IT'S THE MIDDLE of the night and Paula wakes up in a cold sweat. The space next to her, normally occupied by her husband, is empty. He's on another business trip to Sydney and will be home in a few days. But as the seconds tick away, Paula becomes increasingly convinced she'll never see him again.
'I told myself that I'd never hear from him again and I'd end up alone,' Paula says. 'Even after he called me, my chest felt so tight I couldn't breathe. I felt as if I was going out of my mind.''
Mark works for a hotel management company. When he arrived late for an important meeting and his boss looked angry, Mark felt faint and had to leave the room. Normally level-headed, he stumbled to his desk convinced he'd never work again.
After a hectic day at her new business, Celine was shopping late one night when she suddenly worried that her baby was choking to death at home. Her heart began to beat so fast she thought she was having a heart attack. She screamed for help and was taken to hospital. At home, her baby was sleeping peacefully.
Paula, Mark and Celine all had panic attacks - when normal worries escalate out of control, triggering disturbing physical symptoms that, in turn, interfere with daily life and relationships.
Experts say that as many as one in 20 people suffer panic attacks. At a recent gathering in Chicago of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), delegates suggested that, in places that have experienced terrifying events - such as New York after the World Trade Centre attacks, Hong Kong and other parts of China after Sars - leftover fears from such major events build up and erupt when people are faced with seemingly trivial inconveniences, such as screaming children or just being caught in a traffic jam.