Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks Fast

by Barry McDonagh

Szilard Koos Future IT Solutions -Design and Development (www.fitsolutions.at)

YOU’RE THE CURE

The very first thing to be aware of as we set off on this journey is that it’s okay not to feel okay.

Stage 1. First of all, if panic attacks are a problem for you, they become less frequent in a very short space of time.

This happens because you learn how to remove the fear of the bodily sensations that have been triggering them. Your confidence in your body’s ability to handle the stress starts to return, enabling you to visit again the places you may have been avoiding.

Stage 2. Next, your level of general anxiety starts to go down from, say, an 8 out of 10 to a 4 or 5. This stage of reducing general anxiety is a slower process as you have to allow time for your nervous system to become less sensitized. This healing process is not linear; it’s not like the mending of a b...

Stage 3. As your general anxiety decreases, anxious thoughts or worries appear less frequently. This happens because your fearful response to them has reduced. If they felt like a punch to the stomach before, now they might feel just like a mild annoyance and not something that really shocks you anymore. It’s also at this stage th...

Stage 4. This is a transition phase where you move from always feeling anxious to noticing the absence of the anxiety. If anxiety has been present for many years, this stage in the process can feel strange, like a storm that’s been raging for so long that suddenly goes quiet. “Can it really be gone?” you ask yourself. “What if it comes back worse than ever?” Returning to the metaphor we used earlier, this stage can feel a ...

Stage 5. Next comes a setback! Yes, sorry, but they will come. Setbacks can be a major blow to your newfound confidence. You thought you were free of anxiety, and now it seems to be back and as bad as ever. You think to yourself: “I knew it would come back. I’ll never be rid of this! There is something seriously wrong with me after all.” Many people flounder here because they get so upset and frustrated. This is a normal response, but it’s essential at this point to understand that setbacks are part of the recovery. Don’t give up; you’re so very close to the finish. This is a crucial ph...

Stage 6. Finally, after some more time practicing, you realize that it’s been a few weeks since you gave much thought at all to anxiety. This is a sign that you’re almost recovered from the “sensitization” of anxiety. Always bear in mind that setbacks can happen—sometimes even years later and without warning—but for the most part it’s ...

Research indicates that there is a certain percentage of the population who have a genetic predisposition to anxiety.

the more you fear the bodily sensations, the more intense they feel.

Instead, this is your body’s own misguided way of trying to protect you.

It’s trying to do what it thinks is best for you.

It entails learning a new response to anxiety in order to become free of it. There are four simple steps:

Defuse Allow Run Toward Engage

STEP 1. DEFUSE

Anxiety is nothing more than nervous energy in your body. This energy rises and falls just like waves on the ocean.

Think of it as if you’re bobbing around in the ocean and every now and then a wave rises up in front of you. These...

When you resist the wave, it tosses you around and scares you, but when you move with it, you ride up and over it and even...

The waves of anxiety rise up, peak, and then fall back down. They always peak and then subside away. Up and down they go. They become a problem (a disorder) o...

The first step of The DARE Response retrains how you immediately...

You’re responding to it the wrong way.

The biggest mistake most people make when anxiety strikes is to get caught up in “what if” thoughts.

What if my heart doesn’t stop pounding? What if I have a panic attack here in the car? What if this con...

Notice that these “what ifs” almost never revolve around good things potentially happening,

In order to defuse anxious “what ifs,” you need to answer the question in the right way and limit the potential for the anxiety to increase.

A good response to a “what if” is: “So what!”

Answering with “so what” is effective because it neutralizes the fear and places you back into a position of power.

Defusing all anxiety with a strong attitude of “so what” / “whatever” is the first important step in The DARE Response.

STEP 2. ALLOW IT

Now that you’ve started to respond to anxiety in the right way, it’s crucial you keep going by releasing all resistance so that any anxiety that’s still present can dissipate even faster.

You’ll always be stuck in a state of fear if you’re always trying to keep your distance from it.

YOU CAN’T OUTRUN ANXIETY; YOU NEED TO MOVE WITH IT.

You drop the resistance and embrace it. You allow it to be present. You can start to do that by repeating to yourself: I accept and allow this anxious feeling.

What we resist persists, and what we accept, we can transform.

The secret to recovery, however, is that once you reach a point where you really allow and accept it, it begins to fall away and discharge naturally.

Don’t turn away from anxiety; that never works. Turn into it, allow it, and move with it.

LET THE UNINVITED GUEST BE WELCOME

“Attend and befriend your fear”

Let your body vibrate with the nervous arousal without any hindrance so it can then start to unwind.

ACCEPT AND ALLOW 100%

Trying to force a state of calm is a type of resistance.

STEP 3. RUN TOWARD

Fear and excitement are just different sides of the same coin. When wildly excited, you experience the exact same sensations as you do when you’re very anxious. The secret is learning how to flip your perception of these sensations from negative to positive.

Once you master the ability to see them as nothing more than a heightened manifestation of energy in your body, you end the illusion of a threat.

This study illustrated the point that it’s not the bodily sensations we feel that trigger our emotional responses, but rather our perception of those sensations that determines our feelings.

If we reframe our perception of anxious sensations and move toward them skillfully, we become less intimidated or threatened by them. We achieve this very simply by saying “I’m excited by this feeling.”

STEP 4. ENGAGE

The fourth step in The DARE Response is short but crucial as it completes the whole movement from start to finish. It’s designed to keep your anxious mind out of the way so that your nervous system can fully desensitize and relax back down.