As a teenager working as a cashier at Target during rush hour, Cindy Portillo would struggle to catch her breath as her palms became sweaty and her heart raced. At the time, she could not name what was happening: an anxiety-induced panic attack. It was only at 21, after years of feeling this way and doing her own research that a doctor diagnosed her with anxiety disorder. “I feel like I’m the only one in my family who has ever experienced anxiety,” Portillo tells Refinery29 Somos. “Within my family, they didn’t really know how to help me, besides telling me that I needed to go to church more, or get closer to God and that would help. But it didn’t. I just needed more support.”
