Understanding panic disorder

So, what is panic disorder? And does everyone who suffers a panic attack have this condition? Put simply, no.

Many people will encounter a panic attack at some point in their lifetime. Possibly more than you would ever consider. I, myself, know someone who had one, isolated panic attack and never experienced another one ever again.

Most people who suffer a panic attack can attribute it to some stressful event, or combination of events, or some heavy negative emotional incident that’s going on in their life at the time (loss of a loved one etc.). Usually, when this happens, once the stress or heavy emotion naturally subsides and the person’s life returns to normal, the risk of panic will fade away.

However, what if the panic attack came right out of the blue? What if you were just getting on with life as normal and suddenly, out of nowhere and for no visible or logical reason, you encountered your first panic attack.

Now this is what happened to me. Just prior to me experiencing my first panic attack, life was going swimmingly. Sure, I was working and playing hard but that’s what I’d always done. And then, whilst driving two hundred miles to see my parent’s, right out of the blue, about half way into the journey, BANG. It hit me like a ton of bricks. The physical sensation of the panic episode was one thing. It was both unbelievably unpleasant and extremely alarming but what was much, much worse was the fact that I had no idea what had brought it into being or where it had come from.

And that was the trigger of my panic disorder. Because there was no logical or visible reason for this happening at the time that it did, how could I ever stop it happening to me again? Over the following few weeks I suffered even more attacks, this time on public transport and, again, with no apparent reason. And so I settled into my new life with panic disorder and, eventually, agoraphobia.

So, a person with panic disorder is either someone who experiences panic attack symptoms on a regular basis or someone who lives in fear of having another panic episode. Or, just like me, both I guess. Whereas, a person who suffers infrequent panic episodes and/or doesn’t fear the next one’s arrival doesn’t.


Before I overcame my panic disorder, each and every day of my so-called life was filled with fear and dread.  The Linden Method gave me my life back and can give your’s back to you.