WHO IS JOE BARRY?
Joe Barry (full name Barry Joe McDonagh) is a native of Ireland. He has an undergrad degree from the University College of Dublin (UCD). He says candidly upfront that he is not a psychologist and not a psychiatrist. He was, however, a sufferer of chronic panic attacks during his college years. He was not having much success with the regular methods of treating panic attacks so he decided to research and create his own approach, which he published in late 2001.
WHAT IS PANIC AWAY ALL ABOUT?
The main concept behind the Panic Away program, according the Joe Barry, is to deal with panic attacks at the root cause - the small fear reactions that start the whole cycle. The idea is that if you can learn to control these emotions right when they start, when they are still small and manageable, you can prevent them from building up into full blown panic attacks.
To accomplish this he has come up with a number of techniques. One of the main ones is called the One Move Technique. The system tries to reach patients a very specific set of action they can take every time they feel a panic attack coming on. He provides instruction on how to apply this technique in various situations to deal with different types of triggering fears such as fear of flying, fear of public speaking, fear of driving, and many more.
The second main part of the system focuses on what can be done to prevent panic attacks long before they begin. The approach in this case is to lesson the general anxiety (the daily background anxiety) in order to reduce or eliminate the "fuel" for panic attacks. The methods recommended here range from diet modifications to exercise and others.
The third main section of the guide focuses on how to make sure the patient's newly learned ways of dealing with panic become habitual. Learning to stop panic attacks when they are about to start or learning to reduce general background anxiety is a good start, says Joe Barry, but where many people fail is in making the new ways of thinking a habit. If you can learn to make the new behaviors habitual, you can set yourself up for permanent success.
Do keep in mind however that no one program is going to a perfecct fit for each patient. Anyone looking for a natural treatment for panic attacks should take a look at Panic Away by Joe Barry to see if the program might be a good fit for them.
