Drug Free Treatment for Anxiety and Panic Attacks
For more information on the best program to help stop panic attacks click here!
Do you fear the arrival of another panic attack?
People who have experienced panic attacks often go around with a grave sense of unease that at any moment, they will experience a major panic attack.
It’s a fear of the ultimate panic attack that would finally push them over the edge.
This leads people to make changes to their behavior in order not to do anything that might trigger a panic episode.
When people feel this way, simple daily tasks can become big challenges. Some people start to fear driving their car in traffic. Others fear leaving their safe zone or simply any situation where they have responsibilities to perform.
This state of apprehension keeps a person’s anxiety level high, leading to feelings of general anxiety.
If you are such a person I hope to put your mind at rest. Panic attacks as well as general anxiety (even when not accompanied by panic disorder) can be eliminated in simple steps regardless of how long the anxiety has been a problem.
I am speaking not just from my own personal experience but from having worked with thousands of people right around the world.
Here is an important observation:
The key difference between someone who is cured of panic attacks and those who are not is really very simple. The one who is cured is not afraid of panic attacks. I’ll try to show you how to one of these people as well.
What if I told you the trick to ending panic attacks is to want to have one!
That sounds strange but let me explain.
A simple trick to ending panic attacks is wanting to have one because the wanting causes an immediate diffusion of the anticipatory fear.
Can you have a panic attack in this very second?
No !
You know the saying “what you resist persists.” Well that saying applies perfectly to fear. If you resist a situation out of fear, the fear around that issue will persist.
How do you stop resisting?
You move directly into the path of the anxiety; by doing so it cannot persist because you process the fear out through your emotions.
Try in this very moment to have a panic attack and I will bet you cannot… Yes, I know the idea of calling on a panic attack is scary at first but play with the concept and watch what happens.
You may not realize it but you have always decided to panic. You make the choice by thinking
“This is beyond my control.”
“These scary sensations are beyond my bodies control.”
It may help if you imagine that having a panic attack is like standing on a cliff edge.
The anxiety, it seems, is pushing you closer to falling over the edge. Each time you fight back using poor coping strategies the more desperate you feel.
To be rid of the fear you must metaphorically jump. You must jump off the cliff edge and into the anxiety and fear and all the things that you fear most. How do you jump?
You jump by wanting to have a panic attack. You go about your day asking for a panic attack to appear. Your real safety is the fact that a panic attack will never harm you. That is medical fact.
You are safe, -Yes, the sensations are wild and uncomfortable, but no harm will come to you.
Your body is in a heightened state but no harm will come to you.
The jump becomes nothing more than a two inch drop! You are safe.
You always were.
Think of all the panic attacks you have had to date and come out the other end. Was there any lasting physical damage to you, other than the mounting feeling of panic?
Now you are going to approach this problem differently. You actively seek out the attack like an adventure seeker. Take the opposite approach.
YOU bring it on!!!
To Learn more about Panic Away visit: www.PanicAway.com
Here are some of the things you will learn from Panic Away…
-Learn how to be empowered and gain confidence by engaging a simple technique to defuse any panic attack.
-The four most powerful approaches to creating an enduring anxiety buffer zone (particularly useful for those who experience GAD).
-Learn to avoid making the one mistake almost everyone makes during a panic attack episode.
Here is a small sample of how the course has helped others:
…learned more from reading your program than I did from all the psychologists and other practitioners I had seen in the 25 years
I must tell you that out of all the items you can purchase regarding anxiety related products on the internet, I learned more from reading your program than I did from all the psychologists and other practitioners I had seen in the 25 years that I've had this condition.
I had been on Xanax and Klonopin for about 10 years, but this December, I decided to withdraw from it thinking I didn't need the pills anymore according to some of the programs I ordered claiming "miracle cures". That's when all my symptoms started again. I felt as if I had wasted the past 20 years trying to get better.That's when I started searching the web for home based "cures". I ordered so many programs I started to get confused from too much conflicting advice. Also, I was promised support but I am still waiting replies from some of the more expensive programs!
You are a true gentleman, and I am going to post a very positive feedback on a website you might be familiar about called: Tapir?
