2018-10-01_Reader_s_Digest_AUNZ

October• 2018 | 73

READER’S DIGEST

next came the sweating, legs turning
to jelly, and the feeling that somehow
I’d lose control or ‘go crazy’.
I rang the bell to stop the bus and,
in tears, walked home, where I felt
safer. A few days later I tried the bus
again – and the same thing happened.
he thing that had forced me to avoid
driving on highways
was now forcing me
to avoid taking pub-
lic transport.
It was time to
come clean. That
evening, I told my
husband what had
been going on. He
was so sympathetic;
I shouldn’t have
kept it bottled up
because it felt good
to let it out. But he
was as mystified as
Iwas.Wesearched
online for ‘fear of highways’ and ‘fear
of public transport’ and got lots of hits,
whichiswhenwelearntthatmany
people experience episodes called
panic attacks.
What a relief to know I wasn’t alone.
But my heart sank when I learned that
what happened on the bus meant I
also had agoraphobia [fear of open
spaces], which often goes hand in
hand with panic disorder. You fear
that if you have panic symptoms, you
won’t be able to escape. In extreme
cases, your world shrinks until you
fear leaving your home.

Now it was time to tackle this; I’d

be damned if I was going to let some-

thing in my mind control my life.

I’d read that it helps to talk about it

with loved ones. So, a few days later,

when I flew back home for a visit, I

had dinner with my best friend and

her husband and told them about the

panic attacks. Lind-

saylookedatTodd

with wide eyes then

back to me and said,

“Todd went through

that a few years ago!”

He said sheep-

ishly, “When I was

28, I had panic at-

tacks.”Hehadsev-

eral episodes over a

few months. It was a

very stressful time as

he’d just taken over

the family business.

One evening at a res-

taurant with Lindsay, his heart started

pounding fast; he thought he was hav-

ing a heart attack and felt the need

to flee. They left mid-meal and the

pounding stopped. he next morning

he went to his doctor. “It sounds like

you had a panic attack,” he said. He

referred Todd to a mental health spe-

cialist, who gave him a prescription for

an anti-anxiety drug. Todd took the

medication and avoided restaurants,

but then a panic attack hit when he

was in an airport lounge. Agorapho-

bia had kicked in.

He dealt with it on his own by

FEAR IS

A REACTION

TO AN ACTUAL

THREAT.

PANIC IS

INTENSE FEAR

IN ABSENCE

OF REAL

DANGER