T he first time I had a panic attack, I genuinely thought I was dying. Unless you have experienced one, it is hard to understand just how physical the symptoms can be – the pounding heart, the shortness of breath, the dizziness, the chest pain, the nausea. When they became frequent, I would often have to go to bed to sleep them off, my body utterly spent from the strain of sheer, corporeal terror. A panic attack is not a physical state that I would wish on anyone. It is pure fight or flight.

Like many others, I was prescribed a drug called propranolol to help with my anxiety symptoms.…