I can't remember if I ever told you the story about how I almost shot my sister. I thought I was in the house alone when I heard someone trying to turn the door knob on the bedroom I was in. I had a shotgun and I was very, very scared. If she hadn't spoken, I would have fired at the door without knowing who was there. This happened over 25 years ago, and I still tremble when I think how close I came to killing my baby sister.

The problem is that intense fear shuts down the reasoning part of the brain. We would all like to think that we could never become that irrational, but I know for a fact that I can, because I did that day. And I'm a very rational person.

When you add a weapon to a situation where fear is likely to bring irrational actions, someone might get hurt.

If you think talking to your nurse will help, please call back and tell them that that it's important that you talk to someone.