Experience: I don’t feel fear

Everybody thinks it's an amazing superpower, but there's another side to it

Recently, I was sitting on a tightly packed plane as it circled up to 19,000ft. It was making loads of noise, and I could see the people around me were scared. But I felt nothing.

In 2005, I was diagnosed with Cushing's syndrome, after years of misdiagnosis - doctors would often tell me I was just overweight. Cushing's is a rare condition that affects one to two people in a million per year in the UK, and is caused by the body producing too much cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that regulates a range of processes, including the stress response; if it's not treated, it can be very serious. Symptoms can range from severe weight gain to high blood pressure.