I release my feelings of anxiety.

A fuel light wired to come on at half a tank will have you braking for every petrol station you pass.

Nothing about that gauge is a lie. There genuinely is less in there than there was. It has simply been calibrated by something that could not bear to be caught out, so it reports an ordinary mile as urgent, over and over, at real cost to the driver.

Release doesn't mean tearing the wiring out. Nobody sensible drives with no gauge at all.

It means the reading turning less insistent — sometimes with help, usually slowly, and often first by describing it out loud to one other person. It shrinks a little every time it gets narrated, and it grows in the dark.