When Panic Attacks

The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life

By: David D. Burns MD

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

Do you toss and turn at night with a knot in your stomach, worrying about your job, your family, work, your health, or relationships? Do you suffer from crippling shyness, obsessive doubts, or feelings of insecurity? Are you plagued by fears, phobias, or panic attacks?

What you may not realize is that these fears are almost never based on reality. Anxiety is one of the world's oldest cons. When you're anxious, you're actually fooling yourself. You are telling yourself things that simply aren't true. See if you can recognize yourself in any of these distortions:

• All-or-Nothing Thinking: "My mind will go blank when I give my presentation at work, and everyone will think I'm an idiot."
• Fortune Telling: "I just know I'll freeze up and blow it when I take my test."
• Mind Reading: "Everyone at this party can see how nervous I am."
• Magnification: "Flying is so dangerous. I think this plane is going to crash!"
• Should Statements: "I shouldn't be so anxious and insecure. Other people don't feel this way."
• Emotional Reasoning: "I feel like I'm on the verge of cracking up!"
• Self-Blame: "What's wrong with me? I'm such a loser!"
• Mental Filter: "Why can't I get anything done? My life seems like one long procrastination."

Now imagine what it would be like to live a life that's free of worries and self-doubt; to go to sleep at night feeling peaceful and relaxed; to overcome your shyness and have fun with other people; to give dynamic presentations without worrying yourself sick ahead of time; to enjoy greater creativity, productivity and self-confidence.

Does that sound impossible? The truth is you can defeat your fears.

In When Panic Attacks, Dr. Burns takes you by the hand and shows you how to overcome every conceivable kind of anxiety. In fact you will learn how to use more than 40 simple, effective techniques, and the moment you put the lie to the distorted thoughts that plague you, your fears will immediately disappear. Dr. Burns also shares the latest research on the drugs commonly prescribed for anxiety and depression and explains why they may sometimes do more harm than good.

This is not pop psychology but proven, fast-acting techniques that have been shown to be more effective than medications. When Panic Attacks is an indispensable handbook for anyone who's worried sick and sick of worrying.

Includes a PDF of Supplemental Materials

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 David D. Burns (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Few truly great books on psychotherapy have been published, and this is one of them. When Panic Attacks tells you how to deal with all kinds of anxiety and with most other emotional problems. It is clearly and charmingly written." (Albert Ellis, PhD, founder of the Albert Ellis Institute and best-selling author of A Guide to Rational Living)

"Another masterpiece from the author who helped millions help themselves with Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. Dr. Burns's elegant writing style, compassion, and humor translate powerful psychotherapy methods into accessible, practical, and helpful tools for the vast number of individuals who struggle with anxiety." (Henny Westra, PhD, associate professor and director of the York University Anxiety Research Clinic)

Best investment that I’ve made so far

Get this book and feeling good too by the same author, it really gets you thinking differently and that’s good if you’re the kind of person who thinks in a negative pattern or stuck in one thought for months or years, I’m reading it because of social anxiety, and know I’m questioning my fears all together it’s incredible

Amazing!! Best book on anxiety I’ve ever read!!

This Book helps you figure out your triggers and how to deal with them in a way that I could understand.
My Audible library is filled with books on anxiety and panic attacks. By far this audiobook has more information and then all of them combined. I also bought the book so I can read it again and do the exercises.

Highly recommend

I read and listened to his multimillion-copy bestseller Feeling Good that everybody’s probably seen and it was good however this book is so much better! This is the book that I will recommend to my clients. Thank you for including the PDF! :-)

Very helpful!!

I didn’t think this book would help me as much as it did. If you have a tendency to be anxious or have panic attacks, this is the best book for you.

Comments from a reader

Absolutely some of the finest quality writing on the treatment of anxiety. This is a must-read for mental health therapists.

Top-notch strategies

If you’ve ever read “Feeling Good” or watched Dr. Burns’ TEDx talks, you’re back in the right place. This book is another great work from the renowned, CBT-focused professor. Yet, if you haven’t given either of those works a spin, not to worry — this book provides almost everything you need to know about anxiety, depression, and the like.

Burns’ methods are tried and true. He leans on cognitive behavior therapy, acceptance therapy, and exposure therapy to get his strategies across effectively. He also recounts many patient cases where he worked diligently with sufferers to get them out of their anxious and depressed states. I found such stories to be super helpful, and I think you will too. They give the reader hope that what they are facing can also be overcome.

Burns’ writing style is easy to follow and even lighthearted at times. There were a few sections in this book that made me laugh out loud. I loved how he was able to bring some comic relief to a difficult subject without disrespecting the seriousness of it.

I think the only thing I want to note is that the title does seem a tad misleading. Burns does talk about panic attacks in this one, but anxiety and depression, in the more general sense, steal most of the spotlight. While I think you can certainly apply the methodologies he describes to a panic attack you may face, this book is not as centered around the subject as the title might suggest. Either way, I think you’ll find it very useful in your battle, and I recommend it highly.

-Brian Sachetta
Author of “Get Out of Your Head"

Life Changing

This book with PDFs (exercises) is life changing.
Gets to the point with interventions and exercises and an answer to relapses. Great book! I used audible but will also order the book!

Possibly saved my life

Don’t want this review to sound cliche, but the tools learned in this book are definitely useful and helped me understand how my negative thoughts create a lot or all of my negative feelings. It also helped me understand that nice people are plagued with anxiety as a result of not expressing what bothers them. This leads to your body alerting you that something is wrong with something that you’re not dealing with or avoiding and it’s coming out as your anxiety. I’ve found Dr David Burns to be so helpful and I’ve found his podcast on my iPhone and will be listening to those as I’ve already completed his original “Feeling Good” book before reading this one.

Excellent book. POWERFUL TECHNIQUES. LIFE CHANGING.

If you suffer with anxiety, this is a MASTERWORK. This gentleman spells it out. Well-researched and I have read A LOT of these kinds of books. This has been so helpful.
So many different ways to REALLY AND ACTUALLY change. Lots of examples. I rarely write reviews but I felt compelled to write one for this book.

Wonderful to Listen and So Effective!

This book was recommended to me by my therapist and it went beyond my expectations! All the success stories and activities were super interesting and even kinda fun to listen to. I've done some of the tools with my therapist's guidance and the ones I've tried have significantly reduced my anxiety and pretty much gotten rid of my depression. This will be one of those books I will read/listen to yearly. The narrator was very pleasant as well. Thank you Dr. Burns!!!