How Will Working With Me Help Your Recovery?

I am assuming that you’re reading this page because you, or someone close to you, is suffering from some sort of anxiety-based problem. It may be the first time that you’ve decided to seek help with this problem. If it is, then let me say “ Well Done”, for this is the first step in your recovery.  If you have tried unsuccessfully in the past to rid yourself of your disabling symptoms, then let me assure you that at last, you have found the help that will really work for you.


This page contains very important information for you, and I would ask you to read it completely so that you can fully understand the anxiety condition, allowing you to be able to remove your unwanted anxiety and all the symptoms it produces.


I know what panic attacks are like. I have experienced them myself, so I know how awful you feel when you have yours. People with panic anxiety often say that it is impossible for others to understand what they are going through, “like explaining the colour red to a blind person”. The frustrating thing is that once you seemed to be leading an ordinary life, then suddenly, one day, panic struck, and everything changed.


And now you live in dread of unbearable panic feelings and wonder if you will

ever get back to normal again. I understand the fear you have about the next one. Like you, I’ve experienced the sheer terror an attack brings with it. Some people have panic attacks on a daily basis; some are agora­phobic and know they would have them if they left the security of their home; Others have them only infrequently when they encounter specific situations, such as flying or attending social functions.


Occasionally, people may not identify what they experience as a panic attack at all. They may call it a funny turn, feeling peculiar, or going wobbly. Regardless of what you call it, if you experience

feelings of panic, whether it’s once an hour or once a year, this method has been devised for you. It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you are in the world. Panic attacks know few boundaries, and there are a huge number of people who have them.


During the time I was having attacks; I know I would have appreciated the help of someone who understood panic attacks. I wanted to find out all I could about them and what it was that was happening to me. I also wanted to know how to find a cure for this dreadful condition, and begin to take control of my life again.


During my extensive training of over five years, and through nearly 15 years of experience of working as a Psychotherapist with people who suffer from panic attacks, Agoraphobia, OCD and other anxiety disorders, I was able not only to discover how to cure myself, but develop a way of working with people that would cure them also. This meant I could offer sufferers a comprehensive and effective programme to cure their panic attacks and other related anxiety disorders. I worked perfecting this method for over 12 years and experienced enormous success with client after client.


Be reassured, panic attacks can be cured; they do end. You find that hard to believe? Perhaps you do at the present moment, and if someone had said that to me a few years ago, I too would have doubted. So intrusive, debilitating and frightening are the attacks that it seems that all one does is wait warily for the next one, which you hope and pray won’t happen, but which inevitably does.


By way of reassurance to you that panic attacks do go away, here are some comments from people who, at one time, also despaired about ever being free from them. They are all free of panic attacks now.


Catherine is now 23, single and self-employed with a confident, chatty, bubbly personality. A few years ago, at a time when she should have been enjoying life to the full, while queuing at the checkout in a Safeway supermarket to pay for some shopping, she felt her heart starting to race and her mouth go dry. She couldn’t get her money out of her purse because her hands were shaking so much.


She rushed home. After this she began to experience panic attacks over a number of months, feeling anxious every time she left the house alone. She had to be accompanied by one of her family. She, maybe like yourself was scared

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The manual describes the panic attack as: A discrete period of intense fear or discomfort, in which four (or more) of the above symptoms developed abruptly and reached a peak within ten minutes.

There should be no obvious life threatening situation setting them off.

You probably won’t experience all these things at the same time. Apparently, people on average tend to report having about seven different symptoms. Besides the physical sensations, people tend to share similar thoughts and feelings too. These are:



Many sufferers experience more than four sensations. The sort of sensations they notice may not be exactly the same one week as another week. What bothers one person may not bother another. The term “limited panic attacks” is used when someone suffers from only one or two of these feelings out of the blue. I’m saying “only” one or two, but this gives the wrong impression, because for these people one or two of these sensations catching them unawares can be worrying, aggravating and frequent enough to spoil their lives.


Although terrifying, none of these thoughts and feelings ever comes to anything. There is no evidence that anyone has ever died from a panic attack, and no one has ever gone crazy. Neither has anyone completely lost control of him or herself. There is no evidence of any­thing bad ever happening to anyone during a panic attack, no matter how frightened they have felt. So be reassured that although what you feel is extremely unpleasant, you will come to no harm. It’s important that you realise this, and I’ll keep reminding you of it.


There is one particular combination of symptoms which is quite common and worth mentioning: palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath and a fear that you might be dying. It’s important only because those who have this combination tend to think they’re having a heart attack, like a few of the people quoted above. Typically, they may rush themselves to hospital, fearing the worst, only to find that the doctors pronounce their heart is strong and sound.


Although people obviously feel a great deal of relief in being told that, they can also leave the hospital feeling confused and still somewhat frightened if the doctor doesn’t reassure them enough. They know they felt something powerful, very real and frightening, and without a proper explanation they may still harbour fears that they haven’t been told the truth, or that perhaps next time it will be a real heart attack.

A Word or Two About OCD And Other Anxiety Problems

If you have OCD, you may have repeated obsessions and/or compulsions that make you feel anxious. Everyone has unwanted, troubling thoughts occasionally, for example, worrying that the oven has been left on. But if you have OCD, these thoughts are more common and can seem more important.

OCD symptoms vary from mild to severe. They include obsessions (thoughts or feelings) that make you feel distressed or anxious, and compulsions (actions) which you feel necessary to perform to cancel out the obsession. It is most common to have both obsessions and compulsions, but you can also have either alone. You may have more than one obsession and/or compulsion.

“Thoughts And Feelings That Make You Feel Distressed Or Anxious”

The most common obsessions are:



The most common compulsions are:



Compulsions are usually related to the type of obsession you are experiencing. For example, you may repeatedly wash your hands if you have obsessions about dirt or contamination. You may feel that something terrible will happen if you don't carry out your compulsions. Performing the compulsion may make you feel better in the short term but this feeling doesn't last.


