Panic and Anxiety Attacks Can Cripple You - My Story and How I Overcame Panic and Anxiety
I remember struggling into my early twenties with panic and anxiety attacks.
These attacks, in certain situations, sometimes without any reason at all, prevented me from doing what I wanted to do.
They even threatened to end my desire to go into education and become a teacher.
However, through years of trial and error, counseling, hard work, and systematically and conscientiously putting in lots focused effort, I finally beat the panic and fear that threatened to paralyze me for life.
The beginning of these attacks occurred in elementary school when I was teased for blushing or being nervous giving presentations before the class.
Other students, and even teachers, kidded me when I would respond to classroom presentation situations with nervousness.
Over time, I reached a point where I was petrified, even phobic,in such situations.
These reactions, which I remember vividly even as I write this article in my fifties, carried over into my high school and even into my college years, although they were beginning to fade a bit.
I was very afraid of making presentations in front of my peers.
This situation even threatened to stop me from doing the classroom work necessary to earn my teaching license.
However, with counseling, and the encouragement of professors and others, I made it through what I needed to do to complete teaching methods courses.
As I received more positive feedback, my fears lessened and my confidence grew.
The panic returned, however, in other situations--in crowded churches during weddings, or other crowded settings with large groups of people.
Through more counseling, systematic use of my imagination to develop relaxation techniques, and generally through gradual desensitization, I finally all but completely eliminated the panic and anxiety attacks that I had lived with for most of my first 25 or 30 years of life.
Now, I am essentially totally free of these attacks, although, at times, the old emotions sometimes threaten to return.
Wouldn't it be great to greatly shorten the amount of time that it takes to eliminate panic and anxiety attacks? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to do this on your own, without years of trial and error and/or counseling?
These attacks, in certain situations, sometimes without any reason at all, prevented me from doing what I wanted to do.
They even threatened to end my desire to go into education and become a teacher.
However, through years of trial and error, counseling, hard work, and systematically and conscientiously putting in lots focused effort, I finally beat the panic and fear that threatened to paralyze me for life.
The beginning of these attacks occurred in elementary school when I was teased for blushing or being nervous giving presentations before the class.
Other students, and even teachers, kidded me when I would respond to classroom presentation situations with nervousness.
Over time, I reached a point where I was petrified, even phobic,in such situations.
These reactions, which I remember vividly even as I write this article in my fifties, carried over into my high school and even into my college years, although they were beginning to fade a bit.
I was very afraid of making presentations in front of my peers.
This situation even threatened to stop me from doing the classroom work necessary to earn my teaching license.
However, with counseling, and the encouragement of professors and others, I made it through what I needed to do to complete teaching methods courses.
As I received more positive feedback, my fears lessened and my confidence grew.
The panic returned, however, in other situations--in crowded churches during weddings, or other crowded settings with large groups of people.
Through more counseling, systematic use of my imagination to develop relaxation techniques, and generally through gradual desensitization, I finally all but completely eliminated the panic and anxiety attacks that I had lived with for most of my first 25 or 30 years of life.
Now, I am essentially totally free of these attacks, although, at times, the old emotions sometimes threaten to return.
Wouldn't it be great to greatly shorten the amount of time that it takes to eliminate panic and anxiety attacks? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to do this on your own, without years of trial and error and/or counseling?
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