When I woke up this morning, I had a strange feeling that something bad was going to
happen.
I had to go to someone's flat this morning to do an errand as the person was away. The key to open
the door entering the building didn't open the lock. I called the person and she suggested that I enter through a door from the outside that leads down the basement of the outer building. The corridor in the latter leads up into the hallway of the other building. She guided me down the very long corridor of the basement which seemed like a maze with corridors going left and right. Before I knew it I was in the pitch dark as the lights had gone off and the light switches were not alight.
Suffering from claustrophia (like many people) and being in an unfamiliar place set off a severe pannic attack and I felt that I was gasping for air. I felt at a loss as I could not see anything and thought that I was doomed.
All I can recall is that I was begging for help and imagining that by the time the fire brigade could reach me I would be dead.
Happily she called a neighbour on her cell who switched the lights on the 1st floor which must have
lit up the basement. Within 5 seconds, I managed to somehow find my way out and it took me nearly 2 hours to calm down.
This has never happened to me before.
Now that I'm no longer in the situation, I know that if I had to just sit down and wait, nothing would have happened to me but at the time I was in the pitch black
down below in that cold corridor, I really thought that I was dying and that there was no way that I could get out of there alone.
The moral of the story is not to go anywhere where you have no daylight without a torch ! Listen to your gut instinct. Oh and I'm a first aid worker but it doesn't help in this kind of situation.
happen.
I had to go to someone's flat this morning to do an errand as the person was away. The key to open
the door entering the building didn't open the lock. I called the person and she suggested that I enter through a door from the outside that leads down the basement of the outer building. The corridor in the latter leads up into the hallway of the other building. She guided me down the very long corridor of the basement which seemed like a maze with corridors going left and right. Before I knew it I was in the pitch dark as the lights had gone off and the light switches were not alight.
Suffering from claustrophia (like many people) and being in an unfamiliar place set off a severe pannic attack and I felt that I was gasping for air. I felt at a loss as I could not see anything and thought that I was doomed.
All I can recall is that I was begging for help and imagining that by the time the fire brigade could reach me I would be dead.
Happily she called a neighbour on her cell who switched the lights on the 1st floor which must have
lit up the basement. Within 5 seconds, I managed to somehow find my way out and it took me nearly 2 hours to calm down.
This has never happened to me before.
Now that I'm no longer in the situation, I know that if I had to just sit down and wait, nothing would have happened to me but at the time I was in the pitch black
down below in that cold corridor, I really thought that I was dying and that there was no way that I could get out of there alone.
The moral of the story is not to go anywhere where you have no daylight without a torch ! Listen to your gut instinct. Oh and I'm a first aid worker but it doesn't help in this kind of situation.