People with OCD are usually, but not always, aware that their thoughts or actions are unreasonable. It's common to feel guilty, disgusted, depressed or embarrassed about it. Compulsive behaviours can be very time consuming, often getting in the way of normal work and family life.


If you have OCD you may also have depression and or panic attacks. This may be due to the emotional strain of dealing with obsessions, or because OCD and depression involve similar chemical imbalances in the brain.


OCD can upset your family life or damage your relationship with a partner, which may lead to separation or divorce.

The Causes of OCD, Depression and Panic Attacks

The exact cause of OCD isn't known, but it's probably due to a combination of factors.


If you were to ask a doctor what causes OCD, the doctor would probably tell you that in the last few years, it has become clear that the basis of OCD is to be found in slight differences in the structure and chemistry of the brain. These differences in themselves do not actually result in any other abnormalities but do seem to provide the basis for OCD. Our knowledge of these brain differences is expanding since we are now able to scan the brain using techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography, also known as MRI and pet scans. However, despite the recognition that certain parts of the brain are different in OCD sufferers, doctors are not absolutely sure how the brain chemistry of OCD sufferers varies from the so-called norm.


The question that most doctors fail to answer is; why has the structure of the brain and the brain chemistry become different in sufferers of OCD? Through my own work as a psychotherapist, I have worked with many clients exhibiting OCD symptoms, and I have noticed a common theme.  Every client who I have ever worked with, suffering from either panic attacks, depression, or OCD showed a marked tendency to control feelings of anger, unhappiness and fearfulness (‘smothering’ or ‘bottling up’ emotions).


Denying feelings of anger, frustration, sadness, or even excitement can contribute to a state of free-floating anxiety. Free-floating anxiety is when you feel vaguely anxious without knowing why. You may have noticed yourself, or heard others say, that after you let out your angry feelings or have a good cry you feel calmer and more at ease. Expressing feelings can have a distinct physiological effect that results in a reduced level of anxiety.


Anxiety prone people often grow up in families where obtaining parental approval takes precedence over expressing their needs and feelings. As adults, they still feel it is more important to attain perfection or always be pleasing than to express strong feelings. This tendency to deny deep emotions can lead to a chronic state of tension and anxiety. It is believed by many psychologists and psychotherapists that the external danger avoided by those people with phobias, OCD, panic attacks or other anxiety related problems is actually a stand in for a deeper lying inter­nal danger: the fear of long repressed feelings resurfacing. Panic may occur when such feelings “threaten” to break through. Sufferers of OCD will use involved and compelling thoughts and actions to distract themselves from those same feelings. People who experience clinical depression have depressed  (pushed down or bottled up) their feeing to the extent that they don’t feel anything; just hopelessness and an awful frightening void of nothingness.


There is a lot of evidence to suggest that character and personalities are formed, at least to a greater degree, by the environment in which we were brought up.  And that environment of course, is our family, comprising of our parents, grandparents, step-parents and any siblings. I have mentioned above that one major characteristic of those who have an anxiety disorder, is the fear of expressing primary emotions.  Most people in this category suppress their feelings, particularly, of anger and sadness. They feel that they “should not feel this way”, or that they are “not being strong”, or that their anger and feelings of grief are “bad, destructive” or “wrong”.


Many researchers believe, that it’s when we learn to override our feelings in this way, that causes the structural and chemical changes within the brain that lead to symptoms of anxiety, depression and OCD.

However, it is also clear that the structural and chemical causes are not the entire answer.


Another interesting line of research is in the area of genetics and recent work carried out in several parts of the world has indicated that there may be a genetic basis for OCD.  However, the more the picture unfolds, the more complex OCD, depression and anxiety problems become, and it is probable that these problems comprise of a number of different problems with some things in common.  Obsessive and compulsive thinking and behaviour, along with suppression of feelings leading to anxiety symptoms, can also be learned from a range of experiences for example, during childhood, following traumatic events of one kind or another and, by exposure to a mother, father or significant other relative with OCD, depression or an anxiety problem. Thus, people may be born with a biological disposition to one or other of these problems but never develop the full problem, while others are born with the same predisposition but, when subject to sufficient learning experiences, develop the problem in a full blown form.


All this might sound rather complex and, indeed, as most of you know many GPs and even some mental health professionals are surprisingly ignorant about anxiety related disorders, but it is important to see that the condition is not caused by one simple factor.

Anxiety and Negative Self-Talk

Many of the clients who approach me believe that they are being victimised by some sort of outside force. Many anxiety sufferers imply that their anxiety has been caused by external influences that are “attacking them” or “happening to them” in a way which takes away their own control.

“A Belief That You’re Being Victimised By Some Outside Force”

When clients tell me things like, “the panic attacks just happened to me without warning”, I always say to them, “that’s interesting, how do you do that?” In asking that question I’m inviting the client to see themselves as the creator of the panic attacks (or other anxiety problems) rather than the victim of circumstances. If you see yourself as a victim, then you’re at the mercy of everything you experience and have no control over your situation.  Now, that is frightening! The truth is, what you think is what you will create, it’s what will become your reality.


People who suffer from fears, panic attacks, and general anxiety are especially prone to engage in negative self-talk (negative thinking). Anxiety can be generated on the spur of the moment by repeatedly making statements to yourself that begin with the two words "what if." Any anxiety you experience in anticipation of confronting a difficult situation is manufactured out of your own "what-if statements" to yourself. When you decide to avoid a situation altogether, it is probably because of the scary questions you've asked yourself: "What if I panic?" "What if I can't handle it?" "What will other people think if they see me anxious?"


