Cara de Sapato, from ‘BBB 23’, developed panic syndrome after the murder of a friend: ‘It messed with me a lot’

Participant of “BBB 23”, Antônio Cara de Sapato has had anxiety attacks a few times inside the house. With Amanda’s support, he does breathing exercises and manages to calm down, but that wasn’t always the case. In 2011, a traumatic event caused the fighter to develop panic syndrome and Sapato’s career almost ended.

“I lost a friend who was also a black belt fighter. He was murdered. I arrived later on the scene and I saw him there. And that really messed with me. It was messing with my entire physiological system and with some stresses that I was already going through at that time. It all came together and turned into this snowball, it became a panic disorder”, said the athlete in an interview with the “Combate” channel.

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Panic syndrome or disorder is a set of strong attacks of anxiety and fear that happen suddenly accompanied by physical symptoms. “I stayed alone in the room, I didn’t want to go out, I was scared and discouraged with life. You think you’re going to die, that something is going to happen, but it’s a physiological dysfunction, of the body and the brain itself”, explained Sapato.

With compromised health, Antônio faced difficulties in his career as a fighter. After all, the anxiety before entering the octagon, in his case, aggravated the crises a lot: “It was a very difficult time, especially for me, an athlete, because I needed to train, you know? There’s a lot of adrenaline before the fight… How do you has panic syndrome and can fight?”.

With that in mind, he decided to seek professional help. The treatment is usually done with therapy and medication and that was exactly the path that Cara de Sapato followed: “I went to therapy, went to the psychologist, to the psychiatrist and I had to take medicine”.

Thus, Antônio overcame the panic and, years later, he began to see this challenge as an important factor in his development as an individual. “Panic made me a much more human person, much better and I think that formed the human being I am today”, reflected the athlete.

For always speaking openly about the disorder, years later, in 2016, Cara de Sapato was provoked by an opponent before a fight. During the weigh-in, Bahian Leleco wore the mask from the movie “Pânico”, but the attempt to destabilize Antônio had no effect. “If his posture was to try to hit me because I had panic syndrome, he was very unhappy. This syndrome is a serious thing and many people have suffered from it. And I ended up winning Pânico twice (laughs). I got over it. the syndrome and, now, he put on the Panic mask and I beat him”, said the fighter at the time.