Last night, astute readers may remember, I was due to go to salsa class with Mam. Unfortunately this didn't happen, because I had a panic attack in the car on the motorway on the way there and had to turn around and come back. This was incredibly frightening, because my foot just lodged itself onto the accelerator and I couldn't slow down, and the car managed to get itself up to 130 kph, and I was hyperventilating and felt like I was on the verge of fainting (I've never fainted, so I don't really know if this was likely to happen or not) and couldn't figure out what to do, when the exit for Balbriggan loomed up in front of me and I was able to turn the wheel and get off, and the act of turning the wheel kind of freed up my foot to move to the brake, and I calmed down a bit.
Except of course then I went into shock, and had the slightly comic experience of sitting in crappy rush hour traffic in Balbriggan with tears streaming down my face, listening to some bloke on Matt Cooper's show talking about Cork GAA players and watching the traffic jam and thinking Jesus, imagine living as far out as Balbriggan and still having to cope with rush hour traffic.
Anyway, I got home okay and Mam came and sat with me and Mister M came home and it was all fine and we decided that I'm not going mental at all, sure, everyone has panic attacks now and then.
And now I have a monstrous toothache.
It is a bit of a shit start to the week. So, let's play Things to Look Forward to:
1) I have almost acquired Season One of The Wire, so we can finally see if it's as good as everyone says it is (I really hope it is).
2) Lost on Sunday. But not just Lost, oh no. HIGH DEFINITION Lost. You can come and watch it if you want, but you have to be very quiet and watch out for panicking motorists on the motorway.
3) Being a bit pissed off is always a good excuse to post a picture of Naveen. So here he is.
4 comments:
Jesus, that's not good. Do you have any idea what brought it on, or was it just one of Those Things?
That happened to me once. I got my foot caught between the accelerator and the clutch and TOTALLY flipped out in the car (I was on my own of course) and nearly crashed it. Rather than thinking about having a p.a., congratulate yourself on what an amazing driver you are that you reacted so properly - calmly, rationally, etc. while hyperventilating and not being able to move your foot.
Plus 130mph ROCKS, GIRL!!!!
Imagine what the poor bastards you passed at that speed must have been thinking if they saw in the window of the car!!
In fact that is up there with the time I drove up the wrong ramp in the shopping centre carpark in Jervis and managed not to hit anyone. All the people in the correct lane were having freak attacks when I emerged oblivious to what I had done. I had to sit in a cafe for about two hours before I could get back in the car.
Ray, it was just one of those things.
Queenie, the weird thing was that my foot wasn't physically stuck, I just couldn't make it stop pressing down on the accelerator (I didn't really hit 130mph, it was kph, which is less dramatic; I don't think my car could physically do 130mph).
However, I went to the doctor and have been given anti-depressants to deal with my anxiety. They are a lot of fun so far.
Wow, that's impressively scary.
I hope it is 'just one of those things' and never shows up again. For example, I haven't (touch wood) passed out while urinating in about 8 years. I still have a strong memory of wondering 'what am I doing in the bath' after blacking out and doing a swan-dive for the porcelain.
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