When you resign yourself to being helpless and powerless, you disable your ability to create change because you believe everything becomes hopeless, even though it isn't! It’s as though you’ve switched off your mind to the options available to you. Many people then start to blame. Blaming your job, your marriage, a bereavement, stress, your parents or anything and anyone but the true cause. It’s not long before you begin to feel weak and powerless, and begin to take on the belief that you’re a victim under attack.


The difference between anxiety sufferers who recover quickly and those who don't is that those who recover quickly understand that giving blame to external influences is pointless and that they can create their own quality of life. The ones who don't recover quickly are those that feel victimised and powerless.


Just noticing when you fall into "what-if thinking" is the first step toward gaining control over negative self-talk. The real change occurs when you begin to counter and replace negative "what-if statements" with positive, self-supportive statements that reinforce your ability to cope.


Negative self-talk perpetuates avoidance. You tell yourself that a situation such as the motorway is dangerous and so you avoid it. By continuing to avoid it, you reinforce the thought that it's dangerous. You may even project images of catastrophe around the prospect of confronting the situation. In short, anxious self-talk leads to avoidance, avoidance creates further anxious self-talk, and around and around the cycle goes.


Avoidance  ↔Anxious Self-talk


Self-talk can initiate or aggravate a panic attack. A panic attack often starts out with symptoms of increasing physiological arousal, such as a more rapid heartbeat, tightness in the chest, or sweaty palms. Biologically, this is the body's natural response to stress, the fight or flight response that all mammals, including humans, normally experience when subjected to a perceived threat. There is nothing inherently abnormal or dangerous about it. Yet these symptoms can remind you of previous panic attacks. Instead of simply allowing your body's physiological reaction to rise, peak, and subside in its own good time, you scare yourself into a considerably more intense panic attack with scary self-talk; "Oh no, it's happening again," "What if I lose control?" "I have to get out of here now," or "I'm going to fight this and make it go away." This scare-talk aggravates the initial physical symptoms, which in turn elicits further scare-talk.


A severe panic attack might have been stopped midstream or rendered much less intense had you made reassuring statements to yourself at the onset of your first symptoms: "I can accept what's happening even though it's uncomfortable," "I'll let my body do its thing," "This will pass," "I've gotten through this before and I will this time," or "This is just a burst of adrenaline that can metabolise and pass in a few minutes."


Imagine that you are 100% in control. I think you would be saying, "What can I do to..?" Or  "How can I..?" You would be asking questions that showed your belief that solutions are always possible.  By taking on these positive thoughts, you can focus your mind on what you want, rather than what you don't! By doing this you allow your brain to focus on problem solving to make positive things happen!

An Awareness of Anxiety

As you read on, it will soon be clear to you that panic attacks can be caused by many different circumstances and for many different reasons.


Panic attacks are caused by your reaction to an intense emotional situation. That intense emotional situation could have happened during your adult life as a result of a traumatic event such as an accident, a divorce, financial problems or other life changing events. Otherwise, the intense emotional situation could have occurred during your childhood, most commonly as a result of feeling unloved (fear of abandonment) or overwhelmed by your parents (or caretakers) control or neediness. The sorts of things that can happen in your life that could result in anxiety problems will be more fully covered in our work together


There are two important concepts to understand about anxiety problems, and both concern the way that you reacted to the intense emotional situations mentioned above. The first concept concerns how you “bottled up” your feelings and the second involves how your brain reacted to situations that were or that you perceived as fearful.


Let me talk firstly about “bottling up” feelings.


It was during those intense situations that you would have experienced strong emotions. As a child in your formative years (with only a child’s resourcefulness) “bottling up” your emotions was your best plan of action for dealing with these difficult strong feelings. It was done by your subconscious mind so that you weren't overwhelmed by your emotions, and could get on with growing up.

That same strategy would be continued to be used by you during your adult life and you would continue to deal with strong emotions caused by trauma or other life changing events, by “bottling them up”.  These “bottled up” emotions are stored in your subconscious mind and you'll have no awareness of them.

One study of children who were being seen for psychiatric help with specific problems revealed that a considerable number of them (26 per cent) also had panic attacks. The youngest were only four years old!


So although attacks begin for most people between the ages of 15 and 40, even little children can have them. In terms of differences between the sexes, some clinical trials appear to suggest that it is as common for men to experience them as women, but other studies suggest that more women than men have them. Many factors come into play as to when, why and to whom they occur.

The First Anxiety/Panic Attack

Many people’s first attack tends to follow the same pattern. You will be doing something quite ordinary like reading, driving, watching television or eating out when without warning, and before you know what is happening, you find yourself in the middle of your first panic attack.


Most people have their first panic attack spontaneously, apparently with no prior warning; but some do have them during a particularly stressful moment, such as when they are giving a talk to a group of people, taking an exam, or attending an important meeting in which they have to take an active part.


No matter where or when they start, there is a great deal of simi­larity in the symptoms people have. Whatever you experienced in yours, you can be reassured that others will also have felt the same. That’s true without any doubt at all.


I have often asked people what they themselves call these attacks. Often they give it the name panic without having heard of it from anyone else. Some people think of it as a nervous breakdown, and they feel they cannot carry on at work nor have the same active life. Sometimes people give up promising careers because of their fear of the reoccurrence of the attacks.


When something which happens has such a powerful effect it can, after just one occurrence, establish what is known as a conditioned response in you. For example, if a person has been in a serious train crash, the effect on them could have been so great that now, at the mere mention of the word “train” they begin to shake with fear. After that first attack you had, something similar began to happen to you. Because you knew how awful you felt, you began to fear having another attack. You started to worry in anticipation of the next. This is called anticipatory anxiety, worrying about the next attack, when it might happen, where you might be, and so on.


