The woman was a bundle of nerves, a basket case — she didn’t really want to be onboard and she said so to the flight attendant. Her companion wouldn’t let her change her mind and asked that we serve her O2 enroute.(she’s going to need that if she keeps re-breathing into that paper sack like that…) The scene started to play like a what/if training scenario, where psychotic leaves his controlling medication in his checked luggage and it’s wearing off. Luckily we were made aware prior to the point of no return and we called to have her interviewed. I worried that, if she’s agitated now, just wait until the gate agent/ramp sup descend upon her. That might really set her off. We gave her every opportunity but she didn’t bust. The FO inquired uneasily what row she was in — as if the further back (and away from us) the better 🙂 With everyone assured that she’d/we’d be okay we closed the main cabin door with a thunk. This is the part where they feel closed in and cooped up. If the panic attack is going to occur this is where it happens. The FA took a long hard look down the aisle for a last ditch assessment. No one bouncing off the walls and shrieking so… Here we go!