I think that for me, actually getting a diagnosis helped me tremendously. I started with symptoms in the early 70's, Doctors were not even TAUGHT about PAD in med school til the early '90's.......so many people, me included, were just told "theres nothing we can find wrong with you". I KNEW there was something wrong with me, they just didn't know what it was back then. Once I read an article in Good Housekeeping - it was like they wrote the story about me ! Then all of a sudden, there was information everywhere, and I KNEW what was wrong with me. I lucked out and found a psychiatrist who treated only PAD/Anxiety/Agoraphobia and became his patient. He has several books out now (my story is in one of them), and he has helped so many people (where I live, we had to travel 2 hours to get to him (and for those with phobias about traveling - made it rough!). I started a Support Group in my town and in the 7 years we met twice a month, over 1000 people attended.

I still have PAD - but it has been controlled since 1990. I can do anything I want too now, but it was HARD work to get to this point - but worth every second it took. I strongly recommend a book called "Anxiety, Phobias and Panic - Taking Charge and Conquering Fear" by Reneau Z. Peurifoy. He came and spoke to our Support Group and is awesome. We used that book as our guide. There IS life after panic !