The physical force of that first attack probably shocked you a lot, making you feel quite incapacitated. With me, it crossed my mind that I might have eaten something which had violently disagreed with me, so all the next day I was mentally checking how well I felt. Did I need to dash to the toilet again; would I feel well enough to make it through that meeting; did I feel as if I was going to faint?


After the second attack, the awareness I had of my body was incredibly heightened. It had happened again, without warning as it seemed to me, so I put myself on the alert for the slightest sign that I was going to have another. In doing so I thought I would at least be ready for it when it came, although what I would then do I wasn’t quite sure. And so I became sensitised to my own bodily sensations. Was that my heart beating faster again; was I starting to feel hot and sweaty; was that a feeling of light-headedness?


So we now have quite a powerful combination. We probably have a higher level of background anxiety (which we may or may not be aware of), we have the worry about when, where and how we might have the next attack, and we also have the anxiety about reading our body’s signals.


As a result you may find yourself saying “What if ...?” a lot of the time. “What if I have an attack in the middle of that meet­ing?” “What if I feel funny at the bus stop?” “What if I have a turn and embarrass my partner in front of everyone?” “What if. .. What if ... What if ...?”


With all those thoughts and worries going around in your head, perhaps without you being fully aware of them, it is hardly surprising to find that you are less relaxed than you could be.


If you feel anxious and concerned about all those “What ifs”, then your body will respond accordingly. If you sit and watch a comedy programme on television, your body responds and you start to laugh. If you sit down and worry, your body also responds, but this time by becoming taut and strained.


And then for example, you get into a queue at the supermarket. Supermarkets are stressful places with all that bustling and jostling, all those bright lights and bold display signs. It’s easy for your sensitised system to feel overloaded. It already has higher levels of adrenaline than normal, and one of adrenaline’s effects is to heighten all your senses. The reason for this is so that you can spot the first sign of any real danger. For example, if you walked through a forest after being told there was a monster in there which might attack, you would be highly sensitive to the smallest movement, the slightest rustle of grass, the faintest touch, just in case.


Similarly, the stimulation you get from being in a supermarket starts to send the adrenaline levels up even more. Remember that stimulation can be pleasant as well as unpleasant. Supermarkets aren’t in themselves unpleasant places, but they are highly visually stimulating, they have to be because they’re aimed at encouraging you to look and buy. So the excitement you feel at being there auto­matically releases more adrenaline which, added to the higher levels which you already have is enough to press the trigger, the panic button’s been hit, and off you go. It needn’t be the supermarket, it can be anywhere where you start to feel more stressed: at work, in church, listening to the news, at home. But at the least provocation the system goes into action.


After the attack has passed, you think back over it. You remember where you were and what you were doing. For you it may be that it happened while out running, or when you were round at Tracy’s house. Wherever you were when it happened and whatever you were doing will now become associated with having an attack. It becomes a conditioned response. You would have felt it as another nasty jolt, and because again you could not explain why it happened, you do two things. The first is to associate the place or situation with having an attack. The second is to become more fearful.


Your previous attack may have been when you were on a train, now it has happened in the supermarket. “Why?” you ask yourself. You don’t understand and so you start to assume it could happen anywhere, and begin to feel even more frightened. You realise you might not be safe anywhere. To you the attacks had no rational explanation and it is so easy to be fright­ened by the unknown.


So now we have more anxiety about the next attack. By now you’ve convinced yourself that you will definitely have another one, but you don’t know when or where. This additional anxiety-booster makes you even more likely to have another attack even when you find yourself only slightly stressed.

The Symptoms of an Anxiety/Panic Attack

There are a number of symptoms which you may have experienced not only during your first, but also during subsequent attacks. See if any of these sound familiar:


“My body froze like a statue. My pulse would race very, very fast. My sense of reasoning and perception would become completely muddled and confused.”


“Terrifying.”


“A ringing in my ears would occur and my body temperature dropped.”


“It happens very suddenly - I feel faint, hot and sweaty. My heart beats rapidly. I feel I can’t move or speak and that I just want to lie down. My stomach and chest are churning inside.”


“Numbness in my hands and then this feeling that I couldn’t breathe. A feeling I was going to have a heart attack and a dryness in the mouth. Hearing my heart going; palpitations and an overwhelming fear that I was going to have a heart attack and die.”


“A tingling sensation down my left arm. A constant pain above my chest; also tightness of the chest. A cold sweat. The need to breathe in more air. Total panic and shakes. I had thoughts of fear that it was a heart attack.

“Bottling Up Your Emotions Was Your Best Plan”

Research published in the Journal of Behaviour Research & Therapy (Baker, Holloway, Thomas, Thomas & Owens), involving many hundreds of people who suffered from panic attacks and other anxiety problems, has shown that those people who experienced panic attacks showed a very high degree of emotional control compared with people who had never experienced a panic attack.


The emotions that you “bottled up” as a Child can remain stored away for years, it's only when you become emotionally more mature as an adult and are at last able to deal with the emotions that you thought were so impossible to deal with as a child, that they begin to rise up to the surface of conscious awareness. If you have been involved in some sort of traumatic situation as an adult, you may also from past learning, “bottle up” the intense emotions you experienced during and after that difficult time.


When you're an adult and your emotions begin to rise up, your system will do whatever it can to keep the emotions pushed down believing from childhood experience, that it’s the safest way of dealing with the rising emotions.  Without knowing it you may employee strategies such as distracting yourself by overworking and never allowing yourself any time in which the feelings could emerge.  A more dramatic version of this process occurs in the distracting and often catastrophic thoughts and the compulsions of OCD.  Other ways of keeping the feelings down include saying, "I just don't want to talk about it", comfort eating, drinking too much alcohol or using illegal drugs.


The emotions that we suppress are feelings such as fear, sadness and anger, all of which contain a lot of energy. That energy has to find a way of releasing itself, and the anxiety symptoms that you suffer, such as panic attacks, is the way in which you release the energy of all those bottled up feelings.  

