Okay, this is cheating, but it's nearly 3am and I don't feel like figuring out a which is your current email addy (I'm horrible at remembering to cull the dead ones from my only address book).
I'm responding to your uncommentable post -- but not with hugs.
I've been having a lot of "I'm going to die" syndrome, lately, myself. I suspect it's a not unpredictable response to a) Mom dying as she did and b) living alone, but knowing that doesn't make it any better/easier to deal with. The potentially-killing-or-incapacitating-me-while-I'm-asleep condition varies -- heart attack, aneurism, tetanus -- but the overall result is the same: I find myself up at 2 or 3 in the morning, afraid to go to sleep lest the feared condition attack in the night.
Now, there's usually some not-totally-offbase reason for choosing the condition at issue: anxiety attacks are often misperceived as heart attacks; an unexplained and sharp "ping" feeling behind the eye, followed by likely sinus pressure, is rather disconcerting; and unexplained random muscle twitches followed a couple of days later by jaw stiffness (likely prompted by aggravation-induced clenching), combined with lack of memory of one's last tetanus shot, does somewhat resemble the symptoms of the disease. Any one of these, on its own, wouldn't lead me to say I have "oh gods I'm going to die" syndrome; having some version fairly regularly when I'm alone, over the course of a month, is a different story.
I know your version is different, but since I'm not *usually* a hypochondriac -- and I suspect you're not, either -- I'm thinking this may be a sort-of commonality we might ... enjoy? ... chatting about. On my end, it will probably include some laughter about my overreactions, all of which culminated in my waking up, perfectly fine, in the morning.
Ah, our brains. They're nothing if not capable of keeping us on our toes.
no subject
I'm responding to your uncommentable post -- but not with hugs.
I've been having a lot of "I'm going to die" syndrome, lately, myself. I suspect it's a not unpredictable response to a) Mom dying as she did and b) living alone, but knowing that doesn't make it any better/easier to deal with. The potentially-killing-or-incapacitating-me-while-I'm-asleep condition varies -- heart attack, aneurism, tetanus -- but the overall result is the same: I find myself up at 2 or 3 in the morning, afraid to go to sleep lest the feared condition attack in the night.
Now, there's usually some not-totally-offbase reason for choosing the condition at issue: anxiety attacks are often misperceived as heart attacks; an unexplained and sharp "ping" feeling behind the eye, followed by likely sinus pressure, is rather disconcerting; and unexplained random muscle twitches followed a couple of days later by jaw stiffness (likely prompted by aggravation-induced clenching), combined with lack of memory of one's last tetanus shot, does somewhat resemble the symptoms of the disease. Any one of these, on its own, wouldn't lead me to say I have "oh gods I'm going to die" syndrome; having some version fairly regularly when I'm alone, over the course of a month, is a different story.
I know your version is different, but since I'm not *usually* a hypochondriac -- and I suspect you're not, either -- I'm thinking this may be a sort-of commonality we might ... enjoy? ... chatting about. On my end, it will probably include some laughter about my overreactions, all of which culminated in my waking up, perfectly fine, in the morning.
Ah, our brains. They're nothing if not capable of keeping us on our toes.