Overcoming Panic Disorder: My Story—My Journey into and Beyond Anxiety, Panic Attacks, and Agoraphobia

By Donna McLean

Author Donna McLean is just a normal lady who appeared to live a normal lifeand yet she carried a secret that filled her with despair. The stresses of her life, compounded by a series of emotionally disturbing events, tragedies, and traumas, translated into crippling anxiety, panic attacks, and agoraphobia. After twenty-four years of enduring the physical symptoms of anxiety and panic disorder, such as rapid heartbeat, blurred vision, jelly legs, the urgent need to find a toilet, and feelings of terror, she found refuge in the life of an agoraphobic.

Now she shares her personal account of a life lived in fear. More importantly, however, she describes a life ultimately reclaimed and healed. She recalls her long search for effective treatment, support, and a cure. This memoir began as a therapeutic journal and evolved into an inspirational real-life story designed to educate, empower, and inspire.

From a very dark and lonely place, Donna created a ray of light at the end of a very dark tunnel and so can you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Apr 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452513140

Donna McLean

Donna McLean was born on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. She started out her career as a stenographer but left work in 1983 to raise her two sons. Having made great progress in conquering the panic disorder that controlled her life for so long, she current describes herself as an entrepreneur, hobby artist, and author. She divides her time among running her Party Games in a Pack business, creating art for local galleries, and writing her story to help others on their journey with anxiety, panic attacks, and agoraphobia.

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Copyright © 2014 Donna McLean.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-1315-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1314-0 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 05/29/2014

Contents

Overcoming Panic Disorder

Overcoming Panic Disorder

The Awakening

Recommended Readings/Book Reviews

Self Healing

The Secret of Letting Go

The Pleasure Trap

Anxiety, Phobias & Panic

Beingness

Life-Style Factors That Contribute To Anxiety

Out-of-the-Norm, but Tried

& Tested Therapies

Emotional Freedom Technique (E.F.T.)

Sing Your Way to Serenity!

A few more Donna thoughts

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the anxiety sufferers of the world who feel like they’re very much alone in their suffering and who are at their wits end and feeling like they could spontaneously combust at any moment. Only someone who has experienced this dis-ease could possibly understand the strength that is required to try and rise above, sometimes, overwhelming anxieties on a daily basis in an attempt to appear, and function, in a normal manner. I empathise with, and admire you all.

I pray that you find the mindset, courage and determination to start creating a new life for yourself today.

Overcoming Panic Disorder

My Story–My Journey

into and beyond

Anxiety, Panic Attacks and Agoraphobia

Finally on the Right Path!

This book is about my journey with anxiety, major panic attacks and agoraphobia and the subsequent treatment options I sought along my journey in search of a cure. It really could be the journey of countless others: similar stories, just different plots.

I have not written my story in hopes of gaining sympathy, but rather so that others may gain a deeper understanding as to the impact our thoughts, memories, diet, and lifestyle have on our emotions and, in turn, our bodies. Following my story, I have provided an insight into the different treatment options I used on my journey into healing, in the hope that you might also consider them viable for you. After having endured agoraphobia for twenty-four years, my intention in writing this book is simply to inspire you to keep seeking options until you find one, or maybe a combination of options, that work for you as I am living proof that one can overcome this disorder or at least regain a semblance of a life well-lived. Even though I am not completely cured yet, I now at least know that with each fear or challenge I confront, understand, and overcome, I become a much stronger and more resilient person.

This excerpt from an e-mail I received years ago entitled The Awakening (author: Sonny Carroll) pretty much sums up the point I had reached in my life, and I have no doubt that the day will come when you too will finally say Enough and forge ahead to a better life:

A time comes in your life when you finally get…when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes. This is your awakening. You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon. You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of happily ever after must begin with you…and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

Boy, did I have an awakening to the fact that I had become my own worst enemy. I was blaming everyone else for my inability to heal and taking no responsibility for myself. My diet wasn’t great, I definitely wasn’t doing enough exercise, and I’d had very few quality conversations with my Maker.

Since my awakening, all of my health issues have been improved significantly–some cured totally–by addressing my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs. To this end, I was blessed a few years back with the opportunity to witness cancer patients receiving treatment and I was very humbled by their outlook, commitment and dedication to altering their entire diet and lifestyle. Talk about ‘an awakening’! I came away with a renewed dedication to utilizing the old adage, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I decided it was time to stop pussy-footing around and only half-believing, half-doing, and half-living, and really knuckle down to get on the right path to regaining control of my life. I stopped looking for that magic pill that would simply take it all away. I started focusing on ways I could help the natural healing process of my over-sensitized and exhausted nervous system to take place.

It was emphasized in many books I read how thoughts and interpretations of situations can cause health issues if left unchecked, hence I started making a concerted effort to look objectively at both sides of all situations in my life that caused me angst. I began to address my fears head on and soon realized that each time I surmounted one, my confidence and courage grew, and my outlook on life became much more positive. I really started noticing how my resentments, disappointments and sadness were affecting, not only my mental health, but also my physical well-being.

After much research on the subject of anxiety, panic attacks, and agoraphobia, one of the most significant pieces of information I came across was an observation by a gentleman that, in his opinion, the majority of anxiety attacks can be attributed to flashbacks or recollections of something that has happened in the past, being brought back into the present moment or situation by the sufferer’s overactive mind (possibly assisted by cellular memories).

I took on board the advice offered and started to take the time to sit with my panic attacks and try and understand what was truly