I just read a story about how one person got over his panic.smartproductslive.com”>panic disorder. It is quite a moving story and quite helpful in both understanding panic.smartproductslive.com”>panic disorder and also curing it. I have the writer’s permission to publish it here:
“I often go over my journey of discovery to find the best treatment for panic.smartproductslive.com”>panic disorder and now, I can smile about it. After all, I learned that I will never have to fear another panic attack.
My first memory is that I didn’t want to admit I had a problem at all. I was short of breath. I couldn’t explain it. I had no stress in my life, I was in my forest year at university, and I couldn’t maintain attention in class. One day I told my tutor that day that I had to go to a doctor half way through the class. She said it would be no problem and did I want to talk about it. I said “No, I’m Ok”.
It was only a few weeks later that I was able to admit I wasn’t OK at all. Not by a long way. My doctor did some tests and said there was nothing apparently wrong with me. I acted relieved, but in my heart I knew she was wrong. Something was terribly wrong, and I couldn’t explain it. I recalled the first time I had the experience; I felt dizzy, nauseous and hot in the face. At first I thought I was having a heart attack, but after I settled down again I let it go and convinced myself that it was just a passing ailment. It took another two episodes and some consistent prodding from my partner before I relented and decided to seek advice from another medical practitioner.
My new doctor identified my condition as a panic.smartproductslive.com”>panic disorder and gave me some breathing and relaxation exercises. I had the opportunity to put these strategies into practice only a few hours after leaving her surgery! Luckily I was able to gain control and felt better for the experience, but I still had a deep seated fear that the “alien assault’ as I labelled my attack could recur at any moment.
I knew I needed more help, so I asked my doctor for a referral to a specialist which she had mentioned to me during my visit, a Psychologist. This Psychologist took me through a treatment program during which I had to identify the stages of my attacks. I recognised the absolute terror of an impending attack, the sense of utter helplessness, and the loss of control and fear that I had an incurable illness, and a consistent feeling that something awful was about to occur. I was in a never ending loop of Fear panic and Anxiety.
To cut a long story short I went to a number of specialists over the next year, and latched on to a number of techniques ranging from self hypnosis, Neuro Linguistic Programming, and various positive affirmation and breathing plans. I only ever really had short lived success with all of them.
But all I really wanted was to return to my “old self”, I didn’t really care about the reasons for my condition, I didn’t want to examine my childhood. I just wanted something that worked. I did discover some things that were helpful and I finally found a technique I was happy with.”
You can read more about it here panic.smartproductslive.com” target=”blank”>panic.smartproductslive.com”>panic disorder
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