I want to share with you my story of how the DARE app changed and saved my life.
First of all, my English is not perfect since it’s not my first language so if you can please bare with me.
So my first Panic attack happened with me last September on a Sunday afternoon. I was home alone, and it happened to me not knowing it was a panic attack, I thought I’m having a heart attack and I’m dying. It was terrifying, fortunately, my friend called me and I told him to pass by because I think I’m about to die. The Panic attack lasted around 3 hours and it was the most horrible hours of my life. I didn’t know what it is, I just thought I survived death at that point.
The second day, the same thing happened again and since then I started living in constant fear of having another panic attack. My whole life changed, I was outgoing, positive, partying every weekend, working out daily and enjoying life but since then, I was home 24/7 dealing with anxiety and fear.
I went to the psychiatrist telling him I don’t want any pills, just tell me what’s happening with me. He explained it to me and I remember he said about panic attacks “Very disturbing but Zero danger” and that gave me a little comfort but it wasn’t enough.
Long story short, after few weeks I didn’t feel any progress, I was looking for answers everywhere, googling every symptom but that only made things worse since I was extremely sensitive to everything I read, I was very weak and I couldn’t handle situations anymore like I usually do. I went to another Psychiatrist and he advised me to take “the magic pill”, to be honest I felt better at first but still I’m very far away from the person I was. So I decided to list what I cannot do on a paper and start doing them on a daily basis.
I use to run a lot but i couldn’t anymore because fast heartbeats triggers a panic attack so I started running saying to myself sarcastically “what’s the worst that could happen? If im gonna die from running, ill be the first one to die from this reason so f**k it!” It was scary but I had nothing to lose. Music helped a lot, i put music while running and it worked! I ran slowly at first then day by day, i started to run faster.
My blocked nose is a huge trigger, and I always have in my pocket a spray to open my blocked nose and it was only recommended to use for 5 consecutive days. I was using it for 2 months on a daily basis. I decided to stop and said to myself sarcastically “What’s the worst that could happen? Ill be the first one to die from blocked nose so f**k it!” And same as running, it was hard at first but I did it. I stopped it. After few weeks, i felt amazing and i thought I totally recovered and i felt “normal” again.
But…. Yes, you guessed it, another Panic attack happened last February and i was so devastated, I thought everything I did was for nothing and I will never be cured and happy again. It felt horrible to be back in that vicious cycle again and thinking this time I’m stuck, there’s no way out now.
Praying was really helpful for me, it might not help everyone but for me, it helped a lot, it was therapeutic. I decided one day to go to a Monastery in the mountains of Lebanon called The Monastery of Saint Charbel , it’s very peaceful there, very green, very relaxing. I prayed from the bottom of my heart to find an answer and i left.
On my way back while driving, i started feeling anxious for some reason and I was confused, usually after this kind of visits i feel extremely relaxed. I stopped the car and I tried to calm myself down but I was very angry saying to myself “why am i anxious? I don’t even know why?!”
I took my phone and asked ChatGPT (a website similar to google): “What is the best app to treat anxiety and panic attacks?” ChatGPT answered “DARE app” (funny but true I swear) So I immediately downloaded the app and from the first audio I heard from Barry’s voice, I felt immediately that this is app is different from all of the other apps. I have finally found logical answers to all of my questions. Plus, it’s well-guided and about anxiety and panic attacks without having to dig through thousands of audios to find 1 simple answer.
For me, the way I found the app (after leaving the Monastery in the mountains, stopping the car and asking ChatGPT) made me laugh so hard and cry at the same time. I don’t why, at this moment i really felt that I finally found the logical answers to all of my questions and my prayers.
My story here becomes a bit typical, I started listening to the app, taking notes and I was really happy that before downloading the app I was doing the right thing (confronting my fears and saying no to anxiety) But i wasn’t guided, I didn’t know setbacks are part of the recovery, I was just daring myself without knowing the DARE technique.
I fully trusted every word from the app and book, and yes i get anxious many times but i genuinely don’t give it the attention like I use to anymore, i now know what Diffuse is, what Accept is and what Letting Go means. I’ve read them thousands of times before but i always said to myself “HOW DO I ACCEPT THIS? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO STOP RESISTING AND ACCEPTING? HOW DO I LET GO?” but now i really know how to do it thanks to the DARE app. I feel completely safe now.
I’m still on my way to recovery but now that constant fear is gone because I get it now, I understand it now, no doctor or physiologist or psychiatrist gave me a real logical answer. “Take the magic pill” “Don’t think about it” “its just a panic attack, nothing will happen to you” that’s what I got from them and that made it worse.
I’m not saying don’t take your pills, pills can really help but it’s not a magic pill for sure, what helps is understanding what’s going on and knowing the logic behind it and that’s what DARE did to me. They simply gave me all the answers I need.
I highly recommend going to a psychologist but ask your questions no matter how silly they sound, say everything you think about no matter how weird they are. 1 thing i noticed i was overly doing after downloading the app is that I spent too much time on it at first and it was all I can think about. But then i noticed that I might be feeling a lot better but I’m still giving it a lot of attention so since then, I decided to dedicate 1 hour a day to collect information from the app, to relax, to listen to the Daily DARE… 1 hour only not more.
So I engaged in other activities, i went back to gym, i took online courses, i started acting lessons, I’m learning piano, partying from time to time and going out with friends but still reminding myself that I need to stay healthy and keeping the DARE technique in mind on my way to recovery.
Today, i spent this 1 hour writing this post 😅 (maybe a little bit more than hour, i cheated a bit 😂 but that’s okay). Sorry for the extremely long post, I really wanted to thank the DARE team for their amazing work and I hope through my post I can be a little help to anyone reading it, just be positive, hopeful and trust the process really, learn the techniques then stop ruminating about it all day, get out and challenge yourself no matter what the thought is or how weird it sounds.
Just one thing before I end the post, setbacks may happen again but that’s more than okay because now with the DARE technique, we know how to deal with them and continue with our lives happy and worry-free.
Much love to everyone especially if you reached the end of this post 😅
❤️ Dory V.