Well.... they vary immensely from person to person, and also depending very much on the situation. In my case, the effects can be things like dizziness, difficulty with breathing, unable to swallow, feeling sick... and it is often a combination of any or all of these. Sometimes they last only a few minutes, sometimes they can totally mess me up for several days. The best description of a panic I heard was simply "things stop making sense."

I don't honestly know. The first really bad one was when Nightmare On Elm Street was watched, and I think I was around 18 years old. Before that, horror films really didn't bother me at all, but something in that triggered a major panic attack. After that, it happened during an Alien/Aliens/Alien 3 triple bill thingy at the local cinema, and I simply found I couldn't get up or move. Things just snowballed after that.

A purrfect example is above... gory, violent or just plain disturbing stuff. They are also likely to start if I'm worried or scared of something, and if I've simply overdone things (such as running for a bus) Not surprisingly, I avoid gory and weird films, and I try not to rush around too much. Trying not to be scared is obviously not that simple, because with panics you don't always know what you're scared of.

And of course, sometimes nothing triggers an attack, and they just happen for no reason at all.

Sure. This is going back to mid 2002. I was in a net cafe. As I was answering something on Livejournal, out of nowhere I suddenly couldn't breathe properly and everything went distant and unreal. I suddenly needed to get away from there - I didn't know why or what difference that would have even made, but like I said above, things stop making sense. However, I couldn't just get up and leave. Being in the net cafe, I would have had to log out of my Livejournal account and my email account, put away my disks and bits of paper, log off the actual computer, and then wait in the small queue to pay for the time that I had been on the computer.

Yep. Eep. That is a big part of the problem. Above all else, I hate feeling trapped, and sometimes it is simply unavoidable. If I am totally in control of a situation, and I know I have a way out, an escape route of sorts (for instance if I know I can leave a place at any time) then things can often improve quite a lot. Needless to say though, all this makes meeting people and generally enjoying life a right pain.

No... I get chronic stomach aches, which I've yet to find the cause or cure for. I also get severe travel sickness and I have a very bad phobia of being sick, or seeing other people doing the honours. I also get ear problems, because of an ear infection when I was about 5 years old. That in itself doesn't exactly help with the dizziness, and loud or repetitive noise plays havoc with my ears.

I'll be honest, sometimes it wears me out and I feeling like giving in. If I did that, I would never go out of the house again, and that is not an option. I like buying nice things far too much to let that happen, such as plushies and beanies, CDs and bracelets, art stuff etc. I don't have any intention of becoming house bound. So I fight back as much as possible. Yep, it is a struggle, but I have friends who are helping (purrticularly among my furry friends) and for that I am more grateful than anyone can ever imagine.