Guest Author - Jim Lowrance

When I was age-14, I experienced my first panic attack, although I had experienced a lot of "free floating anxiety" (Generalized Anxiety), since about age-6. It was of course extremely unpleasant and I had no idea what was happening to me. It was a huge adenaline rush and it made my heart race at machine-gun speed. I felt swirly-headed and I was hyperventilating, plus had a strange feeling of being in a dream-state, like things around me were not real and I was not really there either. I know now that this "unreal" part of the experience, is what is referred to as "depersonalization and derealization", commonly experienced by anxiety sufferers.

My reaction to this first anxiety attack, was typical of anxiety sufferers, I feared I was going crazy/insane and that another one of these anxiety/panic attacks would surely make me drop dead of a heart attack and because of this, I dreaded returning to the place the panic attack occured, which was an eight grade classroom!

As time went by, I experienced panic attacks in other places such as the supermarket and this caused me to begin avoiding places I had experienced them. This is another common reaction by anxiety sufferers and is the harm that anxiety causes in their lives, by narrowing their world and preventing them from enjoying and doing things they would normally do, if they were not experiencing the anxiety symptoms. Some people with more advanced anxiety-avoidances,are termed "Agoraphobic". This is where the person reaches a point of actually being fearful of leaving their home, in order to avoid anxiety reactions to numerous things and places they have developed fears (phobias) of.

My anxiety problem as a youth, that was later discovered to be related to a "click heart murmur" I had called Mitral Valve Prolapse, did not reach the severe point of agoraphobia but was still restricting to my life and very concerning to me.

Years later, I found relief at about age-19, through a Mental Health Counselor, who helped me learn to cope with symptoms, through relaxation and breathing techniques, which helped greatly but after many years, I developed severe anxiety symptoms, once again, at age-39, after experiencing the onset of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease, that eventually resulted in "hypothyroidism" (under-active thyroid). Thankfully, with having the use of the internet, I began researching and found some CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) programs that helped me tremendously.

The aspect of CBT that helped me the most, was "learning not to fear the symptoms". I found numerous websites, reputable ones, stating that anxiety is a natural bodily reaction, designed to help us perform more powerfully, when we have an important task and to protect us at times of danger. The anxiety mechanism is also called the "fight or flight response" and gives us that extra surge of adrenaline, to run from danger, or to fight it (if flight is not an alternative). It also helps us perform more powerfully, such as in a sports event we are competing in or when we have a public speech to make, with powerful points to put across.

Those "butterflies" in the stomach at the times I just described, are supposed to be there but some people know how to channel that energy, positively, while others feel it as a negative effect that they fear. Anxiety symptoms that escalate when it feels negative are still natural bodily responses and are "neither harmful nor dangerous"! Even the depersonalization and derealization symptoms are not harmful, they are simply a bodily reaction to increased senses, from the fight or flight response.

Other concerning symptoms, anxiety sufferers have, are; rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, hyperventilation, dizzyness, muscle tension/with mild pain (includes chest area), sweating, etc...

When I discovered through CBT and by reading on many reputable websites, that these symptoms are neither harmful nor dangerous and that they also do not lead to insanity, it was a tremendous relief to me and literally caused my anxiety symptoms to fade away!

I also learned that anxiety (and clinical depression, that often co-exists with it) are in the "neurosis" catagory, they are not "psychosis" and do not lead to pyschosis. The only form of depression that can cause psychotic episodes is Bi-polar Depressive Disorder but typical clinical depression that can result from severe anxiety is not in the psychosis catagory. Anxiety itself is never considered a psychosis, unless the term is mistakenly used. Anxiety is a neurosis and does not lead to insanity or becoming crazy. Let me add that people with Bi-polar who do experience psychotic episodes and people with types of psychosis are not crazy either, they have mental illness. My intention in this chapter was to show the distintion between psychosis and the more common neurosis.

I recommend a search by anxiety sufferers, by getting on the internet search engines, like "Google" and "Ask" and typing in the search words; "Panic Attacks, neither harmful nor dangerous" and "Anxiety Attacks neither harmful nor dangerous" and it will yield you a huge resource of articles that will help you realize that anxiety symptoms will not harm you, or make you go crazy! Learning not to fear the symptoms of anxiety goes a long way in helping sufferers recover and cope!