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STORIES FROM THE 90s
A Panic Attack Sends Me to the Hospital
I blame it on Todd
Winter in Massachusetts. On Saturdays, in my younger years, I normally went out with my friend Todd. He was into skiing and winter sports, snowmobiling, anything that involved “powder,” as it were.
It wasn’t my thing, winter activities, of any kind. Still, I liked the company, and riding around in his slick Infinity to look at new sleds and skis in those lodge stores, about two hours up north, if only to get out of the house during another miserable New England winter, was something I enjoyed.
Once, Todd and I smoked a joint on the way to get his car serviced, but before we toked up, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for iced coffees. It was summer. I must have been about 21 years old.
I drank that iced coffee so fast, not realizing how much caffeine was in it — I wasn’t a regular coffee drinker at the time — and combined with the marijuana, it sent me into a full-blown, terrible panic attack, something I had never experienced before.
The next thing I knew, an ambulance had arrived and I was taken to the hospital.
The hospital bed was uncomfortable. I had a tube coming out of my arm, and my testicles were all sweaty. My father’s were too, I assumed. I would’ve bet…
