The Panic Diaries

Part cultural history, part sociological critique, and part literary performance, Panic Diaries explores the technological and social construction of individual and collective panic. Jackie Orr looks at instances of panic and its “cures” in the twentieth-century United States: from the mass hysteria following the 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds to an individual woman swallowing a pill to control the “panic disorder” officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980. Against a backdrop of Cold War anxieties over atomic attack, Orr highlights the entanglements of knowledge and power in efforts to reconceive panic and its prevention as problems in communication and information feedback. Throughout, she reveals the shifting techniques of power and social engineering underlying the ways that scientific and social scientific discourses—including crowd psychology, Cold War cybernetics, and contemporary psychiatry—have rendered panic an object of technoscientific management. Orr, who has experienced panic attacks herself, kept a diary of her participation as a research subject in clinical trials for the Upjohn Company’s anti-anxiety drug Xanax. This “panic diary” grounds her study and suggests the complexity of her desire to track the diffusion and regulation of panic in U.S. society. Orr’s historical research, theoretical reflections, and biographical narrative combine in this remarkable and compelling genealogy, which documents the manipulation of panic by the media, the social sciences and psychiatry, the U.S. military and government, and transnational drug companies.

Did your panic attack make you feel alone, confused, maybe even a little bit crazy? Ours did! But they also made us wonder: What the heck are panic attacks? What causes them and, more importantly, what can we do to stop them? As journalists by trade, we set out to get the facts and tell the story. Our journey took us from Greek mythology to modern technology and, quite frankly, we couldn't believe what we found... Lots of people have had panic attacks -- people like Sigmund Freud (yes, that Sigmund Freud) and Naomi Judd -- and about 26 million Americans. So we talked to them (well, not all of them) and recorded their panic stories along with our own. What we discovered was the frightful, sometimes hilarious truth about panic attacks. Book jacket.

As panic attacks reach epidemic proportions in the U.S., two brave women journey to the front line in the battle against panic and return with stories of courage, anxiety, recovery, and just general craziness in a crazy world.

The topic of panic has been dominated by biological studies in many areas of anxiety research. This collection of papers, resulting from the National Institute of Mental Health Conferences, presents the viewpoints of clinical researchers assessing the state of the anxiety field. Contributors to this volume argue that biological data can be encompassed in psychological theory.

Hailed as one of the most important works on the Hitler period, this is an “astonishing, compelling, and unnerving” portrait of life in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1944—from a man who nearly shot Hitler himself (The New Yorker) Friedrich Reck might seem an unlikely rebel against Nazism. Not just a conservative but a rock-ribbed reactionary, he played the part of a landed gentleman, deplored democracy, and rejected the modern world outright. To Reck, the Nazis were ruthless revolutionaries in Gothic drag, and helpless as he was to counter the spell they had cast on the German people, he felt compelled to record the corruptions of their rule. The result is less a diary than a sequence of stark and astonishing snapshots of life in Germany between 1936 and 1944. We see the Nazis at the peak of power, and the murderous panic with which they respond to approaching defeat; their travesty of traditional folkways in the name of the Volk; and the author’s own missed opportunity to shoot Hitler. This riveting book is not only, as Hannah Arendt proclaimed it, “one of the most important documents of the Hitler period,” but a moving testament of a decent man struggling to do the right thing in a depraved world.

Psychiatric classifications created in one culture may not be as universal as we assume, and it is difficult to determine the validity of a classification even in the culture in which it was created. Culture and Panic Disorder explores how the psychiatric classification of panic disorder first emerged, how medical theories of this disorder have shifted through time, and whether or not panic disorder can actually be diagnosed across cultures. In this breakthrough volume a distinguished group of medical and psychological anthropologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and historians of science provide ethnographic insights as they investigate the presentation and generation of panic disorder in various cultures. The first available work with a focus on the historical and cross-cultural aspects of panic disorders, this book presents a fresh opportunity to reevaluate Western theories of panic that were formerly taken for granted.

Panic disorder patients suffer from sudden attacks of anxiety. There would be overwhelming fear and anxiety that can last for a short while. He or she would break out in cold sweat or his heart would pound like crazy. He might have difficulty breathing and your mind is in a blank. There are many other panic attack symptoms as well. The panic attack workbook diary aims to help panic attack patients to track those symptoms and record down specific details during which the attack occurred. Also journal down panic thoughts and why the panic thoughts matter so much to the individual. Try to find alternative ways to think about the situation to dissipate your fear. Also, the patient can bring this workbook diary to his/her doctor or councillor so that they have a much better idea of what you have been through. This panic attack workbook diary consists of 100 pages of panic attack diary sheets which: Specific Details of Panic Attacks: Date, Time, Location/Situation/Activity, Severity of Panic Attacks Panic Thoughts - Journal down your thoughts during the attacks Fears / Beliefs - Log down why you think the panic thoughts matter so much to you and why you are so scared of them. Other Balanced Ways To Think About The Situation - Write down if you feel that the situation can be explained in another way, to make it not so serious after all. Safety Behaviors/Avoidance Actions - Write down any behavior that you used to help you "escape" the situation. What Has Helped Before And What Can Help Now - Write down any patterns that you see has helped you before and what is helping now Every 10 days, there would be a Progress Report to keep track of behavioral changes and see what else can be improved. Get this Panic Attack Workbook Diary - Guided Journal Symptom Tracker & Dealing With Anxiety And Panic Attacks now!

Master your anxiety and regain your freedom to drive, travel, and do everything else that panic has taken from you, with proven techniques and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) exercises. Panic attacks trick millions of people into fearing disaster and giving up so many of the activities they used to enjoy without fear. This practical workbook full of proven strategies and helpful advice on how to master your anxiety and panic is here to help you reclaim your life. Author and clinical psychologist David Carbonell, PhD, uses his extensive clinical experience to help you understand the true nature of your panic attacks, including the vicious cycle of habitual responses that lead to debilitating attacks, how you can halt this self-destructive process, and the many ways you can start on a step-by-step journey that promotes recovery. Inside you’ll find helpful methods from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that will help you regain the life you want to live, including: Diaphragmatic breathing Progressive exposure Desensitization Mindfulness meditation Keeping a panic diary Quieting the voice of anticipatory worry Stepping out of the struggle with panic And much more! Now you can regain all of the freedoms you enjoyed before panic invaded your life with the research-backed charts, worksheets, and programs featured in Panic Attacks Workbook.