When Panic Attacks

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

By: David D. Burns M.D.

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 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 forty 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

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, Ph.D, founder of the Albert Ellis Institute and bestselling 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, Ph.D., 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.

Earlier but better than Feeling Great

I have enjoyed all of Dr. David Burns’ books. Straight-forward, thorough and actionable. Though this was published between Feeling Good and Feeling Great, I found it more specific and interesting. Well narrated too.

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!!!

life changing

this author's books have changed my life and my outlook and I am so grateful. this book is the real deal. finally a book that helps!!!

Every psychologist and psychiatrist need to read this book

I have never written a book review before. However, this is one of the best books I have ever owned. For the first time in 5 years, I no longer feel ashamed or defective. I feel like I have learned more 1/2 through this book than many years of studying and with face to face visits.