Panic and Anxiety Attacks

Symptoms | Help | Treatment | Support

Do you suffer from panic and anxiety attacks? If so, you are NOT alone. It is said that just over 35% of the population will suffer at some point in their life. I suffered for 10 long years until I finally found the answers I needed to be able to cure myself from anxiety. So, yes, anxiety is treatable and no matter how many false dawns you’ve had so far, you don’t have to “just live with it”. I am not going to ramble on about how easy it is and offer you the latest miracle cure; I will leave that to others. What I do want to offer, is real help, support and advice with anxiety, from someone who went through it and came out the other side; someone who went on to study the subject way beyond my own recovery so that I could go on to dedicate my life to helping others.

This site was set up to help others and is packed with free help and advice, that covers my own story of recovery and many different aspects of anxiety, so please do take the time to have a good look around. The only products on here are my own books ‘At Last a Life‘ and the follow up ‘At Last a Life and Beyond’, in physical, eBook or audio book form. The purchase of which is totally optional. I don’t place any adverts on the site, turn down every request to place other affiliated products on here and you also won’t see any annoying pop ups asking for your email address. I did not want this to be just another website on anxiety; I wanted it to be the last place anybody would need to visit in search of recovery from anxiety and panic. I also genuinely want to help others. There is no better feeling than changing someone’s life for the better. I also understand, through my own experience, what an awful, lonely place it can be.

Symptoms of Panic and Anxiety Attacks

INTRODUCTION

Let me introduce myself. My name is Paul David and I suffered from every aspect of the anxiety and panic disorder for 10 years until I reached the point where I thought I could never recover. I would panic whenever I went out and suffered chronic anxiety until I could no longer function properly. I was constantly depressed, had no interest in life. I suffered with depersonalisation, which brought on feelings of unreality to the point I truly thought I was going mad; thoughts raced around all day making me feel locked in my own mind. I just felt as if I was walking round in a dream while the world passed me by. I lost my job, many friends and, more importantly, it robbed me of my whole personality. What had happened to that once confident person who could enjoy life?

This is when I first went to see a doctor.  I remember that first meeting like it was yesterday, me sitting there talking at 100 miles an hour, thinking “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but you’re a doctor, just give me my magic pill and I will be on my way.”  All I was told was to go on my way and take it easy.  I did not want to take it easy. I knew there was more to it than that, but if the doctor did not know what was wrong with me, then it must be serious. This was the start of 10 years of being seen by one doctor after another, one therapist after another, so called experts that just read from a medical manual and taught me nothing at all. In fact I never even got an explanation of what was wrong with me. I spent more money than I care to remember on so called miracle cures. I tried every anxiety treatment available to me and nothing worked. If only I had known then what I know now, I could have saved myself all those years of suffering.

My own recovery from anxiety came because I refused to give up hope and left no stone unturned in finding a way out of this condition. Some of the information was gathered from different sources and I was finally able to sort the wheat from the chaff. However most of my recovery came through trial and error combined with my own insights. Once I truly understood this condition, I was then able to fully recover and become the person I am today. It was after my recovery that I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to helping others and this led to me studying in depth the whole subject of anxiety and panic, as I wanted to give the best information I could so as to help others.

Trust me when I say that everyone can recover, once they have received the right help, support and iformation. I have spoken with many sufferers of anxiety around the world and far too many of them spent years like me going round in circles unable to find any answers to how they felt. As in my case, they feel the medical profession has failed them. This is why I built the site and wrote a book on the subject, so that I could finally give these answers that people so crave.

Understanding Anxiety

The main mistake people make is they make it their daily aim toget better. We all want to be better today, not tomorrow. That is why we go from one treatment to another, desperate for something to make this awful thing go away. The truth is there is no overnight miracle cure to overcome anxiety and if anyone promises you this, then I would advise you to run the other way. If there were, we would all know about it and someone would be very rich. When I was told this for the first time, it was such a relief to me because I thought that I had to keep searching for that elusive cure that would make me feel better instantly. Once on the right road and when you not only realise why you feel the way you do, but also what is keeping you in the cycle of anxiety and panic, things will become a lot easier. One of the main stumbling blocks that people are completely unaware of is that there is no outside force doing this to you. The truth is that we are responsible for creating the anxiety and through a lack of knowledge and understanding we then keep re-creating the anxiety and hence we get in a cycle. The key here is not to aim to get rid of anxiety, like most people do, but to stop doing the things that constantly keep you in the cycle. So as to cut out the root, instead of constantly trying to treat the symptoms. This is why I spent 10 years going around in circles getting nowhere as I was always looking to get rid of my anxiety, whilst still doing all the things that were keeping me in the cycle. It was like throwing gasoline on a fire and expecting it to go out!

The trouble with anxiety when it is not fully understood is that fears and avoidance habits begin to build and this is why it is so important to have a better understanding and an explanation of why you feel like you do. In my case the more I understood the easier things got. I also learnt that I had been doing everything wrong, everything I was doing was just adding to my feelings of anxiety. I was also spending every day questioning how I felt, thrashing my mind, because I just did not understand why I felt like I did, and having no idea how to make myself feel better. Every day just seemed like a daily battle with myself and it was this battle in my attempts to get better that actually made me feel worse. When we don’t understand why we feel like we do, we have nothing left to do but to try and figure it all out ourselves. This is the reason we feel unable to detach ourselves from our thoughts and how we feel; the constant thinking eventually exhausts our mind and is the reason we feel so emotionally spent, detached from our surroundings and so mentally worn out.

