Novel

[flamingweasel]

This evening we flew home. I don't think I'm any more flight-averse than the average person; I hate being stuck in a cylinder full of recycled air and idiots, and I hate the process to get on the damn things, but I understand the physics and the probability of failure. What I'm trying to say is: who's got two thumbs and is not freaked out by

Comments

[akatchoom]

Funny, my worst panic attacks always cause me to feel the sensation of heart failure (or what I imagine heart failure might feel like.)

[roninspoon]

I recommend regular counseling, russian hookers and organized crime.

[geminica]

I know some folks that used to get bad panic attacks regularly, and for them it was *always* associated with hypochondria. That's the kind I've had on rare occasions as well, and yeah, it usually involves the heart or lungs. Luckily there are pretty clear tools for dealing with these things: taking slow deep breaths while riding it out, or LOOK! A HIPPO!

[flamingweasel]

What was weird was how subconscious the whole thing was. I wasn't really freaking out on a conscious level about heart stuff, but that was definitely causing it. I ran a little experiment on myself in the airplane: think about heart stuff, watch my body react in this crazy way; stop thinking about hearts, see the reaction subside. Learning how not to stop thinking about elephants is apparently useful for more than just keeping songs out of my head.