I have a particular response to certain stressful situations. It happens quite rarely, maybe once every few years, and I find it hard to fully comprehend what exactly is happening.
The situations where it occurs will be where a sequence of small events over a short time period, say 10 or 20 minutes, conspire to ramp up my stress level. Probably I will also already be experiencing an elevated underlying level of stress. I am one of those people who tends to internalize everything and don’t have a good way of lowering my stress level while this is going on. Normally I will have to wait until the situation is over to let the levels subside naturally.
Sometimes though, and this is the part I find a little freaky, one more stress event will trigger an irresistible urge to just get the hell away from here!. The onset is instantaneous and there are no warning signs whatsoever. My actions will be totally focused on the one task of effecting an exit. It is not a panicked dash for the door, nor will I barge past people in the way. It is a deliberate and efficient sequence of actions that makes no allowances for decorum. In all of this I am aware of what is happening but powerless to intervene. It almost as if some higher power receives the message “Alert: ticker is loosing control. Get him out of here now!” and immediately sends in an extraction squad to take over my body. The moment I am free from the area I regain control, usually only seconds later.
Generally I will be left somewhat embarrassed by my unseemly actions, but nothing more. In the most recent episode however, I was sitting parked up with a friend in her car. The abruptness of my actions and the difficulty in getting out quickly (it is a very small car) meant that I gave her something of a fright. We are no longer friends
I would like to better understand what happens here so that I can perhaps control it or at the least be able to explain it to others.
Sounds like a garden-variety panic attack. As for your specific reaction, it’s called fight-or-flight.
You really should speak with a doctor or therapist about ways to control your stress reactions. Don’t bother explaining to other people why you do unnatural things, they aren’t interested (voice of experience here.)
Maybe a little claustrophobia mixed in? My mom has it, and when something in her brain hits the panic button, she will remove herself through the nearest exit in an extremely decisive manner. If there’s a problem with the exit, she might just make a new one.
Don’t think it is claustrophobia. Has happened in open spaces as well as tiny Italian cars. It is the proximity of the situation I am escaping from, not always a building. Perhaps I should have made that clear.
Second the fight-or-flight response as the explanation. After all, it is one of our hard-wired responses to our reptile brain’s assessment of a bad situation - so really, your reaction is sensible self-preservation, even if it’s on the more extreme and abrupt side.
Have you ever been in a situation where you physically couldn’t remove yourself? Truly stuck? And if so, did you have a panic attack or pass out, or did the feeling pass?
Yes being hard-wired would explain why I cannot exercise any control over it. What is surprising to me is the degree of rationality the reptile brain has. On one occasion I managed to get out my keys unlock my bike. Only when I was pedalling down the street did I regain control of my actions.
