I had yet another children’s book on my mind today. The story of Chicken Little. After re-reading it this morning, I realized that Chicken Little was having a major panic attack. I also realized that there were several things in the story that I could apply to myself.
Not only was Chicken Little experiencing a panic attack, but he was having a panic attack over something imaginary.
“Chicken Little was in the woods.
A seed fell on his tail.
Chicken Little said,
“The sky is falling.
I will run.”
“The sky is falling.
I will run.”
I have had more than one panic attack over something I imagined. Whatever I had created in my mind, became real to me, the feelings were absolutely real. The things I created in my mind that caused me to have a panic attack, were huge. Sometimes it would be imagining my whole family being killed in an awful car accident. Once after I tried to commit suicide in May, and the right medicine mix had not been found for me, I started imagining that my husband was done with me, because he could not handle being married to someone who was mentally ill.
Very much like Chicken Little taking off and running, I can spend several hours pacing the house. not able to concentrate, and crying buckets of tears when I have a panic attack due to something I imagined. Days like that lead me to have many bad thoughts.
Another thing I noticed about Chicken Little and his panic attack is that the longer the panic attack went on, the more details his imagination added to his “story”.
“How do you know, Chicken Little?”
“I saw it with my eyes.
I heard it with my ears.
Some of it fell on my tail.”
I heard it with my ears.
Some of it fell on my tail.”
I have done the same thing when something I have imagined has caused me to have a panic attack. All it succeeds in doing is making the panic attack worse.
Chicken Little’s reasons for having the panic attack were so real to him that he managed to convince a few of his friends that the sky was really falling. They started having panic attacks, and they started running. I would think that by this point all of those animal/people having panic attacks were feeding each others fears. I know that if I am around people who are anxious or panicking about something, it feeds my own fears and makes things worse. That is one of the reasons I choose to only be around people who are positive and not prone to drama.
The final outcome for Chicken Little and his panicking friends was not very good. They got so caught up in their panic attacks that they lost their common sense. They actually thought a predator by the name of Foxy Loxy was going to help them.
Chicken Little and his friends were eaten. Obviously their situation got worse due to their panic attacks. Often when I have a panic attack, I become paralyzed with fear. I can take no productive action about what is making me panic. That inaction due to panic, makes the situation worse than if I had just been calm and dealt with it.
Chicken Little’s reasons for having the panic attack were so real to him that he managed to convince a few of his friends that the sky was really falling. They started having panic attacks, and they started running. I would think that by this point all of those animal/people having panic attacks were feeding each others fears. I know that if I am around people who are anxious or panicking about something, it feeds my own fears and makes things worse. That is one of the reasons I choose to only be around people who are positive and not prone to drama.
The final outcome for Chicken Little and his panicking friends was not very good. They got so caught up in their panic attacks that they lost their common sense. They actually thought a predator by the name of Foxy Loxy was going to help them.
“Foxy Loxy said,
“We will run.
We will run into my den,
And I will tell the king.”
“We will run.
We will run into my den,
And I will tell the king.”
They ran into Foxy Loxy’s den,
But they did not come out again.”
I cannot even count the times that I have had a panic attack and lost all the common sense I had. No common sense means I make very poor decisions. An example of this is when I tried to kill myself. I had been thinking constantly about suicide for months and months but had not acted on those thoughts. When my husband lost his job and and we lost our insurance, we could no longer afford my medications. I had gone to the free clinic in our county, and they were able to provide me with all my medicines except for one. I became very discouraged and panicky over not being able to get that one particular medication. I have restless leg syndrome. It is fairly bad. When I do not have my medicine for it, I do not sleep and my legs get in such bad shape that I am miserable. I began to panic at the thought of how miserable I was going to be for who knows how long. I decided that I could not live without having that medicine. It was at this point I chose to act on the suicidal thoughts I had been having for so long. It was a very poor decision that I made while having a panic attack, it almost cost me my life.
Chicken Little and his friends were eaten. Obviously their situation got worse due to their panic attacks. Often when I have a panic attack, I become paralyzed with fear. I can take no productive action about what is making me panic. That inaction due to panic, makes the situation worse than if I had just been calm and dealt with it.
The original version of Chicken Little was a fable. It has been passed down from generation to generation, in an oral tradition. Fables tend to have a moral lesson in them. I find the things that I picked out that I could apply to myself interesting. I know the “professionals” who dissect stories find different moral lessons than I did. I suppose there is no way to tell fo
r sure what moral lesson the original story teller wanted people to learn from from Chicken Little. Maybe he wanted people to do exactly what I did and find themselves and their flaws in it and learn from it.
r sure what moral lesson the original story teller wanted people to learn from from Chicken Little. Maybe he wanted people to do exactly what I did and find themselves and their flaws in it and learn from it.