The neurotic feels as though trapped in a gas-filled room where at any moment someone, probably himself, will strike a match.
Mignon McLaughlinA doctor recently described to me "benign positional vertigo": it means you get dizzy in certain positions, but you can get over it without necessarily changing the position. Change "vertigo" to "anxiety," and you've summed up the neurotic's plight.
Mignon McLaughlin