I had dinner with a male friend the other night and he opened up to me about the anxiety he was facing. More women seem to experience anxiety but men certainly do too. On the surface he appears as a very successful salesman but inside he suffers from a ton 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. It’s difficult being a single parent but he tries his very best to give the girls stabilty, laughter and fun. 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 he’s up he’s really up but when he’s down he’s really down. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, he appears very confident, handsome and self assured. He has numerous friends, does a lot of charity work, is at all the social events and has a beautiful house. 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. The thought of losing it all sends him straight into panic. 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 confirmed that Barry Joe McDonaugh’s Panic Away has helped thousands of people and just to hear me out. In the end he agreed because he doesn’t want to go through it alone anymore, he wants to deal with it and is willing to take the steps to do it! Awesome!