Talk to ya, Andy
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…I DEBATED ORDERING YOUR PROGRAM BECAUSE I HAVE SPENT APPROX. $8,000 IN THE LAST 5 YEARS
, I RAN ACROSS YOUR PROGRAM SUNDAY, FEB. 5th. I DEBATED ORDERING YOUR PROGRAM BECAUSE I HAVE SPENT APPROX. $8,000 IN THE LAST 5 YEARS OF MY LIFE TRYING EVERYTHING FROM PANIC SUPPORT CLASSES, MEDICATION, COUNSELING AND THE LIST GOES ON, ALL TO RID MYSELF OF PANIC ATTACKS. SOMETHING INSIDE ME SAID, JUST KEEP TRYING, SO I DID. AFTER 5 YEARS OF OF LIVING MY LIFE WITH THE WORLD ON MY SHOULDERS I AM EXCITED TO SAY THAT I AM NOW PANIC FREE. AFTER ONE TIME OF APPLYING YOUR ONE MOVE TECHNIQUE, I AM A NEW PERSON.
ONE OF MY MANY FEARS THAT I DEVELOPED WAS DRIVING. AFTER READING YOUR PROGRAM AT 12.30 AT NIGHT I WROTE DOWN SOME QUICK NOTES FROM YOUR "ONE MOVE TECH." I RAN OUT OF MY HOUSE AND DROVE TOWARD THE DARKEST SCARIEST ROAD WHERE NOBODY WAS NEAR BY.
THIS WOULD DEFINITLY BRING ON AN FULL PANIC ATTACK, WHICH IT DID. WHILE LETTING MYSELF FEEL THE EMOTIONS RUN THROUGH ME, I DID EXACTLY WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO DO, I WAS SCARED AS HELL BUT STOOD MY GROUND. I INSTANTLY CALMED AND EVEN TRIED TO BRING THE ATTACK BACK ON, BUT COULD NOT. I LITTERALLY LAUGHED OUT LOUD AND SAT IN MY TRUCK AMAZED. AFTER ALL THIS TIME THAT WAS ALL I HAD TO DO. THE COMPLETE OPPOSIT OF EVERYTHING THAT I WAS TOLD. THIS WHOLE WEEK I HAVE DRIVEN WHERE EVER I WANTED,AT ANY TIME OF THE DAY. I AM SO GLAD I FOUND YOUR PROGRAM.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR RESEARCH, TIME, AND DEDICATION SO THAT PEOPLE LIKE US CAN NOW LIVE A NORMAL AND HAPPY LIFE. JACKSON CA, AARON
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…I prayed to God to show me what to do
I experienced my first panic attack in July of this year and ended up going to the hospital by ambulance thinking I was having a stroke or heart attack! I have had a bunch of attacks since then. Monday morning I awoke to an immediate attack and prayed to God to show me what to do. To make a long story short, I was led to your website but was afraid it was like the other ones where they try to sell you their products. However, your introductory information really spoke to me and I decided to take a chance. I read your book and it gave me the tools I was searching for to deal with my attacks.
I could tell immediately that you have suffered from panic attacks yourself because you spoke with authority that can only have come from having dealt with the terrors yourself. I am 42 years of age and have been noticing the psychological effects of perimenopause (one of which is panic attacks in my case). Thanks again!!
Sincerely, Cynthia
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To Learn more about Panic Away visit:
I encourage you to take a chance with this course. As a former sufferer I would not pretend to have a solution if I did not honestly believe it could be of great benefit to you.
Together we can get you truly back to the person you were before anxiety became an issue.
P.S. Additional bonus- I am currently offering an opportunity to have a one to one session with me so that I can ensure you get the results you need. All I ask is that should you feel the course has been of tremendous benefit to you that I add you to a database I am currently updating of success stories.
If you want to learn more about this course and how to get started right away visit:
Talk soon
Barry Joe McDonagh
All material provided in these articles is for informational or educational purposes only. No content is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Consult your physician regarding the applicability of any opinions or recommendations with respect to your symptoms or medical condition.
Courage and Panic Attacks
People who have never experienced a panic attack often judge the anxious person harshly.