Anxiety will bubble out whenever it's shaken, which is often by being in a situation where one is unconsciously feeling out of control. This maybe an obvious threat such as standing on a cliff edge, or a barking, jumping dog, flying, going to the dentist, being stuck in crowds etc. Or it may be a far more subtle and seemingly obscure a trigger, such as having to eat in front of others, use a public loo, driving in the dark and so on.


So that gives you a brief overview of how you dealt with feelings and emotions.


And now, secondly, let’s look at how your brain reacted to difficult emotional situations.

One thing that’s certain is that your anxiety problem has been caused by an initial event or situation at some time which provided you with a fear response (abandonment or overwhelm/control in childhood for example, or a traumatic event experienced as an adult).


Your subconscious mind made a connection between the event or situation which it perceived to be frightening and dangerous, and the anxious reaction you had at the time.  


In other words, your brain learned to react with fear whenever that event or situation occurred again in your life.  This connection could have been made as a result of a very intense one-off event such as an accident, or by a process of repetition of a less intense event such as feeling abandoned or unsafe as a child. This fearful reaction was designed to keep you safe and becomes so important that a part of your brain is adjusted to maintain the link between the situation and the fearful response. More common and less distressing examples of this type of connection are those times when through a process of repetition we come to associate the smell of a particular perfume or aftershave with a specific person, or a particular piece of music with a place or specific time in our lives. All these behaviours are an example of a process called Operant Conditioning.


Now think about how, through the cycle of fear you experience, you have constantly repeated being anxious, and thus strengthened that link and conditioned that adjustment in your brain. This can be changed, and quickly!


What is the adjustment that happens in the brain and how does it affect your anxiety?

The parts of the brain that changes as a result of the subconscious connections mentioned above are a pair of organs known as the Amygdalae. These organs perform an integral role in the production, processing and storage of emotional reactions. The amygdalae are a bit like a thermostat that regulates your anxiety

“The Amygdalae Are a Bit like a Thermostat that Regulates Your Anxiety”

From three months after conception until five years old all of a human's physical body states are stored in the amygdalae together with the thoughts and context which accompanied the states.


For example, if a pregnant mother slipped and became frightened, the physical body state of the mother (pounding heart, muscle tension, etc) is experienced by the baby in her womb. The physical body states associated with fright are then stored in the baby's amygdalae along with the thoughts and context of the falling motion when its mother slipped.

During a subsequent slip, the baby will experience the same pounding heart, etc, regardless now of whether the mother is frightened. The fright experience is re-triggered by the baby’s amygdalae automatically. This same pounding heart will be experienced thirty or forty years later when the baby, now as an adult, is flying in a jet airliner that experiences momentary turbulence. The same thoughts and similar context, the same physical body state of fear, only this time it is experienced as a "fear of flying."


As you move through the world, you’ll often be confronted with something that could represent danger.  It might be something that you see, hear or feel. Your eyes, ears or the sensory organs in your skin will send a message about this possible danger to the amygdalae which immediately initiate something called the “flight or fight” response.  This “flight or fight” response is a decision to either run away from the danger, or stand and fight; it's an anxiety response.


The body is immediately prepared for action through a surge of adrenaline which causes many physiological changes preparing you to deal with the danger.

The amygdalae are one of the key organs involved in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events.  This is the part of the brain that makes the connection between an intense event or situation and the anxiety response discussed earlier.  This is the part of the brain that becomes altered to remember that connection.


This means that if you experience an event and react with anxiety, that connection can become ingrained into the mind and this is what causes an anxiety disorder. So it’s the alteration of the thermostatic like setting of the Amygdalae that is responsible for the anxiety or panic reaction. Therefore, by changing the reaction of the Amygdalae, turning down the thermostat to its normal setting, the inappropriate anxious reaction can be stopped.


The Amygdalae only respond to sensory inputs, which means that in order to turn down the thermostat in the Amygdalae they must receive new sensory inputs to replace the anxious responses with a more appropriate responses. This re-programing is achieved through a variety of ways during therapy. The method reverses the process, which causes the formation of an anxiety disorder in the Amygdalae, and wipes out the stored, anxious response.

How Are The Amygdalae Reprogrammed?

Turning down the thermostat in the Amygdalae works using behavioural approaches, in exactly the same way that your anxiety condition was “learned” originally. Through a simple procedure, the sensory organs can be directed to send messages to the Amygdalae, which re-program them and remove the anxious reaction altogether.


So you can appreciate that there are a number of important areas to deal with so that you can finally rid yourself of your anxiety problems.

Are My Panic Attacks A Sign Of Mental Illness?

Panic attacks and other anxiety disorders are often so frightening and disorientating that they can make you feel as if you’re going mad.  Panic attacks and other anxiety disorders are definitely not mental illnesses, but are brought about by behavioural conditioning as described in the previous section of this booklet. The symptoms that you experience are brought about by your reaction to difficult or frightening emotional situations which you experienced either as a child, or in response to trauma as an adult. These experiences adjusted the anxiety settings in a part of your brain known as the Amygdalae, which now causes you to over-react to even safe situations with an inappropriate level of anxiety.


Unfortunately, people who suffer from panic attacks and of anxiety disorders often find that their partners, relatives and friends are unable to understand how difficult it is to deal with the problem of anxiety.  These same people can often label the sufferer as being mentally ill, neurotic or even just plain awkward.  Even doctors find anxiety disorders very difficult to deal with, because in reality, anxiety should not be treated by the use of drugs, unlike a mental illness, which can benefit from the use of drugs. So again, let me reassure you, panic attacks and other anxiety problems are not mental illnesses.

So How Can Anxiety Problems Be Cured?

