How to do teshuva for breaking shabbos?

The best teshuva is to start taking the prescribed meds.

He can also do teshuva by either starting the shabbos earlier then the regular time as a zchus for previous weeks being mechalel shabbos or keep shabbos longer as a sign of sincere teshuva to Hashem.

Talk to a professional (a talmid chacham/psychologist, someone who is both), not the coffee room

Learn the melachos of shabbos is the correct answer to the hypothetical question.

The answer to this thread can be found at http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/driving-a-tesla-on-shabbos

Seems like this person indeed needs love and support and, possibly, treatment for his condition.

That said, starting shabbos early is a practical solution – get the panic trip out of the way before shabbos, while someone else can drive the person to the hospital and back.

Someone called me in Israel when it was still Shabbos by him, so I hung up on him.
When his Shabbos was over, he called me again and said that it is a matter of pikuach nefesh which is docheh Shabbos. He claimed to be sick, physically and emotionally and that talking to me made him feel better and would save his life. Since he was not shomer Shabbos in general, I did not take him seriously and insisted that he only call me when it was chol.
After a few weekday calls, he called one night and we spoke for about an hour, during which he repeated that he was very sick. I still did not believe him, since he did not go to a doctor. I thought that he was just lonely since he lived alone.
The next morning I was informed that he had died during the night.
So, we never can really know the other person’s situation.
Surely a frum psych must be consulted for practical advice.

Avira, I presumed that the most jarring moment is transition from chol to shabbos. Maybe the person does not know how to detach himself or afraid to focus on himself (especially, these days when people can use tech to always be “busy”).

But if someone has panic attack later on shabbos, I would examine what is in the cholent and whether it is heated sufficiently.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to use the phone on Shabbos. I’ve even had to drive on Shabbos. When you have a family member with health problems, this is the reality.
Doing this does not require teshuva, as you did nothing wrong. In fact, if you push things off until after Shabbos, that would probably require teshuva, because you prioritized Shabbos over a person’s life.
After one of the first times I had to go with someone to the hospital on Shabbos, I was discussing with my Rav about how I did things. I old him that I didn’t know if I did everything properly, minimizing the melachah as much as possible.
He responded to me that it’s easier when you know something will happen – for example, if your wife is due to give birth, and there’s a good chance it will happen on Shabbos, you can pre-arrange for a car, explaining that payment will be given after Shabbos, ask for them to open doors, etc.
When it’s an unplanned emergency, you just react, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In a case of pikuach nefesh, you do what you think is best to help the person. You’re in the ER and need a nurse, and you don’t see one at the desk? You can ring the call bell. His words were, “Don’t overthink things.” Trying to minimize melachah can cause the level of care to be less.

Avira, I agree with what you’re saying. I’ll just add that sometimes on this forum there’s a suspicion a poster is making an imaginary tumult rather than anyone not taking a real situation seriously.

anonymous Jew,

“AAQ, whatever respect I had for you is gone. Mental health is no joke, and, because of attitudes like yours, people can be reluctant to get help for themselves or a child.”

I’m not 100% sure if he was joking or not, I mean, he wrote something in a joking way but he may have been serious with his point. I know someone who had a certain type of recurring hear arrhythmia that was misdiagnosed as panic/anxiety attacks (she was usually panicking when the events occurred – because they were scary! and were back to a tachycardic normal sinus rhythm by the time she was seen), until one day when her heart was clocking north of 230bpm and would not slow down, the paramedics got leads on her and a strip showing the arrhythmia. While managing the condition, she found that some foods could trigger the arrhythmia.

The bigger question is, how does a person who doesn’t know the halachos well enough do teshuva for deciding to be machmir on himself or somebody else with sometimes horrible consequences.

As many others have noted here this is a topic to be discussed with a mental health, professional, and a rabbi or mental health professional, who is a rabbi.
As far as always ask questions beans, it is clinically proven that under cooked beans can cause all sorts of gastrointestinal issues, which can often mimic signs of a heart attack or other major health issues. Typically a panic attack will mimic one or more of those issues. There is a large amount of overlap between a panic attack and undercooked cholent beans.
So please, soak your beans or make sure that your cholent is cooking at a high enough temperature.