The outsider has no real comprehension of what is happening to the person experiencing a panic attack and wonders why they fear to do the simplest things.
I know myself that I could not understand how overnight I went from being a confident young man to someone who became anxious of common everyday situations.
Going places took on a whole new dimension as I constantly evaluated if being there might trigger a panic attack.
I had to force myself to do very simple things like go to the cinema or drive in traffic. As a man that type of anxiety really erodes self confidence, as so much of male self esteem comes from being perceived as strong and brave.
…but here I was afraid to queue at the bank!
Today I know better. Through my own journey and all those I have worked with, I know now that anxiety disorders have nothing to do with a persons level of bravery.
I know this to be true because I have worked with many people from the ‘bravest’ professions around. Firemen, policemen, soldiers. All of them admired by others for their bravery.
Some of these individuals would actually prefer to run into a burning building than stay awake at night with a panic attack.
That sounds strange but it isn’t really. In a burning building they knew what to do and how to handle the situation. During a panic attack they felt powerless and out of control.
What you have to remember is that panic attacks and general anxiety have no relationship to the level of courage an individual has. In fact it has nothing to do with the world out there, -it is a problem born out of an internal crisis.
It is easy to feel brave and fearless in the world when your internal world feels safe but when you feel those internal walls have been breached by fear, then your confidence is rocked. The danger you fear becomes internal. Your psychic foundations feel vulnerable.
That is where the crisis originates. The doubting of your ability to handle the sensations shakes your inner confidence and that is what the fear feeds off.
It is a crisis of confidence in your body and mind’s ability to handle the stress. This crisis however does not stop the bravery.
People with anxiety actually do the bravest of things.
They get up each day and get on with life. Picking themselves up after each and every setback. It does not make headline news but it counts because it is real bravery, true courage.
To the untrained eye it does not seem like such a big deal to simply drive out of state, attend church, or go shopping. However for the person with anxiety, that experience can be a massive accomplishment, especially if they have tried and failed many times before.
The good news is:
This bravery does not go unrewarded.
Once the person has triumphed over their anxiety problem, they develop an inner strength that the average person never gets to develop.
You see, no matter how many brave things you do in the world, if you have not been challenged on an inner level, then you miss out on the opportunity to develop real inner strength.
That is the hidden opportunity anxiety presents to you. To become a bigger person than you already are. That is what you take from the challenge of anxiety.
It does not matter if you have not reached that point yet. The journey is unique to everyone so do not judge your progress against others.
The only thing that matters is that you persist.
Persistence will ensure your success.
To learn more visit: www.panicaway.com
Kind Regards
Barry Joe McDonagh
All material provided in these articles is for informational or educational purposes only. No content is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Consult your physician regarding the applicability of any opinions or recommendations with respect to your symptoms or medical condition
Getting to Sleep and Panic Attacks at Night
As most doctors will tell you, there are two things that disturb sleep: physical pain and worry.
It’s therefore understandable that many people with anxiety report frequent sleep disturbance as a major problem.
Not being able to sleep can actually be quite traumatic for many people.
The first thing you need to understand about sleep is this: it’s not the amount of sleep you get that’s important, but rather the quality of the sleep.
Quality over quantity.
I am going to give you some quick tips to help tackle any problems you are having with sleep. Firstly, to break the insomnia cycle, begin by not presuming you will sleep! That seems like the wrong attitude, but if you approach each night as just a possible opportunity to sleep, this helps remove the pressure you are placing yourself under.
In a way, some people have performance anxiety when they think about sleeping:
“Will I be able to make myself sleep tonight?”
The answer is maybe yes, maybe no. If you’re going through a period of sleeplessness, a good night’s sleep isn’t guaranteed, for whatever reason, so you have to accept that for the moment. If you get one or two hours’ sleep, that’s well and good, and if you get nothing, then accept it and move on. Each night, as you retire, say to yourself:
“I’m preparing for bed, but I won’t try to force sleep. If it comes, it comes. If not, I won’t beat myself up over it. This is a period I’m going through, but I’ll soon return to normal sleep patterns.”
Every person goes through periods of sleeplessness from time to time. It’s very natural. You may not be aware of why you experience sleeplessness, but at the very least, you can accept it.
