Anxiety: Friend or Foe
By Susan Heitler, Ph.D.

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Response from a Connecticut Listener:

Dear Dr. Heitler:

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. . .

I’m 27 years old. When I was a senior in high school I suffered a panic attack while reading aloud in AP English. Since then I’ve had a problem reading aloud. It didn’t get any better in college. I suffered two or three more attacks, a couple at the hands of a professor who I confided in about my condition, who then proceeded to call on me to read with a greater frequency. (He wasn’t a very nice guy.)

Since then I’ve tried to avoid as many of these dangerous situations as possible. One big event I avoided like the plague was Passover. The thought of freaking out in front of my family was too much. Since I was at school in Ohio it was easy enough not to make it back to Connecticut for the holiday. It was easy when I lived in Colorado. But it wasn’t so easy when I moved to Washington, DC. I finally decided enough was enough. After missing it last year, and confiding my concerns to my father, I made a promise to make it in 1999. I told myself I deserved to be in my home with my family. I had the right to be myself, no matter what I felt.

Of course I found myself freaking out days before the event. I was in a bookstore when I spotted your audiotape,
Anxiety: Friend or Foe. I bought it. It helped tremendously.

That Passover morning as the countdown to Seder continued, I didn’t freak out. Instead, I sat down with my notebook, wrote down my concerns, and gathered the information necessary to address them.

To conclude, I managed. It wasn’t fun, or picture perfect, but I got through it. And I want to thank you for your help. Your tape is remarkably effective, and it played a large part in knocking down a big obstacle, I just purchased “From Conflict to Resolution.” I expect it be just as informative and useful.

Once again, thank you! You’re awesome!