Quotes from R. Reid Wilson

After the panic response is established, the mind stops working creatively in your favor. Instead it seems to be set on "automatic pilot" and stops seeking out solutions. The mind focuses on the problem instead of on its solution.

Big Announcement! There Are Different Ways of Talking to Worry

the more you fight the uncomfortable sensations directly, the stronger they seem to grow. The more you run from panic, the faster it seems to chase you. The more you avoid panic-provoking situations, the more panic controls your life. If we place ourselves on guard, waiting and watching for the next signs of trouble, we are inviting panic to return sooner. How? By establishing a special relationship with panic, a relationship of opposites.

A minor physical problem is producing a few symptoms. You become introspective and oversensitive to these sensations and then become anxious. Your heightened awareness and concern produce an increase in discomfort. If this continues, you can turn an insignificant physical problem into major psychological distress.

The single most important way to win over panic attacks is to respond to them from a different point of view. To get better, you don't struggle with anxiety, you don't try to get rid of the uncomfortable sensations, you don't avoid threatening situations. You choose to take a different attitude toward them. With this new attitude in place, you will know what actions to take.

When a person suffers from anxiety attacks, one of the greatest obstacles to recovery can be the fear that these attacks are the indication of a major physical illness—and in rare cases that is true. But most often, when a person continually worries about physical illness, that kind of worry intensifies or even produces panic attacks. In other words, the less you worry, the healthier you will become.

The most destructive thing you can do when faced with panic attacks is to steadfastly believe that your physical discomfort means that you have a serious physical illness, despite continued professional reassurance to the contrary. That is why it is essential that you work with a physician whom you can trust until he or she reaches a diagnosis.

If you remain fearfully convinced that you have a physical ailment, even when there is a consensus to the contrary among the professionals who have evaluated you, then you can be certain of one thing: your fear is directly contributing to your panic episodes.

They worry because their brain is demanding closure on a specific issue. Their mind says, "This is how it must turn out for me to feel secure. And I must feel secure. Do I know for certain it will turn out this way?" It is as though they require a one-hundred percent guarantee that they will encounter zero risk. That is simply too much to ask of life.

By making the decision to accept the possibility of a negative outcome, you circumvent the requirement for absolute certainty of your future comfort and safety.

I'll become stronger by purposely facing what I am afraid of. It's OK that I'm anxious right now. I can handle these sensations. I can handle this uncertainty. I want this anxiety. I want this uncertainty. Love the mat. Run toward the roar.

When faced with a challenge (be it a hurricane or a struggling business or a reluctance to start writing), we must decide to act and then we must act. We should perceive our worries as an indication that we should meet our challenges head on, cut right to the heart of them, and take action. Otherwise, we'll be in the aftermath of the storm, sitting and staring at that old tree that's collapsed onto our patio, and asking, "Well, what now?

When you hear yourself say, "I'm dizzy; I could faint!" say something like, "That's a good, anxiety-provoking thought. I want that thought, too." Don't do anything with the thought. Don't embellish it or encourage it. Don't talk yourself out of it. Notice it and accept it as an expected fearful thought in such a situation. Then wait for the next threatening thought or feeling.

As soon as you declare it a test, your body is going to secrete adrenaline, because you will be saying to yourself, "Uh-oh. I'd better do well," while you simultaneously imagine yourself failing. That process will cause you to feel anxious. The more you set up future events as tests, the more you are going to feel anxious.

Never view a future task as a test of your progress or of your ability to overcome panic.

When you decide that all your experiences are practice, you are in effect saying that you are both willing and able to learn from each experience.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) refers to a complex of symptoms, including panic, occurring the days just before menstruation.

Remember that you win over panic by not resisting. Be patient and you will eventually get a spontaneous insight. It might sound like this: "Hey! Four out of the last twelve times when I said, 'I can handle this; I want this,' and really meant it, my anxiety just faded away. Another five times I stayed anxious, but I handled it fine. It didn't leave, and I didn't freak out. Maybe it really is all about how I respond. Cool.

The point is this: Panic erodes your basic trust in your body. Panic wins control over you by convincing you to doubt your body's natural unconscious monitoring system. Panic says, "Keep watching, keep listening, keep monitoring." These are the destructive messages of panic. If you are constantly on guard over your body's sensations, you will need to start thinking about your body in a new way.

You purposely choose to feel uncomfortable and uncertain within your threatening situations: "I want this." • You choose to linger with your anxiety and uncertainty instead of escaping. • You notice your negative and fearful thoughts without getting caught up in them. You accept them without getting rid of them.

What if, at the time of a panic attack, you could convince yourself to rely on that same unconscious to help you manage your body's sensations? I can guarantee that when you learn this skill you will be back in the driver's seat. You will no longer be letting panic have control, nor will you be forcing your conscious mind to do all the work.

The unconscious is ninety-nine percent brilliant in its ability to constantly direct the body toward health.