Life With The Panic Monster: A Guide For The Terrified (Paperback)

~ Evelyn B. Stewart (Author) "There is a reason why we begin our stories recounting our very first panic attack: with it comes a clear message that life as we..." (more)
Key Phrases: panic monster, panic disorder

Product Details

• Paperback: 143 pages
• Publisher: Thom Rutledge Publishing (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962796352
• ISBN-13: 978-0962796357
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,657,008 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Comfort!!!, September 9, 2000

By	"pattim" (New Windsor, NY USA) - See all my reviews

I could not put this book down! Like the reviewer before me, I read it cover to cover in one sitting. I have struggled with this disorder for many years and found it a great comfort to read a story so similar to mine. This is a disorder which is very isolating and misunderstood. There are parts of this book which I felt I could have written. Thank you Ms. Stewart for your honesty and courage!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The monster has gone on vacation!, July 22, 2000

By	Kathy Hedman (Nashville TN) - See all my reviews

This book is a wonderful resource for everyone. I have been dealing with panic disorder for 10 years. This book is what finally helped me learn to deal with it. Ms.Stewart explains things in great detail which is easy to identify in yourself, your own problems. I have used several techniques in her book and read it several times. My whole family has read this book and now understand panic disorder better. I could not find anything in this book that I disliked or didn't agree with. I highly recommend this book to anyone with panic disorder or to anyone who knows someone with panic disorder.

30 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing tale of a life-and-death struggle with terror., March 19, 1998

By	Andrew D. Martin (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is about death, being scared to death by uncontrollable panic. It happens, though, that Ms. Stewart's fears and resulting panic attacks were of a curious, ineffable sort. They make little sense to those uninitiated to panic disorder. What should cause panic, a helicopter ride, bungee jumping, losing a job, or being followed? Ms. Stewart's attacks were triggered by shopping, walking around a track, or just driving a car.

Surprisingly, panic attacks don't result from real trouble, or as James Russell Lowell said, "The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came." Like investors who buy on rumor and sell on news, Ms. Stewart "used to worry that I had Hodgkin's Disease until the cure rate went over 80%."

I couldn't put this book down. It's authentic. It's irreverent. I read it from cover to UPC code in one sitting.

Evelyn Stewart's story. Prognosis: "What do you wear to a meeting with your own dark side? I could not go to work, could not even finish dressing. I was crazy. I had lost the ability to accessorize. I would have to go on disability. I would wear stripes and plaids together and not care. It was the beginning of the end." Hospital: "She took me to a small room with an examining table where I could lie down and panic in private." Treatment:"The ENT...offered me the opportunity of taking a test which consisted of pouring water in my ears at intervals to measure what? Endurance? Stupidity?" Cure:Beside the bed I have a shotgun loaded with Valium>" Announcement:"Ralph was graduated from his small-engine repair home study course, and Evelyn can almost walk to the mailbox alone now."

In truth, she eventually finds a caring professional and emerges not healed but healing, scarred but animated. Her recovery, poignant and revitalizing, is made more powerful by her relentless determination to enter the dark and exit alive. Jawaharial Nehru said, "Logic and cold reason are poor weapons to fight fear and distrust. Only faith and generosity can overcome them." Faith and generosity gives the tormented writer of this remarkable book, from whom paralyzing fear has yielded and"...grown so free from care since my heart broke," the chance to live again.