Hi, I’d like to get some advice about a pretty serious and traumatic experience I went through recently.
It all started during the last period of school one day. My teacher was explaining something to the class, and everyone was listening as usual. Out of nowhere, I started getting a small headache. After that, I slowly began feeling short of breath and nauseous. Since I was in a full classroom, I got really scared that I might throw up or faint, which made me panic even more. The panic only made my breathing worse.
I ended up asking to go to the bathroom. Once I got there, I tried to calm myself down by taking slow, deep breaths. I also cried because I was so scared and overwhelmed. My whole body felt extremely warm, and I seriously considered asking my homeroom teacher to let me go home. But I told myself to just hold on for one more hour until school ended.
When I finally calmed down a bit, I returned to class. But that turned out to be a mistake — the symptoms came back, though not as intense as before. I couldn’t focus on the task the teacher gave us, but at that point, I didn’t even care. I just wanted to go home. Even after I did get home, I still felt slightly short of breath, though it was much better than earlier.
The experience left a lasting impact. A few days later, I had my informatics practical exam. The serious, tense atmosphere in the room triggered my fear that the same thing would happen again. I was especially scared because teachers are usually stricter during exams, and I worried they wouldn’t let me leave to calm down. I started hyperventilating again but tried to stay composed because the room was so quiet, and I didn’t want anyone to notice.
Oddly enough, when I saw that time was almost up, my breathing instantly improved, and I calmed down. Looking back, I think that first incident may have traumatized me. Now, whenever I’m faced with a stressful or high-pressure situation, I start overthinking, which leads to hyperventilation. This has happened on other occasions too, but I won’t go into detail because they’re very similar to what I’ve already described.
The real problem now is that I have more exams coming up, and I’m almost certain this will happen again. I’m really scared, and I want to know, what can I do to prevent or manage this so I can get through my exams without breaking down?