Therapy works on a number of levels. Re-adjusting the Amygdalae using behavioural approaches, works in exactly the same way that your anxiety condition was “learned” originally. Through a simple procedure, the sensory organs can be directed to send messages to the Amygdalae, which re-program them and remove the anxious reaction completely.

Strange And Worrying Thoughts

Let me say a few words about always assuming the worst, you know, the “what ifs”.


What if I have a terminal illness?

What if I panic in public?

What if I faint or wet myself?

What if I get lost?

What if I go crazy?

What if I kill or harm someone?

What if I say the wrong thing?

What if I’m inappropriate?

What if I’m gay?

What if something bad happens to a family member?

What if ..... What if .... What if?


Paradoxically, expecting the worst can be a good thing! However, this is so only when it's a tool we use to help us deal with particular challenges rather than a tyrant which dominates our lives. It's one thing to have a ' contingency plan' in your head for what to do if things go wrong, because this can be a useful way of future planning, when its appropriate. But if you find that you often or always expect the worst, this can actually shut down your options. And tackling this problem through therapy may be the answer for you.


When you always expect the worst, especially about things that are important to you such as relationships or work, then you are using a particular way of thinking about your life known as  “black and white thinking”. This black and white thinking sees everything in terms of extremes, all or nothing. It is generated from your emotional brain, which works in a starker on/off way than your rational brain, which works in a more subtle, ' shades of grey' way.


In fact, it's true to say that expecting the worst actually has more to do with feeling rather than thinking. The negative emotions, usually fear and despondency, shape your thoughts. Expectations are always expressed through the imagination. What we see in our imaginations is very convincing to us. When you imagine something, you are using a kind of self hypnosis to persuade yourself that it is true. So people who expect the worst are basically hypnotically programming themselves. They program themselves to feel anxious and downcast, and to have bad experiences. The imagination is a powerful tool we can use to help us create better futures for ourselves. But, like any tool, it can be misused….. and some people spend their whole lives misusing it!


As you absorb and integrate the suggestions within your therapy, and really begin to stop worrying you'll notice many interesting things happen. Firstly you'll feel a lot better and get on with more things because you'll have more energy, focus and clarity.


Secondly, you stop trying to second guess the future, assuming bad stuff all the time. You'll relax with not knowing how things are going to turn out and assume that whatever happens, you'll handle it.


Thirdly, you'll simply have much more fun! It's not that you'll never be cautious and concerned about anything ever again, but it will only be about the things that you really need to be concerned about, and only over stuff you can actually influence in some way.


When you become generally calmer in life, your perceptions become more balanced and less under the sway of the emotional brain. You find that you use black and white words like always', total and absolutely much less. You'll also feel like using your imagination more positively around future events.


And even with things you can't control (such as whether your bus will be on time), you can at least expect the best of yourself that whatever happens you'll manage the situation. When you respond well to a bad situation then, in a way, it becomes a good situation.

“Using Your Imagination More Positively Around Future Events”

As you can see, the true cure for anxiety problems must also take into account the bigger picture. Alongside re-programming Amygdalae, it’s also important to attend to the many other contributing factors which caused and continue to cause anxiety problems. Here’s just some of the important areas that therapy addresses.


Does Counselling and Therapy Really Work?

Here’s an account of one persons recovery through counselling.

It’s Tim’s story.


“Since I began counselling, there have been enormous changes in my life. I'm able to work again. I go into shops. And there's a general feeling of well-being. Before, I felt like, "What's the use of going on like this?" At one point, things were so bad that I even contemplated suicide! I thought it was hopeless because I'd been that way for so long; thirteen years! (It started when I was about twenty one, and I'm thirty-four now.) Finally, it got to the point when three or four months before I started counselling, I was literally housebound!


The series of events that led to my becoming housebound and having thoughts of suicide were these: I lost my job because of the constant panic attacks. I had totally run out of money, and I decided I had to go out and get a job. I live in a small village and there aren't many jobs available. So I went to a large town nearby to look for work. But as I travelled, I found it harder and harder to get out of my car. (Instead of being housebound, I was becoming car-bound!) It was so hard even to go to a petrol station to get fuel. But I had to do it, so I did. I'd wait around in my car until there were not too many people there, and then I'd go and get the petrol.


When I came back to my village, jobless, I moved in with my parents. (I'm single.) And I more or less stayed around the house, doing nothing and being miserable. Things just got worse and worse. And, after a while, I just became housebound. I couldn't go anywhere. Then, the bank wrote to say that they were going to repossess my car for non-payment. So that spurred me to get some help somewhere. A doctor came to the house and he prescribed Xanax, and that didn't do any good. He doubled the dosage, but it still didn't do any good. Finally, he gave me doses of Librium, twenty-five milligrams two times a day. With that, I was able to go to the doctor's surgery regularly, but that was about it.


Just by chance, I picked up a magazine and saw an article about panic attacks, and they mentioned counselling. At that point, I was willing to do anything at all that might help me. I wanted to change so badly, I would have done anything!


I learned things about myself that really helped. I’ve always been a person that found it difficult to assert myself, often feeling I would rather hide away. That’s why I became housebound. I learned how to build up my self esteem, and how to be much more assertive. The change that made to my life was amazing. I began to go out again, to meet with old friends and even managed to make a new friend. This was just one of the helpful parts of the counselling process. There were so many things I learned that enabled me to alter my life and stop feeling anxious; so many that I couldn’t mention them all here.


I have a job now and I’m on a program of reducing the dosage of my pills. I’m already on a really low dosage. I never believed the day would come when I could say that I’m happy again. It’s here and I am not only happy, but enthusiastic and optimistic as well!"


Tim P.

Modbury, Devon UK

It’s my hope that you will be reassured now and feel confident telephoning to make an appointment, and know that you will be able to get started straight away.


