Symptoms include agoraphobia, claustrophobia and a fear she can't identify. This year has been her worst. She's often unable to leave her apartment, and sometimes she can't bring herself to take a shower. The latter, she admits with an embarrassed laugh, can last for as long as a week. She's a qualified auto mechanic, but her illness makes it impossible for her to do the job she trained for.
Nothing seems real.
I don't know what I'm afraid of. Around the middle of last month, a friend became so concerned about Johnson's inability to cope that she advised her to get help. I didn't realize how bad she was until I gave her a ride to a job interview. We weren't even two blocks from her apartment before she had a panic attack. Her whole body was trembling and she was hyperventilating.