Life Goes On
My little girl arrived safe and sound and I got on with my life as my friend got on with hers. Anxiety was always there in the background but for some time I coped. Then it all hit me again. During my second pregnancy my husband and I decided to set up our own business. He had been made redundant and we wanted to be in control of our own destiny. I returned to work after my son was born and realised the extent of what we had taken on. There was no back up, if we had a bad month we couldn’t pay ourselves and suddenly it hit me; this wasn’t about us anymore it was about the children. When it had been just us we could take risks but now we had our two babies they came first. When things went wrong I would panic and spend days in a state of anxiety.
I Stopped Coping
Sleep
This is when I went to see my Doctor and was put onto anti-depressants and referred for counselling. In the past 8 years I have been on anti-depressants three times, I have had various counselling including CBT and have tried “natural” remedies. All these things treat the symptoms but nothing was dealing with the route cause of my panic and anxiety.
I didn’t want to be this person, I had two fantastic children a great husband and they deserved more, I deserved more. I needed to find a permanent solution to a problem that was not going to go away on its own.
It’s Not Been Easy
I spent a lot of time on the internet researching anxiety and panic. When I read things I kept coming back to the same thing. The root cause of my panic is work. I cannot change this, we work for ourselves and it would be so hard to go back to employed work after this amount of time. Plus working for ourselves means I can be flexible, I take the children to school and collect them most days. If they are ill one of us can be off. Holidays can be tough but with great help from my parents and understanding friends we muddle through. We don’t take that much holiday but we get away for week ends regularly. It would be nigh on impossible to find this flexibility with an employer. It is the golden handcuffs situation, the stress is huge but the perks out weigh this.
The Answer
Then I came across a programme called Panic Away by Barry Joe McDonagh. You may have already heard about it. To me it is a bit like taking Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to the next level and it works!
Right from the start you are completely in control of your own treatment, which made the course feel really empowering. Some of the testimonials talk about an almost instant improvement. For me it was more about feeling in control again, and there is nothing I like more than being in control. I understood what was happening and what I needed to do to, to find the old me.
It took me a couple of months before I could say confidently that I was panic and anxiety free. Once you have had anxiety or panic attacks it is difficult to actually define when you stop having them. You know the one........ I worry about not worrying!!!
So what was different about this programme and what do you get for your money.
A 150 page downloadable e-Book which explains just exactly what is happening to you and details the methodology to get you Panic Free. It covers:
- What causes an anxiety disorder. Although I had gone through counselling and thought I understood my anxiety, I found this really helpful
- How to eliminate panic attacks. What causes them and what is going on when you have one
- The One Move technique. This is unique to the programme and was the absolute key to my success. As soon as I read this it was like a light going on. I could see the end to my panics.
- Case studies and examples of how the One Move can be used to rid yourself of Panic Attacks and Anxiety.
- Real life situations like fear of flying, anxiety whilst driving or public speaking as well as general anxiety.
- How to eliminate general anxiety and stop the cycle of despair that so many of us suffer from.
- Breathing exercises
- Diet – How diet effects your body and how you can reduce stress just by looking after yourself better.
- The Symphony Technique for reducing and eliminating general anxiety.
- How to seal the deal and leave yourself panic free from now on.
- $150 voucher for counselling
- A video presentation of Panic Away
- Access to the Panic Away forum where you can get in touch with other Panic Away clients
- An Audio MP3 to download about the One Move Technique. With this being so key to the programme I found this really useful.
- An Audio presentation of the One Move for driving anxiety
What I liked about it was it is something that you do alongside your normal day to day activities, being able to carry on as normal is key to the success. I felt more confident from day one and that confidence increased with each day. I now feel equipped to cope. Even the thought of a panic attack doesn't worry me now. Who would have thought it? The reality is that life throws things at us all the time. Worry is normal, it is the escalation of this that causes these problems. I can now cope with day to day worries; how will I get one child to ice skating and the other to a party both at the same time? How can I get the children to school on time when we have all over slept? The main worry of work will be there, after all we are in a recession, but now it is a worry not an all consuming obsession that gives me night terrors and panic attacks.