I have anxiety and need advice cause I’m taking drama

when having a panic attack breathe in for 4 sec, hold for 7, exhale for 8. repeat until calm. thats what i do and have my friends do, and nobody really notices youre doing it. good luck, youll do great!

I agree with broadwaydreaming. It's okay, this is something new and scary to you, and it caused a bad reaction. You don't have to jump in straight away into things that can cause you to have anxiety attacks, you can take your time. If you want to continue with this, then you can; just take it slow and don't push yourself too hard.

Think of it like this: when athletes gets badly injured, they don't just jump straight into a competition. They rest and get proper treatment, and ease back into it so they don't hurt themselves further. Don't be mad at yourself if you throw yourself into social situations and end up with anxiety attacks. It's okay to ease into it.

If you want to continue with it, learn how to calm yourself down from an anxiety attack. They can take a while, up to forty-five minutes, and are mentally draining. Like kxli said, breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7, and exhale for 8. Accept that you're having an anxiety attack. Tell yourself "STOP" every time you find yourself thinking bad thoughts. I would advise you to put comforting things on your phone, like calming pictures or music, to distract you.

Let me know if you need anything else, okay? We're all here to help. Cheers!

Kali is right, deep breathing does help panic attacks and they have helped me on numerous occasions. Distractions can help as well, as it allows you to take your mind off of the source of your stress. Try listening to music, drawing, running, reading, any activity that you enjoy as a means of escape from the thing that is stressing you out.

I would say that drama could be an amazing way to begin to open up more, I have a couple friends who have social anxiety and taking drama, although very stressful, has really helped them learn how to better interact with people. If it makes things too much worse, though, don't do it. Try taking maybe a weeks worth of classes and see how you feel (I'm not sure if you've already started or not so I'm assuming you haven't?). It might just be the idea that's scaring you. You can take smaller steps too, you don't have to leap right in to a drama class. Even talking with people you don't normally talk to can help. :)

I'm an actor, and because I have anxiety, I think I understand a bit about how you feel. What I do is chew gum before class. Because I'm focused on blowing as many bubbles as I can, I don't think about what will happen during class. Maybe, during class, you can tap a rhythm on your thighs with your fingers. If you focus on that, you might not be as stressed. I hope I've helped you, and if you need anything else, just ask. There's tons of nice people here and we all want to assist you. :)

Last year I took drama along with a girl who had really bad anxiety. I would recommened to do something similar to what she did and ask the teacher about waiting for you to become comfortable performing in front of your class. Usually teachers are very understanding about things like anxiety. In drama class you become very close to your peers, even the people you'd least expect to, because they show a lot of their personality. Eventually it'll feel like you're just messing around with your friends. If that unfortunately doesn't happen go ahead and change your schedule but atleast give the class a try, you may end up loving the class.