Let me emphasize the importance of surrendering to your inability to sleep. Surrender to whatever may or may not happen during the course of a night, and you’ll put your mind under less pressure. After a certain point, it’s really the anger and frustration that keep you awake most of the night.
Naturally the best way to get a good night’s sleep is a good physical workout each evening in the outdoors. This is very effective because the mind may try to keep you awake, but the sheer physical exhaustion brings on sleep quicker. Couple that with a willingness to accept sleeplessness, and you’ll find yourself sleeping much easier.
Remember that alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine should be avoided several hours before sleep. You may be the type who finds it initially hard to get to sleep as your mind races with anxious thoughts. Should you find your mind racing and you simply can’t achieve sleep, keep a journal beside your bed. Sit upright and start to write down how you feel:
“I’m feeling quite restless. I keep turning over and over, trying to sleep, but I have worries on my mind.” Now write down all of your worries, for example:
“Tomorrow I have to do X, and I’m afraid I won’t be well rested, etc.”
Continue to write down your worries until the exercise actually becomes quite boring. Then your body and mind will slowly want to return to sleep. Writing like this is a simple tool for preparing your mind in a linear way to wind down and return to sleep (an advanced form of counting sheep).
Don’t be afraid of writing pages and pages of nothing in particular. What you’re doing is helping the conscious mind release whatever is keeping it awake so it can stop obsessing and return to sleep.
You see, one of the reasons we can’t fall asleep is that our mind feels these worries (whatever they are) are important to analyze over and over; they need urgent attention and therefore should be thought about all night long.
The more worked up you get by the worries, the more your body gets stimulated and the harder sleep is to achieve. Writing down all your worries on paper has the effect of saying to your mind:
“Okay, mind, you think these are important. I’ve written them all down in detail. They won’t be forgotten, I promise. I can come back to them tomorrow and deal with them then-but RIGHT NOW, let’s sleep.”
The mind can be like a small child who just needs reassurance that things will be dealt with and looked after. That’s all it needs to let go of these mental worries. You then discover, in the morning, that almost all of the worries or concerns aren’t big issues. Many of our worries are the workings or an overactive imagination.
Dr. Dennis Gersten of San Diego suggests an approach that is effective for particularly restless nights. You may want to experiment with it the next time you are very restless in bed.
Try the following:
-As you lie there in bed, start by remembering a time in your life when you absolutely had to stay awake! Maybe it was an important exam you were studying for and you had to keep cramming through the night.
Maybe it was staying up all night nursing your baby to sleep. Maybe it was when you were traveling through the night on a bus and needed to stay awake in case you missed your stop.
I am sure there have been many different occasions in your life where you had to force yourself to stay awake.
-Remember the weariness and the effort just to keep your eyes open. Remember how your eyelids felt like lead weights and you wished you could close them, even just for a minute. At that time, you could not give in to your urge to fall asleep; you had to fight hard to stay awake. Relive those memories and really try and remember exactly what that felt like.
-Now think about right now, and how good it feels to actually be in bed with no pressing need to stay awake. Think how much you would have given to be where you are now, lying in your bed with your head resting on the pillow and the complete freedom you have to fall asleep. It feels really good to actually have full permission to fall asleep right now.
There are no demands on you to stay awake. With your eyes closed spend a few more minutes remembering that time.
-End of exercise.
Night Panic Attacks
People with anxiety disorders can sometimes be awakened at night by panic attacks. We know that most nighttime panic attacks aren’t caused by dreams. Records of sleep polysomnographia show that most panic attacks take place during the early sleep phase (phase II), not during the REM phase associated with dreams. This is different from nightmares. Nightmares happen during the second half of the night, so we’re often able to remember the content of these dreams.
It’s important not to go to bed fearing you might have a panic attack. Go to bed confident that if one should arise, you’ll successfully deal with it. That way, you don’t put yourself under pressure to NOT have a panic attack. Many panic attacks are experienced at the very moment of falling asleep.
