DON'T PANIC
The true story of my battle with anxiety, panic attacks and intrusive thoughts. Throughout this book, I want to take you on my journey from a young seven-year-old boy who did not want to go to school to a successful Criminal Investigator in San Antonio, Texas, (retired).
It was not until later in life that I was diagnosed with what is known as obsessive-compulsive disorder. A family member read an article in the local newspaper which mentioned a Phobia Clinic and with the help of a psychiatrist, and therapist from that clinic, and medication, I was finally able to live a normal life. It's amazing to see how a mind full of panic, anxiety and intrusive thoughts can be conditioned to follow a more rational thought process.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This book will take you into my brain, which has a biological condition that affects the way I can think in an unimaginable and unrealistic sense. The condition I am referring to is known as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (O.C.D.).
With this disorder come symptoms that include anxiety and panic attacks, which can cripple you mentally. It doesn’t discriminate by race, sex, gender or age.
Growing up I had no idea there was even a name for the way my mind controlled me, the way it lied to me, the way my own being and soul would be taken from me. I merely thought I had a nervous condition that someday I would grow out of.
I grew up living the darkest moments of horror within my own self. Only those of us who suffer with these conditions will ever know what it is like to live having to make a way through a dark cloud of shame, hurt, fear, and sadness. With the use of medication and therapy I have been able to walk through that dark and scary cloud and can now see what life should be like without having to live each day in horror within my own self.
I was blessed to be diagnosed at an age that was very crucial in my life; to find out it is a rare condition, something I have no control of and to know that it is not me going crazy but simply a genetic factor that is flowing within my blood stream. As those who are genetically inclined to have high blood pressure or diabetes, I inherited what I consider to be the demon’s worst mental condition. One that makes you think of terrible things within a millisecond and can last for hours at times, even days. For it to seem so real as if watching a horrific movie clip that keeps playing over and over in the mind, making one go into crying antics of fear and confusion.
I wrote this book to let others in the world know that there is a cure, and though it will never go away completely, it can be treated and manageable to live with. It may take a few days or months but, like a baby learns to walk, we too must take those baby steps to get back to where we once were in our lives. We can’t let this mental beast manipulate us to the point that we lose all we have.
