How To Overcome Anxiety And Panic Attacks

By Buck Lawrimore, Director, Wise Insights Forum

Many people are bothered by anxiety and panic attacks. In today’s high-stress world, anxiety is as common as headaches, and panic attacks are often involved.

When I was in my 20’s, I suffered terribly from anxiety and panic attacks. This evolved into agoraphobia, fear of leaving home (literally fear of the marketplace). The onset of these mental problems was my decision to postpone going to seminary after spending four years at a good college preparing to enter the ministry. After graduation I went to work for a daily newspaper as a reporter, and everything was fine until they asked my to become religion editor. I was already unsure of what I believed, and writing a story about a different minister every Sunday added to my anxiety. Then I got the bright idea of flying to Miami to cover the biennial meeting of the National Council of Churches. For a Carolina guy age 22 who had only flown once before, to travel to the gaudy Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami and work day and night covering the convention and trying to find local story angles, was a prescription for total exhaustion. One night the Rev. Billy Graham was the speaker, and another night the liberal Hubert Humphrey was a speaker, and on and on it went.

I managed to do a good job reporting the event, but on the flight home, feeling totally exhausted, we hit high-altitude turbulence, something I had never experienced. I looked out the window and saw the wings flapping up and down and was terrified we were going to crash and I would be killed. That was my first panic attack.

A Series of Frightening Panic Attacks

As soon as I got home, without sufficient rest, I went right back to my routine of writing about a different church service every Sunday morning. Halfway through the service, my anxiety about not going to seminary kicked in and I began feeling panicky. I fled from the church and practically threw up in the parking lot. I did not know what was happening to me. This was followed by days and nights of terrifying panic attacks. My girlfriend took me to the ER and a doctor prescribed a strong tranquilizer, which enabled me to go back to work, but still the anxiety and panicky feelings tormented me. And soon I was afraid to go anywhere alone except home and work. It evolved into agoraphobia as is often the case, based on what I’ve read.

Since I had a degree in psychology, it was especially baffling to me what was happening to my mind. This was before the Internet, so I could not Google the question and get a quick answer. I met with a psychotherapist a couple of times but she was no help. I prayed and prayed and suffered and suffered for many years. Finally, one day by accident, I ran across a paperback in a bookstore called Healing Yourself With Self-Hypnosis. This is how I learned that I could use positive thoughts, self-suggestion, to heal my mental problems. (Many other books are now available on the subject commonly called “self-talk.”) So in time I developed a little “magic phrase”– “I am calm and in control”–which I used whenever I began to feel anxious or panicky. This was a huge help but it did not entirely cure me of the anxiety-panic syndrome. I would still get those awful feelings from time to time.

After a few years I started my own marketing agency with my wife/partner, a very talented designer/creative, and as luck, fate or God would have it, one of our early clients which came to us was a small psychotherapy practice specializing in treating panic attacks! Their method involved teaching patients to totally relax and listen to audiotapes in which the therapist interacted with a couple of patients addressing their issues with positive talk and suggestions. I listened to all the tapes and found the relaxation techniques helpful. But still I had the anxiety-panic feelings from time to time. It’s like they would come out of nowhere, especially if I got into a social situation like a formal dinner meeting or having to speak in front of an audience.

Panic Attacks and Self-Talk

Finally one day I was meeting with one of the psychotherapists and told him that I had tried everything on the tapes but still could not get over my panicky feelings at times. He told me the secret that unlocked the cure: “You have to listen to the voice in the back of your head. You are telling yourself things that trigger these panic attacks.” Oh really? I thought. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would I do that? So I filed it away as an interesting idea and drove back to my office.

On the way back, for the first time, I heard in the back of my mind this thought: “What if I have a panic attack now?” Wait, what? Is this what the therapist had been talking about? Yes, I think so! This is now what is commonly called self-talk, and this is the primary trigger of anxiety and panic attacks – negative self-talk. Once you catch yourself doing it, you can stop it and replace it with positive self-talk and be cured very quickly. It is amazing.

So after learning this secret, I became much more attuned to my self-talk. Any time I caught myself thinking ANY negative thought, not just panic-related but any kind of self-criticism, I would “stamp it out” in my mind with an image of a big rubber stamp going STAMP STAMP STAMP over that negative thought, and I would replace it with a positive thought, often the exact opposite of the negative one. It didn’t matter if it was “true” or not. One key to making this method work is realizing that the subconscious mind believes whatever the conscious mind tells it. It is like a computer being programmed. So if I caught myself thinking, “What if I have a panic attack?” I would STAMP it out and replace it with, “I am calm and in control.” I would say that over and over again and immediately feel better.

Or if I had to give an important presentation, I would imagine it going extremely well, with me striding to the lectern confidently, speaking to the audience in a calm voice and smiling at the people, them smiling back at me and liking every word — just a wonderful experience! Every negative anticipation or fear can be overcome with positive thoughts and images repeated regularly.

When my little daughter was about eight years old, she was taking swimming lessons and was fearful she would not pass the swim test. I had been a lousy swimmer as a kid myself, so I had great compassion for her. So one evening I sat with her and together we imagined her swimming with great confidence and passing the test. She was thrilled that the actual event happened exactly as we had imagined! In fact many leading athletes prepare for events by vividly imagining their winning performance. The mind responds amazingly to positive thoughts and images you can create!

So, bottom line, the “cure” for anxiety and panic attacks is to learn to control your own thoughts through “listening” to your self-talk and replacing it with positive self-talk. Like everything worthwhile, it takes practice. But you can do it – anyone can!

The Right Psychotherapist Can Help Too

As a side note, it can also be helpful to spend time with a skilled psychotherapist. I do not recommend any kind of medicine or drug as it only masks the underlying problem. In my case I had some deeply buried issues of negative childhood feelings towards my parents that I unearthed through psychotherapy, and that made my recovery from anxiety and panic attacks even more complete. But a word of warning: not every psychotherapist, psychologist or psychiatrist is good at this. I spent many hours and dollars with inept ones that did me no good. Go with your gut and move on if you hook up with one who is not helping you feel better. Again by the grace of God I finally connected with a good one, who happened to be a pastoral counselor, and overcame some of the deeply rooted issues that made me prone to anxiety and panic in the first place.

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Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay