🫧Bubbles🫧 | DNF

🫧 Chapter 3 🫧

"Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not."

— Oscar Wilde

Medication. A word George desperately tried to avoid; or at least the topic of it, anyway. He was never comfortable talking about it with his parents or the friends that he didn't have. The only exception was Kristy, but even then, George still felt wary of the topic.

"Has your medication helped you decrease your panic attacks? Do you feel calmer?" She'd ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Totally." George would nod, and they would move onto the next topic. Today, Kristy was more insistent.

"Would you like to tell me about what caused your last panic attack?" She requested.

"No. Don't wanna." George pouted.

"Was it serious?"

"No, it was, um, on the bus ride home from school. I didn't have my pills on me, so I called my mom, and she calmed me down."

"Do you feel calm around your mother?"

"Yeah. If she isn't overloading me with questions. My dad knows what he's supposed to say, but he doesn't relieve my stress all that much, so I prefer mom."

"She's still your emergency contact, yes?"

George just nodded.

"Mhm, so let's imagine a little scenario. You're walking out and about when, suddenly, you find yourself in the middle of a panic attack. Your phone died, so you can't call your mother, and you left your pills at home. What would you do if this situation ever occurred?"

"I'd just... have a panic attack...?" George laughed awkwardly.

Kristy couldn't help but crack a smile. "George, come on," Kristy couldn't help but crack a smile, "do you think you would be able to calm yourself down?"

George looked down at the floor between them and pondered the answer.

"I don't know. I'd at least try."

"Next time you have one, please try and focus on some of the methods I taught you."

George gave another nod.

"Now, do you remember the 54321 technique?"

"Yeah, but it's too tedious and makes me even more stressed. My mom and I did it once, and it didn't help at all. Square breathing is a bit easier, but sometimes I forget to do it since I'm breathing so quickly. I mostly just rely on pills..."

"How would you like to learn another method to calm down, then?"

"That'd be nice." George mindlessly nodded.

"Okay, one of my patients told this to me a while back, and it seemed to help them, so I wanted to see if you would be interested in this as well. What you do is take out a piece of candy, or anything that's extremely sour or spicy, and put it in your mouth. It causes your attention to shift and focus on the flavor on your tongue. But you have to keep them in a spot where you can quickly get to them since most sour candy is wrapped in individual packaging and can be hard to open if your hands are shaking. So it's best to carry them around in a small box or ziplock bag that you can carry with you."

"Okay... I'll keep it in mind."

"... And how would you feel if a random person went up to you to help you if you were in the middle of a panic attack?"

George thought for a bit. He probably wouldn't even be able to see them with the blurred vision he had, which would triple the panic he would feel. "I'd panic even more and try to get away from them."