If you wake with a panic attack, implement the One Move Technique as outlined in my course Panic Away. (See end of email)
Here’s a description a woman recently gave of her experience:
“Getting to sleep is a real problem. Just as I’m about to drop off to sleep, my body seems to jolt awake, like an electric shock, which then frightens me and keeps me awake for hours.”
This jolt is called a hypnic jerk, or hypnagogic massive jerk. A hypnic jerk usually occurs just as the person enters sleep. People often describe it as a falling sensation or an electric shock, and it’s a completely normal experience. It’s most common when we’re sleeping uncomfortably or overtired.
There’s been little research on the subject, but there are some theories as to why hypnic jerks occur. When we drift off into sleep, the body undergoes changes in temperature, breathing, and muscle relaxation. The hypnic jerk may be a result of the muscles relaxing. The brain misinterprets this as a sign of falling, and it signals our limbs to wake up, hence the jerking legs or arms.
People turn hypnic jerks into panic attacks because they already feel nervous about their condition and the jolt scares them into thinking something bad is happening. Again, it’s a fearful reaction to a sensation.
Usually when these people wake up, they gasp for air, and this can also turn into a fear of a breathing problem while sleeping. If you jolt awake with panic, then simply understanding the nature of a hypnic jerk can strip away the anxiety from the experience.
Reassure yourself that you’re safe and that the jerk isn’t something to worry about. It doesn’t disrupt your bodily functions, and it doesn’t put you in any danger.
That concludes the Anxiety Mini Series.
I hope you have been able to take something from it. I want to leave you with a few last comments. All too often people with anxiety are pressurized to end their anxiety. People pass remarks like:
“I wish you could just snap out of your anxiety”.
Although people mean well, these type of comments are not helpful. People don’t just think one thought and snap out of anxiety. There is a step by step process of removing the illusion that anxiety creates and for some this can take time where the anxiety has been present for many years.
As this is the last of the mini email series I really want to impress upon you that anxiety is curable. What you must never stop doing is searching for the right approach for you. By the way I hope I have not come across too strong in pushing my course Panic Away. I am excited by the results it gets and that is why I talked about it frequently.
After many years working in this area I am now more convinced than ever that every single person, regardless of how severe, can end their anxiety problem. If you have a thought that is telling you different then you need to lose that thought.
Never stop trying, never give up. That is the best you can do.
Best Wishes
Barry Joe McDonagh
If you want to learn more about my work then visit the following link:
All material provided in these articles is for informational or educational purposes only. No content is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Consult your physician regarding the applicability of any opinions or recommendations with respect to your symptoms or medical condition
Public Speaking and Panic Attacks
It is often observed that many people’s top ranking fear is not death but having to speak in public. The joke is that these people would rather be lying in the casket at the funeral than giving the eulogy. Public speaking for people who suffer from panic attacks or general anxiety often becomes a major source of worry weeks or even months before the speaking event is to occur.
These speaking engagements do not necessarily have to be the traditional “on a podium” events but can be as simple as an office meeting where the individual is expected to express an opinion or give verbal feedback. The fear of public speaking and panic attacks in this case centers on having an attack while speaking. The individual fears being incapacitated by the anxiety and hence unable to complete what he or she is saying. The person imagines fleeing the spotlight and having to make all kinds of excuses later for their undignified departure out the office window…
This differs slightly from the majority of people who fear public speaking because their fear tends to revolve around going blank while speaking or feeling uncomfortable under the spotlight of their peers. The jitters or nerves of speaking in public are of course a problem for this group as well, but they are unfamiliar with that debilitating threat which is the panic attack, as they most likely have not experienced one before.
So how should a person with an anxiety issue tackle public speaking?
Stage one is accepting that all these bizarre and quite frankly unnerving sensations are not going to go away overnight. In fact, you are not even going to concern yourself with getting rid of them for your next talk. When they arrive during a speech/meeting, you are going to approach them in a new manner. What we need to do is build your confidence back to where it used to be before any of these sensations ever occurred. This time you will approach it in a unique, empowering manner, allowing you to feel your confidence again. It is said that most of the top speakers are riddled with anxiety before speaking, but they somehow use this nervousness to enhance their speech. I am going to show you exactly how to do this, although I know that right now if you suffer from public speaking and panic attacks you may find it difficult to believe you can ever overcome it.
