Testimony of Healing July 8, 2002 Issue

An end to crippling phobias

Ross Benson

For over ten years, I suffered from panic attacks and claustrophobia. I felt overpowered by the symptoms and unable to pray effectively about them. Instead I decided it was easier to adjust my life to accommodate the problem and keep myself out of situations that might generate fear.

For example, it was very difficult for me to drive a car or even to be a passenger in one, or to fly in an airplane, or to sit anywhere in an auditorium other than in an aisle seat in the very rear. I had great difficulty enduring meetings held in offices or conference rooms, which was a major handicap for a government bureaucrat, as I was at the time. And I found it virtually impossible to ride in an elevator. Whenever I was in any of these situations, my fear would compel me to try to escape in any way I could. I was afraid of being trapped.

No matter how I considered the cause of the fear rationally, when it would come over me, I felt powerless. It would sometimes come so suddenly and unexpectedly that I didn't know how to draw on something that I'd relied on through my years of studying the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy—the spiritual understanding that God is always with us. Rather than turning to prayer, to this spiritual understanding, for strength, I'd always sit in a plane on the aisle, as close to the front of the plane as I could. When I had to drive a car, I'd always stay on the right-hand side of the road—even if it meant following a slow-moving truck. I was so afraid that I'd be hit by fear that I'd most reluctantly change lanes on a three-lane road to pass another vehicle. If there was no other choice, I'd move quickly into the center lane, but never over to the left lane, pass the vehicle, and return to my sanctuary in the right lane as quickly as possible.

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