I just got Geert’s book from Amazon! I read it all in one night and it explained things so easily! I have had panic attacks since I was 18, I am now 29 and after reading this book I felt so relaxed and I wasn’t worrying as much. I kept doing the steps in the book and I woke up feeling great! I was put on 10mg prozac and I took it for a month and wanted to get off but was afraid. Today after waking up from reading geerts book I stopped taking my prozac I feel wonderful! This book really helps you I hope you give it a chance , I did and its the best thing and it was only 10 dollars!!!!!

Sounds like this book may be a great tool to add to your arsenal of anxiety weapons. I think I may pick it up in the near future and put my own review of it up on the blog. Thanks to Vanessa for her insight. If anyone else has read this book and would like to have their review posted on www.unnervedonline.com, please head over to the contact page and let me know your thoughts.

Hope and Help for your Nerves
Rating: 5/5
Website: Buy it on Amazon
Cost: $7.99
Creator: Dr. Claire Weekes

After years of searching and far too much money spent, I never would have thought that an $8 book would change my life. But it did. Hope and Help for your Nerves is an absolutely amazing book. I have learned more about my body and why it acts the way it does from this book, than from anything else.

This book will help you understand exactly what is happening when you feel anxious. Once you know what is happening, calming your nerves becomes easier. You don’t have to worry that you are dying, or that you are going crazy.

The basic idea in this book is that those who suffer from anxiety are in a “sensitized” state. Your nerves are always on edge, and the smallest things set them off. So the way to recovery is to “desensitize” your nerves. You do this by facing, accepting, and floating through your fear. By facing, accepting, and floating you don’t add second fear to the original fear, which creates a vicious cycle of anxiety.

One of the greatest parts of this book is that it doesn’t promise instant results. It doesn’t promise anything without work on your part. The only way to get better is to work hard and let time pass. But the things that you learn really work, and over time they can and do help you get better.

Another thing that I absolutely love about this book is that it is not just for those suffering from anxiety. There is information for those who suffer from depression, OCD, and many other illnesses.

The only thing that I didn’t particularly like in this book is that it is a bit outdated. Dr. Claire Weekes was a pioneer in the anxiety world in the ’60s and ’70s. So a lot of what you read is somewhat old, and many of the treatments that she discusses are not really in use anymore. But her passion and knowledge of the subject gets you through this pretty easily.

Aside from that one downfall, which is really not that big of a problem, this is the real deal. I have used it and made a massive change in my life and the way I deal with my nervous thoughts. I have used it to help family members begin to overcome problems that they were facing. And I am hoping to continue to use the methods and ideas in this book to help as many others as I can. Because there is nothing better than feeling well.

If you have searched high and low and still haven’t found what you were looking for, read “Hope and Help for your Nerves”. You will not be disappointed.

Change That’s Right Now
Rating: 1/5
Website: www.ctrn.com
Cost: $236 (Download Version) $246 (Print Version)
Creator: Seymour Segnit
Items included:

• 14 Chapter 3 CD set
  
• 94 Page workbook
  
• Money Back Guarantee
• $99 Special Rebate
  

This program definitely has the most aggressive sales pitch of any that I have looked in to. Videos on every page. Testimonials from “prominent” media figures. Worldwide acclaim. Promises of results in 24 hours. Rebates and guarantees. It must be the answer, right? Wrong!

Out of every program that I have researched and purchased, this is the worst.

I’ll start with the idea behind the program. First, you need to store up good thoughts, and then create a trigger (clenching your hand, pinching your ear lobe, etc.). This way, when you get anxious or nervous feelings you can just use your trigger and all the bad thoughts and feelings will be replaced with your stored “happy” thoughts. Sorry, your happy thoughts will not make you fly. Next you learn to use something called Time Line Therapy. Which is basically the idea of imagining yourself in a nervous situation, then imagining yourself 15 minutes later happy and comfortable. Now you won’t be so afraid of the nervous situation. That’s it. That’s all $236 dollars worth of the program. They were right about getting results in 24 hours though. Only, the results that I got were knowing that I was going to take full advantage of their money back guarantee.

