Panic Disorder 411
Recovery From Panic Disorder & Alcoholism
If fear is like a storm wave striking you, then a panic attack is a tsunami that batters your soul.
The Mean Reds - Text
First Scene: (Holly) The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly
you're afraid, and you don't know what you're afraid of. Did you
ever get that feeling? (Paul) Sure. (Holly) Well, when I get it,
the only thing that does any good is to jump into a cab and go to
Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. ("Breakfast at
Tiffany's")
Second Scene: He had this feeling that something horrible was
about to happen. His vision got blurry, then he was consumed by a
feeling of dread that came out of nowhere. His legs began to
tremble & the ground felt like it was shaking, threatening to
open underneath him. It wasn't an earthquake. He wasn't having a
heart attack. He was having a panic attack. Waves of panic washed
over him, receded and returned like the ebb and flow of angry
ocean waves crashing on shore. Everywhere he went, he was
paralyzed by fear.
Panic attacks are sudden, overwhelming and enigmatic.
He knew that he was being pulled through a vortex into hell. He
didn't know how to fight the force that possessed him. He had to
escape, but how could he escape from himself?
Panic Disorder is an illness of loneliness. It can steal your
life from you. You feel completely detached from the world and
everything in it.
(voice-over) If a tiger is springing from its rear haunches
toward you, the fight or flight response will instantly provide
you with the energy you need to either grab your rifle and shoot
him or to climb a tree faster than a monkey to the safety of the
high branches. During a panic attack, the same fight or flight
mechanism that protects us from danger is evoked spontaneously.
The flow of energy increases; the heart beats faster to pump
blood to the muscles; and certain systems, like digestion, shut
down to focus all of the body's energy to fight or to run.
However, there's nothing to fight or any danger in the
environment at all. The stimulus is not a tiger, but, rather, the
spontaneous fear response itself.
You can learn how to control your reaction to panic attacks by
using deep breathing, progressive relaxation, and visualization.
There is hope. There's treatment. Begin your journey by talking
to your family doctor or a local mental health clinic.
After the AA meeting, he thought about what Jack S. had said
about turning it over to God. His chronic anxiety and drinking
had paralyzed his life, but he didn't know how to turn it over to
anyone. He was still shaken from the attacks in the park and on
the bridge and didn't know where to turn for help.
The only therapy that he knew about was described in a book by
Claire Weekes. She recommended facing the anxiety attack head on
and "floating through" it, instead of trying to run from it. He
couldn't imagine doing it. The thought of having another anxiety
attack horrified him without thinking about floating through it,
whatever that meant. It would be like facing the dragon, head on
without a weapon, feeling his hot breath burning his face, with
Claire Weekes telling him, "Relax, Jack. He can't hurt you.
Relax."
If he could have faced his fear, then he'd still be working in
Manhattan and would have had his own store somewhere, in Dallas
or LA, with his wife by his side in a lovely home in the suburbs
and a condo in Florida. He would have been a part of his
daughter's life, who would have called him Dad and looked up to
him. He couldn't bear the remorse and the guilt that he felt when
he thought about Shannon. He knew that Lisa was a good mother,
and that they were far better off without having to deal with his
problems.
He had to find some help.
And help is what my website is all about—how I learned to
live with and overcome Panic Disorder, and how I recovered from
alcoholism. There are many excerpts here from my book THE ROAD TO
FORT WORTH. If you decide that my personal experiences will help
you on your road to recovery, then you'll find links to my book
on Amazon Kindle.
THE ROAD TO FORT WORTH by Michael Jackson Smith: Very little was known about panic disorder when I had my first panic attack. There was no help available to teach me how to assuage the attacks, but I discovered that alcohol would dissolve my fear instantly. My website contains the kind of information that would have been a tremendous help to me in the early days of my illness as I searched for solutions for the panic disorder, agoraphobia, and alcoholism that incapacitated me. My book is the story of my journey into recovery.