More women experience anxiety but men experience it too! I had dinner with a male friend a couple of weeks ago and we talked a lot about our lives. He is a very successful salesman but underneath it all he suffers a lot of anxiety. He recently became a single dad of 3 girls and has a lot of pressure in his sales job, constantly striving to be more and more successful. I’m sure men do feel a lot of pressure to provide but when he told me that he silently suffers with violent panic attacks when at home by himself I knew I could help him.

He now has the girls 50% of the time and hates that his family is broken apart. He tries to bring stablity to the girls and wants to be the best dad he can be but there’s no question, it’s hard being a single parent. When he doesn’t have the girls he is working hard trying to meet his quota. He hates that his self esteem takes a dive if his numbers are down at work. He constantly measures his value by how much he sells. When sales are up he’s really happy but when sales are down he’s down too. Just looking at him he appears very confident, happy and handsome. He gives his time to charity events, shows up at several social functions, has a gorgeous house and many friends. But he admitted those quiet nights at home can be terrifying. The thoughts that swirl around his head are “what if I lose it all?” He came from a very poor upbringing and worked hard to be where he is but with sales it’s never a sure thing. To him losing it all sends him into a state of frenzy. He feels sick to his stomach and gets so wound up that he told me on several occasions he has literally trembled with crazy thoughts going through his mind like “what if I die?”

I introduced the Panic Away program to my friend and I have to admit he was a little hesitant. He said he wanted to deal with it on his own but when I asked him what he has done to try and help himself he couldn’t answer. I reassured him that Barry Joe McDonaugh’s Panic Away program has helped many, many people and to just give it a try. He said to me that he’s exhausted from all of the anxious thoughts and finally is at the point where he really wants to deal with it and is willing to take the steps to do so, fantastic!