It was a feeling of mounting panic. The area just below the heart felt like hardening concrete and all my limbs felt heavy. My mind was racing off into many directions and refused all efforts of reining in. Nothing felt right…

This was the onset of my anxiety attack.

Life serves up moments. Like the racing bunch that suddenly slows down and we are forced to make fast corrections so that crashing into the riders in front of us can be avoided. For seasoned riders, there is no panic. Just a practised reaction. For others, it may bring on a moment of panic – which can slow reactions down and cause a crash.

Then there is the type of panic I felt when Shirley asked “which day is our wedding anniversary?”. When you forget the date of your wedding, you can get into deep trouble – and I had to use all my dodging and weaving techniques to survive that question.

Panic moments come and go in our lives. We usually handle them in our stride. It is when we try to take on too much – day in and day out, that panic moments multiply and turn into a full blown anxiety attack.

I lead an extremely busy life. Most of it is consumed by my roofing business. As a business owner, there are two main stress generators. The first is CLIENTS. Expectations, demands, fulfilment and service takes a lot of management. Then there are the employees. Not only do I have make enough money to feed my family, I am the sole source of my worker’s livelihood. They rely on me to feed their families…

On a daily basis, when I see all the work that has to be done and compare that with my resources, there is a gap. And the more I think about it, the greater that gap seems to grow. This is usually the onset of my anxiety attack. And sometimes, this can go on all day.

We are coming in to the business end of the European racing season, and when we tune into a race, there is the mandatory early morning breakaway enjoying a time gap.  The novice viewer would watch most of the race and think that the breakaway has a chance of succeeding.  It is an anxiety fest. Will they or wont they bridge the gap in time?

The peloton somehow times the catch in perfection –  to allow the favourites to show off their talents on the finish line.  On some rare occasions, the breakaways succeed and we get to cheer the opportunists. Either way, racing comes to an end on that day and resumes the next.

There is a strategy to combat an anxiety attack. It is to just pretend that you are in the peloton. It will take a bit of work, but the gap will be closed down by the end of the day.  And you don’t have to do it all by yourself either. There is always help close by. And if by chance, you cannot bridge the gap, then there is always tomorrow to look forward to.