“Young women today are expected to be ambitious gogetters at work, and responsible caregivers to their kids. This, coupled with significant life events, can be very stressful.”

One moment, you’re getting comfy in your plane seat, feeling excited about jetting off for a well- deserved holiday when suddenly, your hands are clammy, your heart’s racing and your brain’s pulsing so hard it drowns out the hum of the plane engines.

That’s exactly what happened to 31-year- old Annabel Tan, socialmedia in uencer and freelance communications consultant.

“I’m not claustrophobic or scared of ying, but I started to freak out about not being able to disembark. My heart rate skyrocketed and I thought I was going to faint,” she recalls. “I told my husband I wasn’t feeling well and we called the  ight attendant over.”

The in- ight supervisor calmed her down, moved her to a more spacious area for take- off, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe more easily. Annabel struggled to explain the overwhelming fear and dread that engulfed her – especially since she was a seasoned traveller.

She didn’t realise she was having a panic attack – she’d never had one before, and was stunned by how it struck so suddenly, gripping all her senses and  inging her into fear. “I felt better after 20 minutes, but for the rest of the  ight, I tried to come to terms with what had happened,” she shares.

It could happen to anyone

“Feeling anxious or panicky is a natural evolutionary reaction designed to protect us from danger by activating a ‘ght,  ight or freeze’ response,” explains Ho Shee Wai, director and registered psychologist at The Counselling Place. “In the absence of any real danger, reactions that would otherwise help us escape from a threatening situation translate into sweating, trembling and heavy breathing.”

In most cases, such feelings are not debilitating, and they usually dissipate in minutes.

But when there’s “an abrupt surge of intense fear or discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes, during which four or more of these symptoms – heart palpitations, sweating, shivering, shortness of breath, nausea, and fear that you’re losing control, going crazy or dying – occur, that’s when you’ve got a panic attack”, says Shee Wai.

You might think it would take something really major – like being mentally ill or undergoing traumatic experiences such as accidents or assault – to trigger one.

But truth is, it could happen to anyone, any time – even when you’re doing something completely innocuous like watching TV – or even sleeping.

Too much pressure?

While there’s no official data on the incidence of panic attacks in Singapore, Dr Lim Boon Leng, a psychiatrist from Gleneagles Medical Centre, says one in three of his patients seeks help for anxiety issues. Of these, a third are diagnosed with panic disorder – making it one of the most common psychological conditions he treats.

Studies show that women are twice as likely as men to be affected. British online charity Youthnet estimates that a third of young women in the UK suffer from panic attacks.

Citing the pressures of modernday living as a key trigger, Dr Lim notes: “Young women today are expected to be ambitious go-getters at work and responsible caregivers to their kids. This, coupled with major life events, can be very stressful.”

While Annabel has no children, she’d experienced major life changes not long before her panic attack. She had recently got married and moved house. She’d been assigned a challenging new project at work. The signs of overload were there, making her susceptible to an emotional meltdown. She says: “I guess women are conditioned to just ‘go for it’ and plough on during trying periods, so much so that we don’t take time to process change, and continue trying to cope.”

Annabel is certainly not alone. Over the past two years, a handful of smart and successful women celebs — Dr Lim Boon Leng,

psychiatrist