My brother's first panic attack

I want to let people know here why I was away for several days: my brother had his first bona fide panic attack, and was in the hospital for 5 nights 5 1/2 days. He's not the same now. He's very tentative and fragile and vulnerable. There are ok; I've made sure to listen to him and be patient and if he wants to rest, he rests, whenever he asks.

But he's not the person I knew. Maybe he'll get back there one day. When I say "he's not the person I knew", I mean he's self off anxiety-wise by a lot of things that he wasn't set off by before. Before, we were playing video games a lot. Tonight we tried to play games and it was hard for him and eventually he had to quit and watch the Red Sox (who unfortunately lost).

I do not blame him at all for his disposition. He is very vulnerable. He's only been out of the hospital for maybe 2 3/4 days. I'm just used to how he was. I want him to be how he was, minus the anxiety of course. Today he noticed he was having to fight anxious thoughts. I had to fight mine too earlier before he told me that.

So I'm being patient and deferring to him whenever he asks, because he needs to recover. I respect this, and dearly want him to recover. I'm just not used to him being this way. Maybe it will even out.

Thanks for listening.

[bonkers65]

Hope he feels better soon. Make sure you explain to him what is going on and that he's not alone. Try to tell him not to add the second fear or the fear of fear.

[Tutumama]

So sorry this happened! I think he is likely doing a lot of self reflection right now. He doesn't understand why this is happening to him or what he can do to help it. It is hard when you first have something like this happen to you and your worst fear is that it will happen again. It may take him awhile to get over that fear of not knowing WHEN it will happen.

You are doing the right thing by being there for him and letting him take a break when he needs it. Is he going to do any counseling to try to help or did they give him meds after his hospital visit?

I truly hope he can accept that sometimes these things happen in life. My first experience was almost life changing when I had my first anxiety attack and I was very scared, didn't even want to leave home or do anything. Hopefully he will slowly start to understand it and work towards healing!

[Hidden in reply to Tutumama]

Well, he's gone back to work, and seems to be feeling better. He took the rest of last week off and practiced things. Work has been hard but it doesn't seem like he's handling it too badly. He's seeming like his old self now.

[Tutumama in reply to Hidden]

That's great to hear! I'm so happy for you both!