Читать книгу Self-Help for Your Nerves: Learn to relax and enjoy life again by overcoming stress and fear - Dr. Weekes Claire - Страница 13

Some people, as well as having this background of disturbing sensations, are swept from time to time by intense waves of panic. Some have a panic spasm every few minutes, and this may continue for hours. It will be appreciated how disturbing these spasms can be when a sufferer is working and trying to appear normal and how he lives in dread of their coming at inappropriate moments. Unfortunately they are most likely to come at such times, as he is then most apprehensive and afraid.

It is possible that the recurring attacks of palpitation have now left him and that he is more concerned with the other manifestations of fear, although it is more usual to find the palpitations continuing and adding to the miserable burden.

This is not a far-fetched story. I have heard it so often that I give it respectful attention. I have known this stage, inadequately treated, to last several years, the patient going from doctor to doctor.

To healthy people this history may sound all too childish and stupid. They think, ‘Why doesn’t he pull up his socks and get on with his work and forget all this nonsense?’ That is exactly what he would like to do. But what we, the healthy ones, do not realize is that by this time the fear felt by such a sufferer is greater than any the average person has known or has paused to imagine. Repeated spasms of panic, when accompanied by exhaustion, not only increase in intensity but need less and less to start them. Dread of having them may bring on a whole sequence. Meeting a stranger, the thought of being left alone, even a slamming door may suffice. Also, in spite of a great desire to pull up his socks and get to work, such frequent, intense spasms of fear seem to paralyse his will to act.

Some years ago, when recuperating from an operation, I stayed with friends who were planning a bush walk. They asked a young man to join us. It was not a long walk, they assured me (but long enough for me, thought I, as I looked at his long legs). To my astonishment this big fellow soon fell behind and we frequently had to wait for him to catch up. At lunch he lay exhausted on the grass. Later he told me his story. For years, since student days, he had had recurring spasms of intense panic, so that his life had become a nightmare. He was not afraid of anything in particular, only the feeling of fear itself, and this had become so intensified and exhausting that even that short walk had been too much.

This man was eventually cured and able to lead a scientific expedition. I mention him because he was no weakling but a clever scientist in a responsible position. With help he recovered quickly, after having suffered for ten years.