My first point is this and it is important. The average healthy person can experience an extreme array of anxiety and very uncomfortable sensations while giving a speech and is in no danger of ever losing control, or even appearing slightly anxious to the audience. No matter how tough it gets, you will always finish your piece, even if at the outset it feels very uncomfortable to go on. You will not become incapacitated in any way.
The real breakthrough for if you suffer from public speaking and panic attacks happens when you fully believe that you are not in danger and that the sensations will pass.
“I realize you (the anxiety) hold no threat over me.”
What keeps a panic attack coming again and again is the fear of the fear--the fear that the next one will really knock your socks off and you feel you were lucky to have made it past the last one unscathed. As they were so unnerving and scary, it is your confidence that has been damaged by previous anxiety episodes. Once you fully understand you are not under any threat, then you can have a new response to the anxiety as it arises while speaking.
Defeating public speaking and panic attacks…
There is always a turning point when a person moves from general anxiety into a panic attack, and that happens with public speaking when you think to yourself:
“I won’t be able to handle this in front of these people.”
That split second of self-doubt leads to a rush of adrenaline, and the extreme anxiety arrives in a wave like format. If, however, when you feel the initial anxiety and you react with confidence that this is not a threat to you, you will move out of the anxiety rapidly. Using this new approach is a powerful ally because it means it is okay to feel scared and feel the anxiety when speaking-that is fine; you are going to feel it and move with and through the sensations in your body and out the other side. Because he or she is feeling very anxious, often before the talk has begun, that person may feel they have already let themselves down. Now, you can relax on that point. It is perfectly natural to feel the anxiety. Take for example the worst of the sensations you have ever experienced in this situation--be it general unease to loss of breath. You will have an initial automatic reaction that says:
“Danger-I’m going to have an episode of anxiety here and I really can’t afford that to happen.”
At this point most people react to that idea and confirm it must be true because of all of the unusual feelings they are experiencing. This is where your thinking can lead you down a train of thought that creates a cycle of anxiety that produces a negative impact on your overall presenting skills.
So let that initial “oh dear, not now” thought pass by, and follow it up immediately with the attitude of:
“There you are-I’ve been wondering when you would arrive. I’ve been expecting you to show up--by the way, I am not in the least threatened by any of the strange sensations you are creating--I am completely safe here.”
The key to controlling your fear of public speaking and panic attacks is that instead of pushing the emotional energy and excitement down into your stomach, you are moving out through it. Your body is in a slightly excited state, exactly as it should be while giving a speech, so release that energy in your self-expression. Push it out through your presentation not down into your stomach. You push it out by expressing yourself more forcefully. In this way you turn the anxiety to your advantage by using it to deliver a speech where you come across more alive, energetic and in the present moment. When you notice the anxiety drop as it does when you willingly move into it. Fire a quick thought off when you get a momentary break (as I am sure you have between pieces), asking it for “more.” You want more of its intense feelings as you are interested in them and are absolutely not threatened by them.
It seems like a lot of things to be thinking about while talking to a group of people, but it is not really. You’d be amazed how many different non-related thoughts you can have while speaking. This approach is about adopting a new attitude of confidence to what you might have deemed a serious threat up until now. This tactic will truly help you with fear of public speaking and panic attacks you have associated with them.
If your predominant fear of the speaking engagement is driven by a feeling of being trapped, then I would suggest factoring in some mental releases that can be prepared before the event. For example, some meetings/speeches allow for you to turn the attention back to the room to get feedback etc. from the group.
If possible, you might want to prepare such opportunities in your own mind before the engagements. This is not to say you have to ever use them, but people in this situation often remark that just having small opportunities where attention can be diverted for the briefest of moments can make the task seem less daunting. It my even be something as simple as having people introduce themselves or opening the floor to questions. I realize these diversions are not always possible and depend on the situation, but anything you can factor in that makes you feel less trapped or under the spotlight is worth the effort and can help alleviate fear of public speaking and panic attacks.
