CONVERSATION WITH
Tim Andrews
“I was diagnosed in 2005. But in 1999, I had a panic attack on the motorway. I went to France to my friend’s daughter wedding. We drove for maybe a day and half, two days, then we came back, got on the ferry then on the motorway back in England. Suddenly, I felt completely out of control. I could see my hands on the wheel, I could see the car's wheels between the lines on the motorway but I felt I was going to go off the road. My daughter was asleep in the car next to me so I was very worried about her. Luckily, she didn’t know what was going on. When I got nearer home, the roads got more familiar and I
calmed down. I went to see a doctor who sent me to a therapist. She said that I sort of had a panic attack that day.My life was like a pile of cardboard boxes and each box represents things like work, money. When the piles reach the ceiling and there is no more room; suddenly you have this panic attack. That sounded quite feasible. In fact it was the start of the Parkinson's Disease. It is a very slow moving disease. I found when drove again I would have some fears. But I knew they would calm down; I was used to them. I didn’t like driving on the motorway very much but when I did, I would think ‘It’s okay, it’s gonna go away'.”