Brian Beneduce has always known there was something wrong with him -- very wrong. Even at a young age when his friends were enjoying activities as harmless as sleepovers, he would hyperventilate, sweat and tremble at the mere thought. He never told a soul. As he got older his condition worsened. Open spaces, crowds, bridges, tunnels, elevators, planes and traffic all sent him into spells of debilitating fear and panic, but never more than when he would be trapped somewhere alone with his own thoughts, and would be convinced that "The Thing," as he named it, would someday kill him. Yet...