You feel like you have tried everything, but you are still overwhelmed by panic attacks. That is how I felt. Even after twelve years of being overwhelmed by panic attacks, there was very little I actually knew about them. It was like getting beat up every day. I knew how wretched I felt from the beatings, but I had no idea how or why I was being beat up, or if there was anything I could do about it. I wish I could offer the solution to panic attacks like a Band-Aid that would solve everyone's problems like it did mine. Sadly, it doesn't work that way. There are two roads that lead to the end of panic attacks, and you don't get to choose between them.

You have to take both roads, and it is best if you can take both roads at the same time. That is why this book is so repetitive in discussing the many aspects of panic attacks. Major changes in thinking about the nature of panic attacks are needed in order to break free of them. While it is possible to intellectually agree with the ideas in this book, perhaps even be excited by them, falling back into old patterns of thinking will block further progress. For that reason, the new insights and important ideas about panic attacks are repeated over and over again with the hope that through repetition, they will eventually stimulate a gut level understanding of what is going on. We find our way out of the maze by following this road. The second road runs parallel to the first. It explains how elements of the solution are keyed to different aspects of panic attacks.

Beginning in chapter one, hints and bits and pieces of the solution are interspersed with the new ideas about panic attacks. For this method to stop panic attacks, a thorough understanding of panic attacks is required. Skipping over these roads will impact the effectiveness of the solution. We are dealing with an educational problem than has an educational solution.