Moving on to the special $99 rebate. You can get $99 off the program if you call a special number and give a 3 minute testimonial about the product. It can be positive or negative. I tried this. 2 months later, no rebate.

So I finally just decided it was time to get my money back. Luckily they have their quick easy refund policy, “If you’re not satisfied, just contact us and we will refund your money immediately.” Nice try. Here is how their refund policy works. You fill out an online form, with your order information. Then you have to print out a piece of paper and fill out all of the same information again. After that, you have to take the program to a library or charity and donate it. The library or charity then has to sign the paper that you filled out. Mail that in, and you get your money back. Not quite “contact us and get an immediate refund”. But here’s the interesting thing, I did the download version of the program. There was nothing to donate. After emailing customer service they told me to just fax over the form with “download” written in the signature area and I will receive my refund in 4 weeks. Not quite “immediate”. 4 weeks later, no refund. It took two more emails before they finally found my form and refunded my money.

Overall this program was a complete waste of money, a lot of time, and a portion of my sanity. Their vague promises and terrible customer service alone are a good enough reason to avoid this program. But the program itself is just silly and disappointing. Try it out if you like, but make sure you are ready to jump through plenty of hoops to get your money back, if you choose to.

Ilovepanicattacks.com
Rating: 3/5
Website: www.ilovepanicattacks.com
Cost: 2 payments of $89.50
Creator: Geert Verschaeve
Items included:

• 14 sessions on burned audio CDs
  
• 30-day free trial
  
• Money back guarantee

This program is a very interesting one. It was created by a gentleman from Belgium. He suffered for many years from anxiety and panic attacks. After searching for and going over a plethora of different self-help methods, he overcame his anxiety and created this program to help others do the same. He seems very genuine in all of his videos and in all the sessions. Of course, we have to remember that this is a way to make money, so we can’t buy right into the sales pitch.

The great thing about this program is that there is a FREE 30-day trial. Geert will send you the first 7 sessions absolutely free. He burns the CDs himself and sends them straight to you. You have 30 days to try it out, and if you like it you will make your first payment through Paypal. After you make your first payment, you will receive the last 7 sessions and you have another 2 months to decide if the program is for you. If it’s not, he will refund all of your money, and doesn’t ask that you return the CDs. If you do like the program you will make your last payment through Paypal and continue with the program. This policy is great, and goes to show that maybe he is a little less concerned with making money and more concerned about helping others overcome their anxiety.

As I began going through this program I got the feeling that it was much more complicated than it needed to be. There are 14 sessions and you are supposed to go through each session over the course of a week. The expectation is that you will go through each session 3 or 4 times in a week and then move on to the next. This was somewhat difficult for me trying to go to school, work 40 hours, and then go through the sessions and work on remembering everything that he talks about.

The basic idea of this program is, “Whatever happens, it’s OK”. This is a great motto for overcoming anxiety. For myself, and many others, the stress that develops comes from worrying about what will happen and what others will think. If you can just realize that no matter what it will be OK, you begin to calm down in normally stressful situations.

There are great tips in this program for dealing with panic attacks and being strong in high stress situations. But, even though it is also touted for overcoming anxiety, it didn’t seem to focus nearly as much on daily anxiety issues. If this is the area that you are having trouble with, I would suggest that you take your search for help elsewhere.

All in all, the program is great for those who have the time to get through it. I don’t personally believe that everyone can be completely cured in 14 weeks as is the claim of this product. But I do believe that if you have the patience to get through these sessions you will be better off after 14 weeks. However, if you are like me and don’t have the time or patience to go through a very demanding program, there are other alternatives. Which I will be discussing and going over in detail in future posts.

Before I begin with the first review, let me first give you my opinion of self-help programs and methods.