Thank you for taking the time to read this web page. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need more information about anything connected with your anxiety problem, and I will quickly send you an answer.  More information is available at The Neurocalm Method website. Click Here.


I have complete confidence in my treatment method, and so I know that it’s now just a matter of time before your Anxiety Problems, Panic Attacks, OCD, Agoraphobia and Phobias are completely cured.

Counselling is the most effective long term solution. Other helpful therapies are; Energy-based meridian psychotherapy, EMDR and NLP.


Attention to breathing is also an important method of control. Begin by getting some idea of your current breathing rate. It is possibly greater than the maximum normal rate of 15 to 20 breaths per minute. Take random samples of the rate over a typical day. Four 1-minute counts, say at 8 a.m., 12 a.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. should give a fair estimation.


As well, set aside a 10-minute period and count the number of times that you gasp, hold your breath or in other ways breathe erratically. Any loss of rhythm suggests that you need to watch for breath-holding when panic starts. Many people who say they do not hyperventilate tend to go the other way and stop breathing when they begin to panic.


In calmer moments practice slower, steadier rates. Four 1-minute daily periods in which you train yourself to breathe more slowly and steadily should be sufficient. Practice only during panics is unwise.


An easy way to establish a normal pace of breathing is to count 3 seconds as you inhale. Then after a slight pause to raise the level of carbon dioxide count 3 seconds as you exhale. So that you do not go too fast, space each count with a word that takes a second to say e.g. "Slow and steady ....1 thousand, 2 thousand, 3 thousand..." as you breathe in, pause and once more as you breathe out. This sets up a calming six-second cycle of breathing.


Notice how babies breathe. They get maximum efficiency from their lungs with deep, tummy breathing. To see if you breathe deeply, place one hand on your stomach. Put the other on your upper-chest. Take in a big breath. Deep breathing shows as your tummy hand moving first. Your diaphragm is doing the work. If the hand on your upper-chest moved first (or if both did) you are probably a shallow breather. Under stress or as a panic rises you only get about 2/3 to a 1/2 of your body's oxygen requirement.


Do not expect success without this practice. Within a week or two you will be breathing more slowly without thinking. Less than 20 breaths per minute is a good target rate. 8 to 12 is excellent. The average for an adult male is 15 breaths per minute. For an adult female it is 16.


At your first warning of panic apply slow, regular breathing in the ample time you have before it rises to a “full blown” state (around 4 or more symptoms). The cycle referred to earlier is broken. “Body memory” is re-programmed. As you become convinced that something as deceptively simple as proper breathing makes you feel in control, old frightening thoughts start to disappear. (Armed with a reliable weapon against panic you will then be more confident about facing those events and situations that have been associated with uncontrollable panic. This can be done in a gradual, step-like way. Advance only when you are sufficiently relaxed after a number of trials at each step.)


If you need more information or assistance than these notes provide consult a counsellor.


You will be asked if your doctor has cleared you of medical conditions that mimic panic e.g. thyroid problems. Panic reactions to drug and alcohol use or withdrawal, high caffeine intake (e.g. coffee and cola) and chemical exposure are checked for.


An aim of the first session will be to see if the panics are tied to any distinct anxiety conditions. Agoraphobia (fear or avoidance of places in which escape is difficult should panic occur) and Social Phobia (fear or avoidance of scrutiny and humiliation) are examples. Any co-existing depression is also addressed.


Therapy involves education about panic attacks and breathing retraining to eliminate their symptoms. Once you are confident that you can control them via slow, regular breathing gradual facing of any previously avoided situations follows. If the panics relate to aspects of other anxiety conditions (e.g. in response to the disturbing memories) additional psychological techniques may be suggested.

Celebrities Reported To Have Had Panic Attacks


Carly Simon (singer), Aretha Franklin (singer), Lani O'Grady (actress), Michael English (singer),  Sir Laurence Olivier (actor),  Earl Campbell (football),  Al Kasha (songwriter), Emily Dickinson (poet), Marty Ingels (comedian),  Nicholas Cage (actor), Roseanne Barr (comedian),  Michael Jackson (singer),  Naomi Judd (singer), Susan Powter (tv host), John Madden (announcer),  Leila Kenzle (actress), Sissy Spacek (actress), oohnny Depp (actor),  Sally Field (actress), Shecky Greene (comedian), Alanis Morisette (singer),  Burt Reynolds (actor), Kim Basinger (actress),  Olivia Hussey (actress), Oprah Winfrey (host), Tom Snyder (host), John Candy (comedian),  Sam Shepard (playwright),  osaac Asimov (author), Charles Schultz (cartoonist), Dean Cain (actor),  Barbra Streisand (singer), Anne Tyler (author),  James Garner (actor),  Jim Eisenreich (baseball), Pete Harnisch (baseball),  Courtney Love (singer), Naomi Campbell (model), David Bowie (singer),  Nikola Tesla (inventor),  Charlotte Bronte (author), Alfred Lord Tennyson (poet),  Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist),  John Steinbeck (author), W.B. Yeats (poet), Sir Isaac Newton (scientist), Abraham Lincoln (president), Barbara Gordon (filmmaker),  Robert Burns (poet), Edvard Munch (artist),  John Stuart Mill (philosopher),  Calista Flockhart (actress), and Delta Burke (actress).

Self-Care Tips


These can help you or someone else. Many of these tips are used in the context of therapy first.


Ways to deal with panic that has limited symptoms and duration:


1. Talk over the source of your anxiety with family and friends. If this is not enough, you may need the help of a professional counsellor.

