I had a panic attack, I wanted to jump out of the train, but then I discovered a terrible secret.

A British man who suffered from severe claustrophobia for over a decade discovered he had repressed memories of a train crash from his childhood after undergoing hypnosis. Mike McNally, originally from England, recounted to The Guardian how he once attempted to exit a subway train during a panic attack in London in 2003. Following this incident, a hypnotist advised him to ask his parents a crucial question, which ultimately led to the revelation of a traumatic past event. McNally moved to London in the late 1980s from Surrey, where he noticed increasing feelings of anxiety and discomfort in confined spaces, particularly in public transport. Over time, these feelings escalated into frequent panic attacks, each marked by a sensation of the world around him closing in. In July 2003, while traveling between Brixton and South Bank, he experienced such a severe panic attack that he tried to exit the subway car. Fortunately, other passengers intervened before he could reach the platform, but the experience made him realize he could no longer ignore his condition. The following year, his general practitioner referred him to a hypnotist specializing in regression therapy. During sessions, McNally would sit with his eyes closed, feeling as though he was traveling back through time. After three months of revisiting old memories, the therapist directly asked whether he had ever been involved in a train accident. Surprised, McNally responded that he did not believe he had experienced such an event. Despite his insistence, the therapist urged him to check with his parents upon his next visit. During a subsequent family gathering, McNally followed the hypnotist’s advice. To his astonishment, his parents exchanged glances before admitting that he had indeed been part of a train collision as a child. It occurred on September 4, 1965, when he was four years old. He had been returning home from a summer trip to Ireland with his grandmother, where they had spent time with extended family. They traveled by ferry from Dublin to Holyhead in Wales and then boarded a train heading to London. While waiting at the station, another passenger train collided with theirs, pushing their carriage backward several meters. The impact lifted the carriage off the tracks, trapping them inside. His grandmother and he emerged unharmed, but they were pressed together in the heat of early autumn as panic spread among other injured passengers nearby. His parents explained that after the accident, they had tried to discuss the event with him, but he would scream and run away each time. They decided not to upset him further and stopped talking about it altogether. This revelation changed everything for McNally. He finally understood the origin of more than a decade of fear and panic. It explained why he struggled with entering trains, airplanes, and sometimes even cars. Whenever he felt trapped or confined, his subconscious mind would involuntarily return to the accident, despite having no conscious memory of it. With this truth, he began working with his therapist to develop tools to overcome his fear. Shortly after completing his hypnotherapy, McNally traveled to Vancouver in 2006 for business. He attended a team meeting atop Mount Whistler, requiring a 30-minute ride on the gondola. His colleagues informed the gondola staff of his claustrophobia, and they assured him there was a midway stop where he could exit if needed. However, as the journey began, he found himself unexpectedly calm, knowing he would be confined for at least 15 minutes. When the gondola reached the midway point, he saw workers at the destination cheering for him. At that moment, he realized he could endure the entire trip.