The bookstore was full of patrons who drank coffee, and gingerly touched the spines of newly printed novels and hardcovers. Some customers dug through clearance shelves, while others debated by the magazine section or cross-referenced textbooks in the study aid sections. A few let the sample beats take them over by the music, and little children dashed everywhere, tugging on parents’ sleeves, holding a brightly colored picture book or gathering their summer reading books diligently.
I was in the psychology section, looking through cognitive-behavioral interventions for anxiety disorders, coincidentally, when a young woman’s scream rang out, “Help me! HELP ME! HELP ME!!!” People turned toward the sound with various expressions of alarm, concern, and wariness. There was a young teenage girl halted on an immobile escalator. Her hands gripped the sides tightly, her feet set slightly apart, and she stared down in terror with tears streaming down her face. An older woman, possibly her mother, displayed an expression of mixed anger and mortification. She yelled at her to stop and continue going up. Her daughter did not budge, but her fear increased. She screamed louder. Her mother slapped her. The onlookers stared silently, although a few non-empathetic souls snickered and mocked the poor girl.
full credit given to the linked blog for this image.
It was over in less than two minutes, really (the manager helped diffuse the scene), but for a person experiencing a panic attack, the time seems to stretch on and elongate itself. A couple of others who stood in the aisle with me turned toward each other in disbelief, mouthing, “What just happened?” One looked at me curiously, for some reason, but I replied, “She had a panic attack. The experience of being on an escalator probably terrified her anyway if she has a specific phobia, but being on one that was stopped probably heightened her sensitivity; she was overstimulated and became overwhelmed. In therapeutic methods, there is something called flooding, which she, in essence, did to herself and was not ready to undergo. It’s the behavioral idea that exposing someone all at once to their fear will help desensitize them to it, but if it is not done incrementally by a professional, a person can be worse off as a result. She could have also been triggered by initial warning signs, like dizziness, if she was staring down at the lines of the escalator as she walked up, causing disorientation, but that’s only a guess.”
The two friends looked at each other. “Wow, dude – that was intense,” one said. The other nodded in agreement, returned a nod to me, and they both left. She most certainly met DSM-IV criteria for a panic attack. However, I was unable to assess for certain needed criteria before being able to confidently say it was a specific phobia, such as her awareness that her fear was unreasonable and the length of time that her fear of escalators has been endured (duration). Otherwise, if she confirmed a fear of escalators one could consider her as being escalaphobic (thank you, Google).
What are your phobias? I can empathize with this girl because I used to have a fear of escalators as well, but only when they were in working order. The fear was primarily when I used any that were going down. I always had this self-induced rush where I believed I would fall the length of the escalator. Luckily, my parents handled this phobia of mine effectively. They gave me a moment to process being in front of it, then would grab my hand and say, “Ready? On the count of three – one, two…” and we would use the escalator together. Over time, I was able to see that I would not fall, and that I could carefully control the situation, determining when I was ready.
The girl’s condition worsened when her mother slapped her – it not only embarrassed her and possibly caused mild physical pain, but being rejected and humiliated did not “snap her out of it.” On the contrary, it served to implicitly show the girl that her mother was not supportive, that she could not count on her in moments of duress, albeit irrational. A person cannot overcome a fear this way and expect their mother-daughter relationship to not be negatively affected by such a reaction.
Please, be gentle and patient if you see someone undergoing a panic attack. Let them know that you are there, that you realize it is frightening – do not judge, demean, or abuse them. Also take note that their panic is fueled by an awareness of the situation, and amazingly enough by paying too much attention to their physiological responses – they are attuned to their racing heart and erratic breathing, which further compounds the panic attack. It is a cycle. They are not immune to feeling shame or self-deprecation over it. Relaxation methods can work, even on a short solution-focused basis whereby one should encourage the person to take a deep breath several times, provide them with a little reassurance, and help them slowly remove him or herself from whatever has upset them. Similar symptoms or medical conditions, like a heart attack, should be ruled out before anyone is merely though to be undergoing a panic attack as well.
