Panicked

There are times in a person’s life when they may experience the feeling of being panicked.  It can come on so suddenly and with little-advanced warning.  There are those who suffer from actual panic attacks where some are so intense that they feel like they are experiencing a heart attack.  In some cases, it takes a trained medical staff to diagnose that it is a panic attack and actually rule out a heart attack. 

There are those who experience panic in other settings like in a professional setting due to the nature of their work.  Many professions are quite frankly dangerous and unpredictable. The employees put their lives on the line each and every time they show up for work.  They don’t know if they will even make it home or if they will be killed in the line of duty.  

via GIPHY

They don’t know if the kiss they give their family in the morning goodbye will be the last kiss they ever get from them.  They don’t know if the plane they take for business will be the last plane they ever take.  They don’t know if the car they get in will safely return them home after the end of their shift.  They just don’t know and with uncertainty comes a level of panic.

There are those who become panicked when they learn that they are going to be a parent. Some become parents when they are very young.  They become parents when they are still in school and still learning how to become an adult.  They become parents when they are lucky to have an after-school job.  How will they finish school and how will they provide for this baby?  Will their parents kick them out of the house? It keeps them up at night and in a constant state of panic. 

There are those who expect one little heartbeat when they hear the news that they are going to have a baby only to hear more than one at the ultrasound appointment suddenly. Perhaps there are two, or three, or six even.  What then?  How am I going to do this?  Are they all going to make it and be healthy?  How am I going to afford all of these kids?  How? 

Then there are those who are already parents or perhaps newly married, and they are just trying to get by.  They are just trying to have more money to last the month.  They are eagerly waiting for that next paycheck or side gig to pay all of their bills.  They are working hard, but yet they are never getting ahead.

There is an incredible level of stress and panic when a parent doesn’t know how they are going to pay the bills and provide for their kids.  They don’t know if they have enough money for the Pampers and the formula.  They don’t know if they have enough money for their kid’s lunch account.  They don’t know if they have enough money to keep the lights on or pay the rent.

They don’t know if their old clunker of a car will actually start in the morning or if they have enough gallons left in the tank to get from point A to point B.  The gas prices inch up, and they don’t know if they will be able to fill up.  So they fill up just enough to ‘get by’.  They are stuck in a state of perpetual just enough to ‘get by’.  Stress sets in and so does a profound level of panic.  They are panicked, and they honestly don’t know if it will ever get better.  They struggle, they worry, and they panic.

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© Kristalin Davis and Kristalin Davis’ Musings on the Human Condition, 2017-2022.

(Daily Prompt)

Panicked