2. Face the fear. Accept it. Don't fight it. (This may need external help.)

3. Remind yourself you are in no real danger.

4. Try to imagine that you are "floating" on water.

5. Let time pass. Try to think ahead to what tasks you need to do when the panic will be gone.

6. Keep things with you that will provide comfort and a sense of control in case another panic attack occurs.

7. Do one or more mental "stress rehearsals." Imagine yourself feeling calm and handling the situation well.

8. Minimize your exposure to things that cause you distress.

9. Prepare for stressful situations. For example, if you need to give a group talk or presentation: Have materials you will need ready ahead of time. Make sure you have the equipment, such as slides and a slide projector. Check to see that they are in working order. Write an outline and key points on note cards, if necessary. Anticipate problems that could occur and prepare to address them ahead of time. Rehearse what you will do and say.

10. Learn and practice relaxation techniques such as: Deep breathing exercises, Tensing and relaxing muscles, Yoga, and Self-hypnosis.

11. Limit caffeine.

Medical Intervention for Panic Attacks

For panic attacks, the greatest benefit that medications can provide is to enhance the patient's motivation and accelerate progress toward facing panic and all of its repercussions. For a drug to help in this area, it must help in at least one of the two stages of panic. The first stage is anticipatory anxiety: all the uncomfortable physical symptoms and negative thoughts that rise up as you anticipate facing panic. The second stage is the symptoms of the panic attack itself. Both current research and clinical experience suggest that certain medications may help reduce symptoms during one or both of these stages for some people. However, if a medication can specifically block the panic attack itself, many patients no longer anticipate events with such anxiety and can overcome their phobias more quickly.


The primary medications used today for panic disorder are the benzodiazepines, several types of antidepressants and the new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), sometimes in combination with these benzodiazepines.


The most common benzodiazepines for panic attacks are alprazolam (Xanax) and clonazepam (Klonopin). They both block panic attacks quicker than the antidepressants, often in a week or two. They also tend to have fewer side effects than the antidepressants. Both, however, can have withdrawal symptoms as you taper off them. Because alprazolam is quicker acting than clonazepam, its withdrawal effects can be stronger as well. In studies on panic disorder, 43% of patients on alprazolam improved after eight weeks on less than 4 mg per day, and 30% get better on 4 to 6 mg per day.


The quick acting nature of alprazolam makes it an ideal medication to take as needed just before panic-provoking events. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to offer you its anxiety-reducing benefits. If you place it under your tongue to dissolve (called sublingual), it can offer benefits within 5 to 8 minutes. Be ready for its bitter taste!


Clonazepam, on the other hand, lasts longer in the body than alprazolam. This allows you to take it twice a day for a full 24-hour coverage, while alprazolam requires four or five dosings for the same period. Clonazepam is also used as needed before a panic-provoking situation. Some investigators believe it is a better choice than alprazolam during those times because its primary effects are not as strong and also wear off more slowly. When you are practicing the skills of facing your fears, if you notice the effects of a medication, you may tend to attribute your successes more to the medication than to your own efforts. Medications should serve as helpers to your own courage and skills and not get all the credit for good results. Because clonazepam's effects can be less noticable, you will be more likely to say, "Hey, I did it!" instead of saying, "Boy, that drug really works well. Thank goodness it was there to save me!" However, some patients don't like how long the effects last.


There are a few early studies indicating the benefits of diazepam (Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan) for panic disorder.


Of the antidepressants, the tricyclic antidepressant drug imipramine (Tofranil) has the longest track record for treating panic attacks. Other tricyclic antidepressant drugs that can help control panic attacks are desipramine (Norpramin or Pertofrane), nortriptyline (Aventyl or Pamelor), amitriptyline (Elavil), doxepin (Sinequan or Adapin) and clomipramine (Anafranil). In studies of patients with panic disorder, 75 to 80% of those placed on an antidepressant significantly improve.


Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are another family of antidepressants that manage the symptoms of panic. Research studies support extensive clinical experience that shows phenelzine (Nardil) as the preferred MAOI.


Some of the new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are helpful and offer fewer side effects than the tricyclic antidepressants. These include fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), sertraline (Zoloft), and paroxetine (Paxil).


In studies of patients with panic disorder, 75 to 80% of those placed on an SSRI significantly improve. This rate is equal to the success rate of the tricyclic antidepressants that have proven helpful.

they wouldn’t stop and began to wonder if she would have to deal with them for the rest of her life. They affected her so badly that she began to feel useless and as though she would never be able to cope with anything again. I will help you to dispel the rumours, myths and misunderstanding is about anxiety disorders, and give you the benefit of all my experience. Many doctors and psychologists will tell you that it’s only possible to “manage “anxiety disorders such as panic attacks, agoraphobia and OCD;  they will often say it isn’t possible to cure these problems.

That’s not true! My experience of working with all kinds of anxiety problems during the past 12 years has shown me without doubt, that these problems can be cured. I have not only been able to cure my own panic attacks and agoraphobia along with every single other symptom without the use of drugs in a very short time, but I’ve also been able to help large numbers of other sufferers as well!  

Now, after overcoming them with the help of  the many techniques and suggestions she learned working with me, she sees them in a very different light. Instead of something to remember with fear, she now looks back and welcomes her experience of them they helped her understand herself better. Catherine is now confident and happy. She leads a panic-free life and values what she has learned about herself during the time she experienced them.

What Are Anxiety/Panic Attacks?

Most people have their first attack when they are adolescents or in their early twenties. Apparently it is rare for them to begin past the age of forty, although people can continue to experience them beyond that age.

One man I treated listed his symptoms as: “High heart rate; sweating; flush­ing sensation in head; twitching muscles; feeling of coldness in hands and feet; wanting to go to the toilet. I thought I would collapse or faint, or even die.” Of course he didn’t, and hasn’t since.


Neither has anyone else. Neither will you.


But the feelings you have are incredibly unpleasant to say the least, and the full horror is difficult to convey to someone who has never experienced them.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) lists the full range of physical symptoms which people may experience during a panic attack.

How Can I Stop Panic Attacks?

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