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Make Peace With Panic Naturally - How a Panic Attack Sufferer Overcame the Stress, Anxiety & Fear
of: Steve Guarino
BookBaby, 2016
ISBN: 9781944865009 , 112 Pages
Format: ePUB
Copy protection: DRM
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Make Peace With Panic Naturally - How a Panic Attack Sufferer Overcame the Stress, Anxiety & Fear
HOW PANIC ATTACKS STEAL YOUR LIFE
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. – Alice Walker
Panic as a Thief
How panic attacks actually steal your life away from you is a critical foundation for this book. Once you know that you are sacrificing your life, and also your greatness in so many ways, you will be motivated to make the necessary changes that will allow you to live a life that is more fulfilling and rewarding.
We all want that better, happier, more peaceful life, and it starts by learning how panic has been stealing yours.
Inside o f us, increased levels of anxiety and fear begin to trigger panic attacks. Oftentimes, the reason we have subsequent panic attacks is due to the fear of having one and also the thought of losing control in a public setting. Because many panic attacks happen when we are in public, we avoid public places and go out less. Panic attacks are not just debilitating in the worst way, they take control and cause us to live diminished lives. Does this sound familiar?
If you are like many panic sufferers, you likely choose to avoid certain places out of fear of having an attack while there. Panic attacks can occur anywhere but oftentimes happen in familiar, frequently visited places that are difficult to avoid because they’re essential to our livelihood such as the store, theater, sporting events, train, airplane, church, family parties, and more. Plus, they often occur in situations where we feel uncomfortable making a quick exit if we feel the need to: meetings, the dental chair, getting a haircut, driving, especially on the highway, and so many more. What binds these situations together is that we oftentimes chose to avoid them out of fear of having a panic attack there.
This is what I am referring to when I say that panic attacks steal your life. How is it possible to have a healthy and normal life when we fear going to certain places or participating in events because of what might happen while we are there? In fact, panic has us trapped like a bird in a cage because of the constant fear of what might happen. We focus on how difficult and scary it is to go out and we convince ourselves that the risk just isn’t worth it, so panic wins and we lose out on all that life has to offer.
There are so many what-ifs. What if I’m out with my children, on a date, or at dinner with friends and I have a panic attack? I’ll be so embarrassed and what if they need to take me to the hospital? Or, what if I am at dinner, I begin chocking, and paramedics come rushing in to treat me in the middle of a crowded restaurant? What if I become a distraction and inconvenience to everyone in the restaurant? How is it possible to live life when every time you leave your house, your next panic attack is quite possibly a moment away? What if this is how I feel the rest of my life?
Many panic sufferers give up driving for fear that they will have an episode and lose control of their car and get in an accident hurting themselves or someone else. Many people that experience panic avoid going out in public. They do not want to have an attack in a public place and embarrass themselves and subject themselves to public scrutiny. This is especially a problem on an airplane where there is nowhere to go if an episode were to present itself.
The person living with panic is likely to avoid anywhere with a crowd. This is not living at your highest level—this is surviving, but just barely. This doesn’t allow you to do things with friends and loved ones that bring you the happiness that is your given right. We all deserve to live healthy, happy, and productive lives.
However, it is my belief that panic attacks also take from your life because they force bad choices on us. In desperation, many of us end up on very powerful medications that deplete our energy, make us care less about many things, and feel less desire to do much of anything. How many of us have had the feeling of wanting to do something fun but found the will lacking? As a result, even if it is not a panic attack that keeps you home or staying close to home, physically and mentally you don’t have the energy—or the confidence—to venture out to do anything. Imprisoned by the medication-induced brain fog.
Both of these were part of my life. Some of it may sound very familiar to you.
Locked in a Cage
I had difficulty going out to do much of anything after I had the first of many attacks. The first attacks came on in public places that were difficult to remove myself from, such as the gym or grocery store. These experiences taught me that it was best to avoid situations such as these where I felt panic attacks were more likely to occur. As the frequency and severity of these panic attacks increased, I began to feel like there was really no safe place except in my home. And even that wasn’t safe from it all, but was the best of less than satisfactory options.
How ridiculous! This was no way to live. I’m not sure how or why I accepted this for as long as I did, but when I look back at the life that I was living, the fact is I am now totally grateful that I decided to do the things necessary to take control of my life and change it for the better.
At this point, I choose not to dwell on the how or why I lived that way—now I do my best to focus on the good that came as a result of the panic that was in my life. I prefer to work with positive thoughts and reinforce those. They do not give awards for the person that chooses to suffer the longest. If you are living the way that I lived, do something about it.
Panic and its Effect On Our Career
I remember a time in an appointment when I was with clients. In the middle of the meeting all the usual anxiety, fear and symptoms began to arise. Please understand that as a businessman, meetings with customers was an important part of every day for me. If I wasn’t meeting with customers, I wasn’t being productive. On this particular day, I was meeting with a husband and wife. When I noticed the onset of panic, I tried drinking some water hoping that it would ease the constricting of my throat and sweating of my hands and forehead. Unfortunately, the water helped only briefly, merely serving as a temporary distraction. It didn’t help long term—I kept sweating, my heart kept racing, and I was having a very difficult time maintaining my composure, and to make it worse, I was unable to think of how to hide what I was going through.
I can tell you this: the meeting that day was not successful, and I was most definitely not at my best. I couldn’t concentrate on what my clients were saying, let alone what I was saying. It was all I could do just to finish the appointment as quickly as possible and remove myself from the situation. Needless to say, this ended up costing me from an emotional standpoint, undermined my self-confidence, and hurt me financially as well. It affected my confidence because I wasn’t effective during the meeting, and was disheartening because I didn’t provide the solutions I could have and the level of service I’m dedicated to giving my clients.
Panic’s Effect On New Relationships
During the years I suffered from panic attacks I typically walked around in a medicated fog and felt numb. Before taking medication, the panic attacks were enough to rob me of my confidence, courage, talents, and other abilities. The medicinal fog made everything worse.
I can also say that relationships were a very real casualty as I was struggling with panic. After my divorce I took some time for myself and eventually began dating. However, the fear of panic, as well as the fact that I was on medication, didn’t combine into a successful recipe for dating. Many times I was burdened by the thought of choking while on a date—it replaced what should have been pleasurable with the fear of having another panic episode and embarrassing myself.
I remember trying to hold a conversation with a woman on a date and in the middle of my thoughts the sense of panic came rushing in. I had to excuse myself from the table to compose myself in the bathroom as best I could. When I returned, I was still not composed enough to have a fluid conversation. It wasn’t fair to either of us, and in my mind, I had no choice but to end the evening and retreat to my safe place which, of course, was home. How boring and what a terrible excuse for living. Who knows what could have been had I not been at the mercy of panic. It could have turned out to be a wonderful evening, but I’ll never know. So many lost opportunities.
The fact that panic attacks continued to burden me in public made it nearly impossible to spend time getting to know another person. How could I? The first few times you get together with a new person it is likely you will be somewhere in public and all the while you are consumed with the fear of a panic attack beginning and gaining control over you.
The truth is I was afraid to go anywhere.
Going to the store was difficult for me. Going to the gym carried its own risks. There were times I ran out of the gym to try and regain my composure, fighting not to...
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