and can be very debilitating. Some suffer extreme anxiety symptoms triggered by claustrophobia, others by social situations, some from large, pressing crowds, others from heights, still others from ongoing, heavy responsibilities.

My grandfather suffered from the last one. In his day they called what he had a nervous breakdown. It came to a head when he was working for the forest service as a paymaster during the fire season in Oregon. It was non-stop, round-the-clock responsibility in a very stressful environment. My daughter is an extremely busy mother of 7. It seemed that anxiety struck suddenly. She all of a sudden couldn't deal with her responsibilities. It was a long struggle for her to get the proper treatment, learn how to better deal with things, and get to a comfortable place. Mine is triggered by claustrophobia. Hit out of the blue on a flight from Chicago to Phoenix. I was in the window seat. And all of a sudden I HAD to get out of there. It was totally illogical but so real. I now fly in an aisle seat where I have more room and more control.

Bottom line, anxiety is real, and we can't really judge someone who is having any of those kind of issues.