Panic is real. Panic is debilitating. Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant or a liar.
Psychological symptoms are often shrugged off by too many. The label of psychosomatic is thrown around by the foolish as a synonym for false. Yet understanding the difference between malingering, factitious disorder and somatoform disorder lends to keen insight into the power our mind has over our body.
Recent personal experience has clarified just how powerful this psychosomatic connection is. There is no need to go into the details, but it is sufficient to say that over the course of two weeks I became intimately familiar with the psychogenic phenomenon of panic, and its concomitant somatic manifestations.
Now I can look back on it as an academician. I can reflect on how interesting it is that the worry and concern that was in my mind resulted in a racing heart, cold, clammy skin, sweating, nausea and pre-syncope. I can marvel at the power our minds have to elicit a physical response from the various organ systems. At least now I can.
In the middle of it though, all I could think was "I am going to die".
Self-discovery can be a fascinating thing, but often only through the tinted lenses of hindsight. Panic and I are now acquaintances, and I think I will recognize him a little better next time we meet.