The first time we feel anxiety is in most cases due to a period of stress and worry that builds up over time. Our body can take so much then says ‘enough is enough’ it cannot take the stress and worry any longer.This is where the word breakdown comes from; your body has been run beyond its capabilities. Your body needs a time out, but it does not get one because the way you feel becomes your new problem. You worry and ruminate about how you are feeling; you may think you are going made and you go from one doctor to another trying to gather answers. The trouble is all this worry and stress adds even more stress to your already tired body; your symptoms persist and in many cases become worse, so you worry even more. This was me and was exactly the reason I spent years getting worse and not better, I was basically in the full anxiety cycle.

The knowledge I gained through and beyond my recovery made me want to share what I know and stop others suffering through lack of understanding and incorrect information. This is why I set up this site and went on to write a book on the subject entitled ‘At Last a Life’.
The book was recently published in Japan and has been spoken about in Magazines, and mentioned on TV by the world renowned DJ, Nicky Romero, when he shared how it has changed his life. It also appeared in Heathline’s top 10 most influential books on Anxiety. All this has come purely from word of mouth.

The book continues to get very good feedback with many doctors and therapists recommending it to their patients. It was written to give people the answers that so far have eluded them. So many people who have read it say it has changed their life and it is something I am very proud of. I have also received some lovely emails from many people who have read it, thanking me and also asking me to never stop helping other sufferers. I have attached a couple of these emails below. Both emails are genuine and I have the permission of the sender to publish them.

I chose the title “AT LAST A LIFE” as it summed up recovery for me, because I finally had my life back. Not only did I want it to give others a full understanding of anxiety and panic, but also to help them understand why they feel like they do and what is keeping them in the cycle. I also wanted it to come from someone who had been actually been through it and who could relate to how you are feeling. If anyone asks me what the most important thing is in reaching recovery, I say ‘understanding’. Understanding what is wrong with you is so important. It takes away so much fear out of how you feel and fear of your condition is the very thing that keeps it alive. The main reason people continue to suffer is because they are bewildered and don’t understand why they feel like they do. This in turn then stresses them and has them living inside their own head looking for answers.

Recovery is within everyone

The way to overcome anxiety is through knowledge, not through a pill or some miracle cure you may read about somewhere. Fear is the main reason anxiety symptoms persist. If you visit any forum on the subject, 90% of questions are fear based. Why do I feel like I do? Am I seriously ill? Will these feelings ever go away? The list goes on and this is why it pains me to see that there is so very little good information on a subject that so many people suffer from. These people can never hope to recover in their present state because every day is filled with fear; they are trying to think and fight their way out of how they feel. When they hit one brick wall after another, they become more bewildered than ever. Until we can bring more awareness to the subject, I feel we will still get forums and doctors surgeries full of people crying out for help and so much needless suffering through lack of information will continue.

‘At Last a Life’ is not a book about breathing exercises or the latest medication; it is my story of recovery from 10 years of suffering from anxiety and panic. I am constantly updating it so as to include all the symptoms that people fear the most: the feelings of unreality; the worrying and disturbing thoughts; feelings of depression and panic; the over active racing mind and many more common symptoms. The first thing people say after reading it is that, for once, someone has finally explained why they feel like they do and made it so easy to understand. This is exactly what I wanted to do; I wanted people to have the answers that I craved all those years ago. I felt like screaming out “When will somebody finally tell me what is wrong with me?” This was always the problem; nobody ever could. One of the main aims of the book is to tell people why they feel like they do, so their whole day is not filled with fear and worry of their condition – as this is the very thing that keeps people in the cycle. If you fear something, it is bound to dominate your day. If you don’t understand something, you are going to go round in circles, constantly thinking and worrying about your symptoms and how you feel.

Although the book contains far more information than there is on the site, I have tried to add many pages that you may find interesting. ‘At Last a Life’ has had tremendous reviews and excellent feedback, but the purchase of the book is totally optional, so please do take the time to look around my site. Why not visit the Anxiety Q&A page where I answer the most common questions I have been asked over the years. Anxiety Tips and Anxiety Explained  pages will also give you more help and understanding. Also my Anxiety Articles page where I talk about different topics and give more of an in depth understanding on the subject. I do hope you enjoy my site. I dedicate it to all sufferers of anxiety and panic in the hope that in some way it helps give some answers to your symptoms and the way you feel.

If you would like more information on the book and its contents then please visit the The Book link. You can purchase the book in physical or e-book form with any debit, credit card or PayPal account, using a secure on-line payment by clicking on the book image below. The other 2 options are here on eBay or on Amazon, including in kindle form, this also gives you a chance to see the excellent feedback the book has received. The book is also now available as an Audio book via download or C.D set from this website only.

Overseas customers are always welcome and delivery is usually around 10-14 days.