These are a few of my favorite things

[darkemeralds]

So. Panic attack this morning. Whee! First one in six weeks or so, and on the panic attack Richter Scale this one was about a 5--which means you have to sit down and hyperventilate for a minute, and you have only a minor adrenaline hangover afterwards, and not the ravenous sugar-hunger of a Richter 7.

You'll sometimes see one coming half an hour or so before it hits, and try to turn it aside, but these suckers are sneaky. Just when you stop singing ("Loooook around, we're living with the lo-o-o-o-st and found...") or concentrating on a task (mascara--every single eyelash...) for a second, wham! Weird shit starts going through your head, images that feel like memories, but aren't and you know it.

Images like...something to do with an advertisement for epoxy. That was this morning's, what I can remember of it. Epoxy. WTF. And Sandra Oh. Go figure.

Then the dread floods in and a thousand thoughts lance through it, each one tainted with a horrible physical feeling of hopelessness and terror, and you wonder how you'll go on living like this.

There's a part of you standing there saying, "It's not real, it's not real, it's not real," and another part of you that recognizes that that part of you isn't the part having the seizure and you're not gonna die of despair.

And then it passes, and for a few minutes--fifteen at most--your thoughts continue to rear up a bit and show you the whites of their eyes as they settle.

Half an hour later you're on the bus on your way to work and almost normal, and then you're getting off the elevator on the 14th floor and trying not to think: I thought these were over. When will they be over?

Comments

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

I knew soy sauce came in different qualities but I didn't know what that hinged on, so thanks for the education. We've just discovered an excellent Asian hypermarket in Glasgow (and I see they have 23 pages of sauces on their website!) so I hope to find some of the natural stuff there. Chinese labels are a bugger though.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Wow! That looks like a fantastic resource. My Asian hypermarket is very...what's the word? Low-tech, I guess, compared to See-Woo. Maybe "tacky" is the word I'm after.

But what a treat it is to wander those aisles. My mom and I go sometimes and just ooh-and-aah over the cool unfamiliar stuff. I'm sure we look ridiculous. But it's fun.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Mr Kis and I do exactly the same! It's cheap tourism - with all the same excruciatingly insensitive behaviour, I'm sure. "Ooh, look! They make noodle gift boxes! How funny!"

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yes, that's it precisely. If I go with my mom, I can pretend that I'm much more sophisticated.

I am a terrible person.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

I need your "Welcome to the team" icon in response to that. Heed Joss instead. :-)

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I never don't heed Joss.