Learn more
http://www.panicportal.com
Barry Joe McDonagh is an international panic disorder coach. His informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: http://www.panicportal.com
This article is copywritten material
Agoraphobia and Panic Attacks
There is phobia that is linked to the experience of panic attacks, and that is agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is the fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places such as shopping markets. It is a fear associated with leaving a safe zone, such as the home.
Because of a feeling of being vulnerable, people who experience this fear often suffer from panic attacks in these “open” situations. It is true to say many people who have regular panic attacks experience different degrees of agoraphobia. Some have a lingering background anxiety about being away from home should they experience a panic attack. Other people are so immobilized by this fear that they find it very difficult to leave their home for even a short period.
The thinking behind agoraphobia usually follows the line that were a panic attack to occur, who would look after the person, how would he or she get the assistance and reassurance they needed? The vulnerability grows from the feeling that once victims of agoraphobia are caught in the anxiety, they are suddenly unable to look after themselves and are therefore at the mercy of the place they find themselves in and the strangers around them. In its extreme form, agoraphobia and panic attacks can lead to a situation where people become housebound for numerous years. Please note, this is by no means a hopeless situation, and I always need to reinforce the fact that something only becomes hopeless once the person really believes that to be the case.
To begin with, the primary issue that needs to be addressed is the belief in the safe zone. To clarify, when I talk about safe zone, I am referring to the zone where the person believes panic attacks do not occur, or at least occur infrequently. As comfort is found there, it is where the person tends to spend more and more time. The safe zone of anxiety is a myth sustained by the mind. The mind has developed a habit of thinking that dictates that being inside the safe zone is the only place to feel secure and avoid agoraphobia and panic attacks. If agoraphobia is an issue for you, watch as your mind comes up with reasons why it believes only a certain area is safe and another is not. Those reasons range from being near the phone or people you trust to having familiar physical surroundings to reassure you.
The reality of anxiety is that there is no such thing as a safe zone. There is nothing life threatening about a panic attack, and therefore sitting at home is the same as sitting under the stars on a desert island. Of course, your mind will immediately rush to tell you that a desert island is a ridiculous place to be as there are no hospitals, no tranquillisers, no doctors, NO SAFETY.
You need to review your previous experiences of panic attacks. Aren’t you still here, alive and well, after all those attacks during which you were convinced you were going to die?
It may be that on occasions you have been driven to the hospital where they did medicate you to calm you down, but do you really believe that you would not have survived were it not for the drugs? You would have. If the same bout of anxiety had occurred on this desert island, it too would have passed, even if you were all alone. Yes, when it comes to conditions that need medical attention such as asthma, diabetes, and a whole litany or other conditions, then having medical aid nearby is a big asset, but no doctor in the world would tell someone with anxiety that there are only specific safe zones in which she or he can move.
As I know more than anyone how terrifying it can feel to move out of your safe zone as the feeling of fear is welling up inside, I do not wish to sound harsh. This course is not about chastising people for their behaviours. It is a way of looking together at solutions and seeing through the myths that form prison walls. The goal is to enable you to return to a richer and more meaningful life and ultimately defeat your agoraphobia and panic attacks. I also realize that people around you cannot understand why a trip to shops would cause you such discomfort. You will have to forgive them and try not to be upset by their lack of understanding of your problem.
If an individual such as a partner or family member has not had a similar anxiety issue, that person may often find it hard to understand and empathize with what you are going through. I am sure you have been dragged out of the house numerous times against your will, kicking and screaming. This can then lead to tensions and arguments and is upsetting as it can make you feel less understood by those around you. People around agoraphobics are often simply trying what they feel is best. If you can see that their intentions are well meaning (although often misguided), then you will be able to relate to them better and help sooth any potential conflicts.
There is one thing I am sure you will agree with, and that is that the only person who will get you out of agoraphobic thinking is yourself. These are your thoughts, and only you can begin to change that pattern. Dealing with long term agoraphobia and panic attacks is a slow process to begin with, but once the results start happening, it moves faster and faster until you reach a point where you will find it hard to believe that going out was such a difficult task.
Learn more
http://www.panicportal.com
Barry Joe McDonagh is an international panic disorder coach. His informative site on all issues related to panic and anxiety attacks can be found here: http://www.panicportal.com
This article is copywritten material
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