I've seen this kind of sentence before, but don't recall the correct punctuation separating the two clauses. Help?

Question

I had lived most of my life suffering from panic attacks, of being afraid of everything for absolutely no reason at all.

It's a kind of stylized sentence. The second half is saying the same thing as the first half in a slightly more descriptive way. It looks like a sentence and a sentence fragment separated by a comma. Can proper punctuation fix this sentence, or is this sentence just a bad way to express this idea?

Answer 1

You could write it like this:

I had lived most of my life suffering from panic attacks; I was afraid of everything for absolutely no reason at all.

That would be a valid sentence but you do need both parts separated by the semi-colon to be complete sentences which is why the subject "I" had to be added.

Answer 2

You can tweak your sentence so that an allowable ellipsis is used:

I had lived most of my life suffering from panic attacks - being afraid of everything for absolutely no reason at all.

The unellipted form is unwieldy (but could be used for greater emphasis of the explanatory restatement):

I had lived most of my life suffering from panic attacks: I had lived most of my life being afraid of everything for absolutely no reason at all.

Answer 3

I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with this sentence as it stands, because it sounds informal and could be a diary or letter.

For something more formal or 3rd person, I would personally opt for "I had lived most of my life suffering from panic attacks: I was afraid of everything for absolutely no reason at all." or "John had lived most of his life ..."