David’s website can be found at www.healing-anxiety.com

• I had been to Doctors, Psychiatric nurses, and Behavioural Therapists over the years but found what was on offer didn’t help me long term because I had no understanding of what was happening to me and how to help myself.

• I always seemed to be in a constant state of anxiety for no particular reason.

• I would only drive places I knew; afraid I would get stuck in a traffic jam where there was nowhere to run away to.

• I had to put an act on so nobody would realise there was anything wrong with me. I had to look ‘normal’ and that I was in control and not falling apart, but inside I felt I was about to crumble. Of course this puts so much pressure on you.

• I would constantly check my body for lumps and bumps thinking I had a terminal disease and I would constantly visit the doctors looking for reassurance.

• I would feel reassured and happy for a short while then I would start thinking I had a terminal disease in another part of my body or think I had failed to mention something important and the doctor had missed giving me a proper diagnosis, and so the cycle went on.
   
• I was so afraid of having a terminal illness that I wasn’t really living either.

• I was always trying to work things out, going over and over it in my head, thinking this thought and then that thought, I’d wear myself out with thinking.
  Deciding I would do this and the next minute I would say to myself no I’ll do that, going round in circles.

• When I went out shopping for instance I would be ok for a while and then all of a sudden I would think I have to get back home to my ‘safe place’.

• When I went away on holiday I would be extremely anxious and usually have several panic attacks because the fear of being far from home was so great.

To me panic attacks were my worst symptom because to me there was no other fear to match its intensity. I feel it is hard to put into words how awful they are to experience.
Then I had the worst panic attack I had ever experienced and felt I couldn’t go on.
I just kept shaking with fear, fear of experiencing another panic attack suicide seemed the only option.

In my desperation I looked on the internet and searched for anything about Dr. Claire Weekes (I had read a book of hers 15 years earlier and thought it was written about me but I didn’t put into practise what she said) and this is where I found David’s programme because his programme is based on Dr. Weekes teachings.

I couldn’t wait to get the programme and begin listening to what David had to say. I just listened and listened whenever I could on my personal C.D. player and practise what he said over and over again. This process isn’t easy but it so worthwhile and it was personally rewarding when I felt I had achieved something. Because you can listen to the programme when out in the car or in the home I used to listen to it at any opportunity. Then bit by bit the penny started to drop and even though you may have heard the same bit of information several times before one day it has a more deeper meaning and with that a deeper understanding.

• I began to do things I only dreamed of before and life began to be enjoyable rather than an existence. It is wonderful to start really living and doing things you want to do. I admit it isn’t always easy to do the things you know you want to do but when you manage to do them despite how you feel it’s like being truly alive.

• Even though I haven't completed my journey to recovery I am well on my way and I now have a deep understanding of the anxiety state and an inner peace I had never experienced before I had the understanding.

• I don’t feel the need to ‘put on an act’ in front of people in case they see I’m not ‘normal’.

• I can make decisions more easily now and not keep replaying a situation over and over again in my mind.

• If I go any distance from my home I feel a lot less anxious and not keep thinking what if something happens to me.

• It’s a case of I deal with whatever happens rather than getting carried away with this may happen, or that may happen.

There have been many more successes which to some would seem small but to anyone who is a sufferer would be enormous.

The reason I mention these things is to offer HOPE to you because I found panic attacks were the most frightening thing I had ever experienced, and to come back from the point of suicide to what I am now is wonderful, I am so much happier now than I have ever been and my life has a much more even keel to it without the constant peaks and troughs that were my usual way of life for over 20 years. To read more about my recovery journey look on my website:

www.peacenotpanic.co.uk