🎢 How I Faced Anxiety and Found My Calm Again

How I Faced Anxiety and Found My Calm Again

A few weeks ago, I went through a beautiful yet challenging time: my dad came to visit me in Mallorca after three years without seeing each other. He came with Viru, his partner, and we spent a week together at home. Then we went on a four-day trip to Italy with Angel, my boyfriend, so they could meet. The trip was amazing, and they got along really well, but something inside me didn't feel quite right.

Even though I enjoyed the trip, I felt unsettled. It had been so long since I last saw them, and it hit me how much I had missed them. I felt nostalgic, deeply melancholic, and a bit angry with myself for not making the effort to visit them in Argentina sooner. It was a strange mix of emotions. On top of that, I had a lot of pressure from a job change that was about to happen. It was supposed to be a positive change, but it still felt imposed, and I thought all my nerves were coming from that.

What I didn't expect was what happened on the second day my dad was at my place: I had a panic attack and couldn't sleep. The same thing happened on the last night of our trip to Italy. When we got back home, I was fine for a week, but soon I had to travel for work, and honestly, I just didn’t feel like it. My energy was so low after those intense days. The night before the trip, I couldn't sleep at all. I woke up in a terrible mood and really didn’t want to go. Finally, when I boarded the plane, they made us deplane because the airport in Nice was closed due to fog.

That was the start of my nightmare. From that night on, for ten days, I couldn't fall asleep. I had anxiety attacks, tremors, and cried constantly. I became a prisoner of my own fear of sleeping. I never thought something so natural, so necessary like rest, could turn into my worst fear. I couldn’t eat, I felt apathetic, depressed, and all I could think about was the moment I’d have to go to bed. I even went to the ER for help because I couldn’t take it anymore. They gave me something to help me sleep, and I took it once, but later I regretted it because I didn’t want to depend on medication.

That’s when everything started to change. I met with my NLP teacher, who is also a retired therapist, and he told me he could help. I went to see him that same day. I didn’t sleep perfectly, but the overwhelming fear disappeared. The terror that had gripped me every night started to fade. There was one more day of crying, but after that, I started to improve. I began eating again, though I had to force myself at first. Slowly, I got back into my routine—going to the gym, doing the things that used to bring me joy, though I took it easy.

After my second session with him, during the third week, everything started to get better. I began sleeping more, and even when I couldn't, it didn’t bother me as much. I would just close my eyes and rest. My body started responding: I was eating well, my digestion improved, and I even had a breakout of pimples that started to heal, almost like my body was purging everything I had bottled up. I felt like something inside me was healing.

The most eye-opening thing was realizing that my anxiety had nothing to do with my job. It was much deeper than that. It was about my family, the loss of my mom, my relationship with my dad, years of suppressing emotions. It was all connected to my inner child, who had been hurt and was waiting to heal. And when I understood that, I started to improve. I’m still in therapy, still working on myself, but I no longer feel that crushing anxiety or the depression that used to weigh me down. Now, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And through all of this, I can’t overlook how fortunate I was to have the people around me who supported me. My boyfriend, my dad, my therapist, and even friends who were always there for me. Their support was fundamental in helping me move forward. In those moments when I felt so vulnerable, having someone by my side, someone to listen or just be there, was a blessing. It’s so important to surround yourself with people who can hold you up when you can’t do it yourself. Their love and support made all the difference.

I’m sharing this because I know how hard it is to deal with anxiety and the desperation of not knowing when it will end. But I also know there’s a way out, and with the right support and time, you can find your calm again. If you're going through something similar, you're not alone. Seek help, don't give up, and give yourself permission to heal. Everything falls into place when it's meant to.