a lil about me- about a year after my husband left me and my daughter died about 5 years ago.. I was at a very difficult point in my life, and was ultimately diagnosed with depression, severe anxiety, and panic disorder. I would say that i’ve always for the most part been a little depressed and had some degree of anxiety, but this just completely tipped the scale. I remember there were days on end I would just lie in bed, and whenever I would be in a social environment my anxiety would go through the roof and I would often have panic attacks. Therapy never seemed to be effective for me, and my psych put me on damn near every med out there. I’ve been on everything from wellbutrin to paxil, zoloft, prozac, lexapro, celexa, buspar, valium, klonopin, xanax.. etc. Sometimes 2-3 different ones in combo at the same time. Nothing really seemed to work for me. With the exception of some of the benzos (klono./xanax) .. these worked well for a little while, but I grew tolerance quickly, and became highly addicted.

Then one day while researching online i came across this reputable looking website http://www.anxiety.pcti-system.com .. which talked about this program to eliminate your anxiety for good, all naturally. Long story short, I wound up signing up to try it and the program worked amazing.. Not only do I no longer have panic attacks and anxiety gone, but my depression has also seemed to dissipate a little. And I’m currently starting to slowly ween off the meds I’m on. >>>>

I would personally say that possibly the biggest driving factor in all this is OCD. I think obsessing and constantly having your thoughts focused on your own condition and constantly analyzing your own thoughts/actions plays a very significant role in the persistence of our ails. Almost like the condition is a small lit fire, and OCD is the fuel that keeps it consistently burning… Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that meds are generally a unhealthy short term cure that only semi-treats the symptoms, and never the cause. Hope I was of some help!
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First and foremost, I once suffered from panic attacks, but I have since figured out how to erase them from my life for good! My first panic attack was almost exactly one year ago, in October. I was visiting my dad and my step family in Nebraska, and began smoking marijuana with my step brothers. It was all good fun until around the fifth or sixth time I participated in it! I remember smoking a rather large amount of high quality stuff, around ten or twelve hits (my tolerance is rather low…). I felt fine for a while, but once it all started creeping in something felt very wrong! I was sitting at my computer, playing World Of Warcraft, when all of a sudden, my vision began to distort, and I had trouble focusing on much of anything, both mentally and optically.

I turned to my brother, and told him that something was wrong. He just told me to calm down, and that if anything was wrong with the weed, he would know it. I stood from my chair, and I got this horrible sinking feeling in my stomach, almost exactly like going downhill on a rollercoaster! My heart started beating really fast, and I could feel throughout most of my body. I went and laid down on the couch, almost POSITIVE I was dying, and just laid there for hours until I eventually fell asleep. During the time, I was experiencing all sorts of symptoms. My jaw and lips felt extremely numb, I was in a cold sweat, my hands and feet were freezing cold, and my mind was racing horribly! It was terrifying!

I awoke the next morning feeling just fine, and I brushed it off and continued smoking for a while. It happened once more and I finally decided to research it, to find that what I was having were called "Panic Attacks". After reading that they could not hurt you, I decided to try again. Unfortunately, it happened once more, and I decided not to smoke pot anymore. After a while of not smoking, I developed obsessive worries, specifically about my heart. (I.E. Racing heart) I even began having the panic attacks when I was completely sober! Do I blame marijuana for it? Not exactly. I believe that experiencing my first panic attack started a nasty chain of anxiety for me.

To put it shortly, after I was back home in Texas for a while, I finally figured out how to stop the attacks. Basically, you have to trick your brain into thinking they are a positive thing. I know it sounds odd, but I’ve been panic free for a while now by doing this! When you feel an attack coming on, just lay back, and enjoy the ride. It is, after all, the same thing that happens when you are on a rollercoaster! The only difference is what you are THINKING! The trick is to change those scary thoughts into excited, and positive ones. By doing this, you are keeping yourself from feeding energy to the fear, and the Panic Attack will cease. I promise!

Picture this. Your panic attacks are a huge brick wall, and on the other side of this wall, there is a wonderful place that you would love to be in. Now, experiencing a panic attack is when you try to climb over the wall, and since you always back down from it, instead of successfully scaling it, you are trapped on the bad side of it. But if you force yourself to climb this wall (face your panic attacks with all of your will) you will finally reach the other side! And once you are over the wall, you now know that it’s not as bad as you thought it was, and the wall no longer scares you. Now that you are over the wall, you can keep on moving forward, and scale any other walls that might be in your way without any problems! I hope that helps!

There’s one more thing I want to discuss here:
Benzodiazepines.
Klonipin, Xanax, Ativan, all fall under this class of drug.

I want to encourage all of you to stay AWAY from these drugs. They are HIGHLY addictive, both mentally and physically, and once you gain a physical dependence to them, you have to ween off VERY SLOWLY. Not to mention, they will stop working once this happens.

Suddenly stopping, or rapidly weening off can cause unbearable withdrawals, and it can even KILL you! I’ve personally known someone who did this, and they ended up having seizures and had to remain taking the medication. The overall withdrawals can be worse than even HEROIN, so I would highly recommend staying away from these drugs! If you must, take them for no more than two weeks, and if it MUST be longer, space out your dosages. Try to only take it every three days, so that you don’t become dependent. I can’t stress this enough, as Benzodiazepine dependency occurs VERY RAPIDLY.

And besides, the medication won’t actually help to get rid of anxiety, it just makes it go away for a while. But until you "train your brain" to not create the anxiety and panic, it will always return with a vengeance!

There is a certain herb that you could try. I myself, have used