It's like... watching the bus run you over

You know that feeling you get before you have an emotional breakdown?  You can feel it coming, but its not quite there yet.  Your eyes are all tingly, your chest gets tight and you feel it coming on. But then it doesn't.  I think maybe the waiting part is the worst part.  The longer you wait the more you know it's going to hurt when it finally comes.  

A wise- or maybe not so much wise as clever.  And maybe not so much clever as... something else. I dunno- person said to me:

It's like when I'm playing basketball.  I can see the basketball coming towards my head, and I know its going to hurt when it hits my head, but I can't stop it and I can't move out of the way.  I just have to wait and watch as time slows until it hits me.  And then it hurts.