Just about every method you look into will claim that they are the best. They will tell you that their success rate is the best, and that they will cure you faster and more permanently than anything else. Please remember these two very important facts when choosing a self-help method:

1. These self-help methods are a business. Their goal is to make money.
2. Every single person is different. Their symptoms are different. Their levels of illness are different. And therefore, there is not one definitive way to treat or cure a nervous illness.

Keeping those facts in mind, the best thing you can do for yourself in researching a method is to look beyond the sales pitch and really learn and understand what the method is about. Then you can decide if that particular method fits your personality and your needs.

Now, on to the review.

The Linden Method
Rating: 2/5
Website: www.panic-anxiety.com
Cost: $109 (Download) $177 (Printed)
Creator: Charles Linden

Items included in the printed version:

• The Linden Method Manual
• 7 Audio CDs
• 1 year of 24-hour email and telephone support
• Free access to the download version
• Free ‘Stress Free in 30 Days’ eBook
• Free ‘Journey out of Agoraphobia’ audio program
• 5 Free ‘Conquer with…’ video presentations
• Free delivery
• 365 day refund guarantee
  

When I first purchased The Linden Method I thought I had finally found it. The cure. This was the first self-help program I had ever purchased. And I will admit, I bought into the hype. The sales pitch was very hard to resist:

In Under 10 Minutes
YOU’LL KNOW HOW TO TURN OFF YOUR ANXIETY, PANIC ATTACKS, OCD AND AGORAPHOBIA TODAY.
PERMANENTLY – GUARANTEED

Now, before I go any further, please scroll back up to the list of items included when you buy this method. I think it takes almost 10 minutes just to get everything out of the box. It takes A LOT longer than 10 minutes to read the manual, which is the very first thing that you are instructed to do. I’m not exactly sure why they make this “In Under 10 Minutes” claim, but don’t be fooled, this is a sales pitch. I spent days and weeks going through the manual and audio in this program before I really started getting comfortable with the method.

My biggest complaint with The Linden Method is that the basic idea of the method is to force the anxiety deep into your subconscious mind until it goes away. You are told to avoid discussing your anxiety with anyone, and that continually talking about your anxiety is the reason it will not go away. If you have read my About page, you will see that the exact opposite is what has begun to help me get better. Again, I want to remind you that everyone is different. Not discussing your illness may be what is best for you, forcing it away and never thinking or speaking of it may eventually cause it to disappear. But for me, this is definitely not the way to go about it. And as I continued to have episodes with my nervous illness I began to realize that The Linden Method was not for me.

Another problem that I found with the method in my particular situation is that I do not suffer from daily anxiety. My episodes occur with big, uncomfortable changes in my life. This made it very difficult for me to work through the method. I wasn’t having attacks or fear, so I didn’t feel that I needed to work on it. But when the episodes inevitably came around, I was not prepared and could not really remember the steps that I needed to follow to put the method into practice. This became very discouraging and eventually led to my abandonment of the program.

The Linden Method was not a completely bad experience for me. There are some things in the method that I really enjoyed. As you go through the method you get to read the life story of Charles Linden and his struggles with extreme agoraphobia. It was nice for me to learn about someone who was much worse off than I had ever been. And to know that he has recovered was very empowering in my quest to do the same.

Another piece of The Linden Method that I really enjoyed was the information on antidepressant medication. I have never taken an antidepressant, and I never plan to. So it was nice to see that there was an entire section of the method dedicated to explaining medications and creating a plan to quit taking them. More on antidepressants in a later post.

Overall I felt that The Linden Method was a pretty well done, and well thought out method. Though it was definitely not the right method for me and my particular illness. I think that there is far too much to go through, and far too many guarantees of (almost) instant recovery. For the right personality and illness, I think that this can be a great asset to recovery, but I definitely do not personally believe that it is ‘The World’s Premier Anxiety Elimination Program’.