Table of Contents

Introduction

STEP 1: Recognize the Cycle of Your Panic

Breaking free of the panic cycle

STEP 2: Increase Your Knowledge of the Body’s Special Emergency Response

STEP 3: Practice Daily the Skills That Will Physically Calm Your Body

Calming your breath

Quieting your body

STEP 4: Approach Your Goals through Small Tasks

STEP 5: Develop Confidence through Positive Imagery

STEP 6: Adopt a Supportive Attitude

Affirming yourself

Giving yourself choice

STEP 7: Face Your Tasks One at a Time

Preparing for practice

Beginning the practice

Responding to worried thoughts

Responding to uncomfortable physical sensations

Ending the practice

Some Final Words

Appendix: Positive Imagery Exercises for Step Five

About the Author

R. Reid Wilson, Ph.D.

Directs the Anxiety Disorders Treatment Program in Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina. He is also Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Wilson specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders.  He designed and served as lead psychologist for American Airlines' first national program for the fearful flier. Dr. Wilson is on the Board of Directors of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. He served as Program Chair of the National Conferences on Anxiety Disorders from 1988-1991.

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