Lets start with a proven scientific fact.
Carbondioxide is the gas that controls how fast your heart beats. Without carbon dioxide in the air your heart will stop beating. More carbon dioxide means your heart beats faster. Infact to induce panic into lab animals scientists increase levels of carbon dioxide in the environment.
Bearing this in mind lets look at the scenarios.
So they say claustrophobia is the irrational fear of small spaces… What happens if rather than an irrational fear of small spaces, people who were claustrophobic had better sense than normal.
If you are in the car with your window down doing 70mph and your favourite song is playing.
You are in a small space and physically restrained by your seatbelt, you can’t straighten your legs or back or reach out both arms to the side.
Yet you are comfy….
Then you get stuck in traffic…you need to wind up the window because there are too many fumes from cars nearby.
Then suddenly you get that familiar feeling. Your heart beats faster, start feeling and need to desperately get away and getting a sense of “claustrophobia”.
But lets look at what actually happened, The car did not get smaller suddenly. The window closed did cause the carbon dioxide level to rise. The fumes from the other cars also caused the carbon dioxide levels to rise and we know that carbon dioxide is used to create panic.
Next scenario, you are in your bedroom, standing by the open window and looking outside. Seems like a nice day with the sun shining bright and blue skys. Definately not panicing. Then there is rubbish truck comes along so you close the window to avoid the bad smell.
A person enters your room, and they bring their friend with them, a few of their friend and your friends infact as they are so excited to tell you their good news and they close your bedroom door behind them as they dont want anybody else to hear. Now they are staying there and talking alot its been 20mins of talking windows closed,door closed. Now you get that “claustrophobia” feeling again, heart beating faster and the need to open the window and stick your head outside.
The room did not get any smaller, your friends came in with great news and were full of positive vibes yet you got a sense of panic.
The window closed and door closed with multiple people talking would raise the carbon dioxide level in the room significantly though. You resolved it by opening the window and sticking your head out.
It would seem rather than an irrational person you have the ability to detect rising levels of carbon dioxide better than most people. Rather than saying great ability you have been told you have a debilitating psychological condition.
A bit like people who up till the 1960s were thought to have a debilitating psychological condition called pathological sinistrality or Atavistic Regression for writing with their left hand.
The very word sinister means left hand in Latin. Today we wonder how could the world of medicine have been so ignorant to class being left handed as a psychological problem that needed solving with corporal punishment and pharmaceuticals.
Maybe tomorrow or in the future we will wonder how could the world of medicine decide that being able to detect high carbon dioxide levels was a psychological condition.