Last Tuesday I was in a team meeting when it started. The tightening chest, the sudden certainty that something terrible was about to happen, the feeling that the walls were breathing. I excused myself to use the bathroom and spent 12 minutes on the floor trying to convince my body it was not dying.
This has happened four times in the last two months. Always at work. Always when stakes feel high — a presentation, a review, a conversation I didn't want to have. My colleagues don't know. My manager doesn't know. And I am absolutely terrified of what happens to my reputation if they find out.
I have a therapist and we are working on it. But between sessions, in the moment when it hits, I need strategies. What do people actually do in professional settings? The grounding techniques I've been taught work better when I'm alone. In a glass-walled office with colleagues staring at screens two feet away it feels impossible.
Any practical tips from people who have been through this at work would mean everything right now.