I didn't see a place to comment on your other blog, but I wanted to put in my two cents about welfare... I went on Medicaid once, and it was hell... They don't answer your phone calls, they "lose" your files. They basically don't care if you sit and wait for 8 hours to be seen while you're half dead from pneumonia. After finally getting on it, my 3 year old daughter became very ill, and I had to travel two hours to take her to the only clinic that would accept Medicaid. They watched her vomitting blood in the waiting room, her body was nearly limp and completely white, and after waiting 3 hours, they refused to treat her because of a Medicaid paperwork error. (a typo). Yes, I became that screaming maniac you were describing, and I never saw myself that way either. I should have known it would happen - I listened to this black lady in line at the medicaid office talk in horror about how they kept losing her papers and not answering her phone calls, meanwhile she was spending her nights rummaging through dumpsters to try to find an inhaler or two with a puff of medicine left for her 4 asthmatic kids so they wouldn't die.
I've been there, I can totally feel what you were saying...
For your anxiety attacks, try to get some Kava capsules... 6 dollars a bottle at your local walmart. I hope they calm down, I know it's frightening...
 

Thanks for your comments, Mary. My panic attacks have since dissipated, but I went for several months with regularly frightening episodes until I found my solution. The past few months I've been much calmer and more or less restored to my former self (though there's always the worry of the old anxiety returning with a vengeance). It's misery when you're going through those attacks, and I now realize how much you can't understand them until you've gone through them yourself. (Lately I've been watching the t.v. show "Six Feet Under" and I feel that I have a valid understanding of what one of the characters, David, is experiencing in the current plotline--panic attacks which occur frequently and inappropriately, seizing him with uncontrollable fear.)

Thanks again for your comments. I'll probably be posting the conclusion of that story in Something That Happened soon.