Zoé

"Anxiety is deceptive. First it focuses attention, and then it clamps the brain into rigidity by obsessively replaying the most terrifying possibilities."    (link)

 Zoé suffers panic attacks. Faced with ordinary situations she freezes-up until she's released to run to the bathroom and hurl. She never knows the right thing to say. Her mother wishes she could be more like her older sister Colleen …a stellar presence in the family. Zoé describes it as: “Torture ...I’ve been miscast as an understudy to ‘Saint Colleen’. I can’t live up to that. I’m the sicko who pukes in the bathroom.” It sounds kind'a like performance anxiety to me. She says: "Whatever ...it sucks all the air outta' me and I can't breathe." She spends most of her waking hours working on an exit strategy. She dreams of  hitting the road in a Ferrari with the top down and disappearing in a rush of air.