I have this really annoying and maladaptive quirk that when I'm very concerned, or upset, my throat closes over, and my brain disengages from my voice-box and mouth.
My mother has this annoying and concerning quirk of having indications she's in a very early and mild stage of Alzheimer's, or senility. It's particularly noticeable when she's driving, because she used to be am exceptionally precise, smooth driver, with fabulous co-ordination.
So one day she's driving me, and chatting away. There's a red light coming up, and she isn't starting to brake early and gently like she normally does. She's still got time, so I wait for her to start braking. We pass the point when it's going to be unpleasant, she's got to stomp on the brakes, and I suddenly realise, that although she's looking at the intersection while talking, it's not registering with her at all that the lights are red.
And this is when my throat locked up.
I whisper: "Red"
She doesn't hear me, and talks on. We're close to the intersection, doing 60 km/hr
I say, in a very moderate voice: "Red"
We're nearly at the intersection, and she pauses in her chatter, perplexed by what the colour red has to do with anything.
We hit the start of the intersection doing 60, and I shriek: "RED!"
Well, we both lived. The oncoming traffic in two directions was serendipitously unmolested. On the other side of the intersection, as our hyperventilation subsided, I got to explain and apologise to her about my speech-locking problem. She got to grovel for almost hitting me with 8 other people and 4 tons of plastic and aluminium.