The Other Me
‘Looking For Answers’ i. One evening, I was watching TV when my sinuses spasmed, then closed-up. It became almost impossible to breathe through my nose – possibly hayfever. Dr Warren tried various medications: sprays, which did nothing; and an antihistamine, which simply made me insatiably thirsty. Hayfever had begun to affect me the previous year, the year of Black Saturday, when horrific bushfires had razed Kinglake. I wondered if the loss of trees, or all the soot in the air, were perhaps somehow the cause, as I knew others who’d never had issues with hayfever but had now begun to suffer from it. Sometimes, I also began to feel a…
The Other Me
‘That Same Old Feeling’ iv. New Year’s eve, I was invited to a get-together at a friend’s. The day was like most others: I woke in pain and feeling low. I caught up with a friend, and for a bit was able to forget everything going on – or at least push it from the forefront of my mind. After my friend left, I was going up to the house when a massive surge of anxiety and imbalance hit. This wasn’t a panic attack. It felt like something had gone wrong inside my body, inside my head, and the anxiety was a response to that. I called my friend, saying…