Dr. Don WoodResolving Your Trauma-Based Challenges So You Can Unlock Peak Performance

Can You Imagine Living with Panic Attacks for 45 Years?

20 Feb 2025 · 1 min

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1:08

Dr. Don Wood describes a patient who had suffered panic attacks for 45 years and relied on carrying a box of Xanax and his phone as a security measure. Dr. Wood identifies the symptoms as a trauma response linked to childhood trauma and reports enrolling the patient in a "tip program." At a three-month follow-up the patient reported no panic attacks, reduced perceived need for Xanax (still carried but not needed), and an anecdotal recovery (forgot the Xanax on one occasion and remained okay).

Questions this video answers

45 years.

A box of Xanax.

Three months later.

Chapters

I've suffered for 45 years with panic attacks. Nothing has ever really worked. And I carry a box of Xanax with me everywhere I go. If I don't have my box of Xanax and I don't have my phone with me, that's a guaranteed panic attack. So I could go to the store. And as I drove to the store, if I realized I didn't have either one of those, I would have a panic attack. And he says, and it was sort of an ongoing thing for 45 years, and nothing had ever resolved it. That Xanax was really sort of a security blanket for him in case he had a panic attack. So when he first sat down with me, I said, this is a trauma response. We went back. He had a huge history of trauma, especially as a child. And that's what he constantly was living with. Is that trauma loop running in the background? His trauma from his childhood? Take him through the tip program. Three months later, I see him again. He's actually a person that's in a networking group that I belong to. And he stood up in front of the group and said, I can't believe 45 years I suffered with panic attacks, and I haven't had any. I don't need my Xanax. He says, I still carry it, but I don't feel like I need it. In fact, I forgot my box of Xanax when I went to the store one day, and I realized I'm okay.