Panic stations

When Panic Attacks. By Dr Aine Tubridy. Gill & Macmillan 2003, €18.99

Panic is one of the epidemics of our time. Stress, anxiety and particularly panic attacks are all on the rise. For many, stress and anxiety have become part of daily life, but a person's first introduction to panic introduces a more urgent, emergency quality: fear. Written in user-friendly language, this book gives answers when people are most in need of answers and solutions. Drawing on the clinical experience of a therapist who has specialised in anxiety disorders, it is divided into two parts, with many illustrative case examples.

Panic is now thought to be the most common form of psychological distress, and is certainly the most terrifying. The good news is that it also one of the forms that is most easily dealt with and banished, and this is news that Tubridy's book builds on.

Part one is called ‘How Panic Works' and covers every question you ever wanted to ask: what a panic attack actually is, what's happening to you during one, what are its different causes, what issues from the past can be triggering them, what they're trying to get you to pay attention to, and how certain substances can start them. Reassuringly, it emphasises what a panic attack will not do, like cause a heart attack or stroke, lead on to a psychiatric illness and a life in a mental hospital, or make you collapse or lose control. It includes an unusual chapter on energy field changes during attacks, which explains some of the phenomena in a way you won't find dealt with elsewhere.

Part two covers methods you can use to eliminate it, offering a toolbox of skills such as breath control, easing muscular tension, managing runaway catastrophic thoughts, and energy exercises. For those who tend to avoid stress situations in a phobic manner, it has a step-by-step plan to reverse that, and to begin doing things again which they may have decided were too risky. There's a section on other complementary therapies, and one on stigma and shame, which all will identify with.

Possibly the best part, though, is that this book comes with a CD. So you can plug in your headphones and listen to the exercises outlined in the book at the very time you're experiencing the attack, with a specific track called ‘Emergency Drill', which would talk you through it whether you were in a plane, a car, or at the supermarket. The ‘Relaxation' track is ideal for insomniacs, and the ‘Meditation' track introduces you to a good way to train your mind to be less excitable, and less reactive to stress of all kinds.

Easily understandable, as it's written in very accessible language, and if read by partners or families of sufferers this book will go a long way to explain to them just what a panic attack feels like and to deepen their understanding of the enormous challenge it presents.

Basil Miller

Available from all good bookshops and from www.gillmacmillan.ie