Panic attacks can start at any age, within this short article I am going to tell you how panic attacks affected myself and explain how I managed to cope with them from a young age. Hopefully this will help other sufferers to try and combat this difficult and sometimes dilabating experience.

When I was a young lad growing up in a council estate in Tulse Hill, Brixton, I experienced my very first panic attack, I was fourteen years old. I remember it to this day (I am now 53), as my fellow sufferers would understand I thought I was about to suddenly drop dead and started to gasp for breath. My parents had no knowledge of what was happening to me and I never mentioned it to them, as it eventually passed. at that time I had no knowledge of what was happening to me and in those early days it was not a subject unlike today,that was ever discussed or mentioned. As a young lad I did suffer a lot of bullying and through no fault of her own (my mother suffered with manic depression) I was also bullied at home. This I believe and according to doctors at a later stage in my life was the probable cause of my condition. When I reached my mid twenties I began to drink more than I should of done, which eventually made the condition even worse. Initially my GP put me on Valium and eventually we tried hypnotherapy which taught me to relax. Eventually I came off the tablets and decided to face the panic attacks and try to let them pass over me. Easier said than done as fellow sufferers will understand.

However they still came and went and made my life unbearable and at times unable to leave home for work. Having a young family I could hardly afford not to work. At this stage my GP put me through every medical test you could think of to make sure there was no pyhsical reasons for my symtoms. This proved to be the case, and it was at this stage I took a different course of action.

I bought some trainers and started jogging, as a young lad I'de always enjoyed sports but it had been sometime since I took up any form of exercise. so of I went round the local park and I can tell you I felt even worse, I could hardly breath or run very far. However I decided to keep at it and start slow and gradually build up the distance and frequency of my runs. I then took another major step which will either sound strange or make sense interms of my earlier years of being bullied. I took up martial arts, I joined which I did not know at the time, what was to become one of the most famous Shotokan Karate Dojo's in the world. I joined the late Sensei Enoeda's 9th Dan Karate club. Here again I found the training a great help in reducing my panic attacks, however I had not thinking about it replaced one episode of panic attacks with another, ie I didn't want to get hurt within the dojo. Here I found some great trainers and started to develop my skills and eventually after 30 years of training I become a 3rd Dan black belt (but thats another story which I may write).

So I eventually overcome my panic attacks through physical exercise, though it will always be there I now understand the condition and highly advocate anybody suffering from the same symptons to try slowly a little exercise and gradually build from there.


I hope this helps you in the same way it has helped me.

If you require any further help and understanding have a look at these articles which I also found very benificial at the attached website;

Click Here!