<\/p>\n
Before I knew what a panic attack was, or how to come down\u2013 to count and breathe, or name five things you can see, hear, touch, and taste, or any of the other methods a good therapist will give you\u2013 I had my own method. I would list all the nicknames you can make from the name Elizabeth. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n liz liza lizzy elle ellie ella beth\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n betty bette betsy<\/span><\/p>\n libby lib letty\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n eliza etta<\/span><\/p>\n zabby\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I didn’t know anyone named Elizabeth. But I liked how every time I thought I was done listing, there would be one more,<\/span><\/p>\n until my breathing slowed down.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elizabeth walks ahead of me at the park, coaxing her puppy to move faster through the grass. We’re going to be late.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Don\u2019t fight the anxiety <\/span><\/i>my therapist says in my head <\/span>because it\u2019ll only get\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n worse. <\/span><\/i>Accept it. What do you want for yourself?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n For it to go away.<\/span><\/p>\n Pushing it down only makes it bigger. Let yourself feel.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Ask yourself: can I tolerate it?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Sweat glistens on the back of Ely\u2019s neck. The one spelling I never thought of. I want to reach out and touch it, taste the salt,<\/span><\/p>\n late or not.<\/span><\/p>\n Yes, I can tolerate it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before I knew what a panic attack was, or how to come down<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1604,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions\/1604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}