I am a new grad student. Today I went into a class and the lecturer informed us that every student will have to give a lecture on a self chosen topic.

As soon as I heard this, I started to feel anxious. I don’t have any formal background in the area and no public speaking experience. Even though it’s probably a few weeks away I was/am still worried. I kept it together in class. It’s all I could think about. My mind started to find ways to ditch this class but that seems very hard because my advisor asked me to take it.

When I got out I went and sat on a bench in front of the building for an hour. I didn’t want to go home and wanted to meet a few friends. I think everyone was busy so I just talked to someone on Reddit. I felt completely out of place. It doesn’t help I’m an international student and this is my 11th day in the country.

I then went home and used my laptop for 30 mins. I was still feel extremely anxious. I then curled up on the floor and just slept for a solid 20 mins. I felt a little better afterwards but still sick. I then got up on the floor and slept for about 1-2 hours.

I hadn’t eaten and didn’t want to. I felt very heavy and a lot of previous guilt in my life just resurfaced. It was a difficult day.

This often happens to me. At least once every two weeks. Is this an anxiety attack?