happened and we came up with a plan. Whenever one of us was feeling very anxious or were having a panic attack, we would say "x". Since I cannot talk during my panic attacks we both learned Morse code for "x": dash dot dot dash. Now we both feel so much safer at school and just in general. That is my story and I hope that someone can learn from my experiences.