It's the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hello, everybody. Panic attacks can be terrifying, debilitating, and humiliating.

They're scary in the moment, obviously. If you don't deal with them, you can find your life

getting very small very quickly because it will severely limit your activities because you will

be avoiding so many things. And for many of us, myself included, it's just plain embarrassing

to be freaking out like this. It can make you feel like you're broken or defective.

The good news is there are a lot of ways to treat panic. I've seen it in my own life as somebody

who famously had a meltdown on live television and who also quite recently dealt with a raging

case of claustrophobia that was making my life pretty hellish, especially when it came to

airplanes and elevators. Through therapy and medication, I've been able to get back on my feet.

It's frequently a struggle even now, but it is totally doable. My guest today, Matt Gutman is a

friend and former colleague who, like me, was experiencing panic attacks on live television.

And like me, he went to great lengths to figure out how to deal with this condition. But I have to

say, Matt has gone way further than I did. He's written a whole book about this. It's called

No Time to Panic in which he lays out the physiological and the evolutionary causes of panic.

And then he takes a whole epic journey to treat panic disorder through therapy,

medication, all kinds of psychedelics, breathing exercises, meditation, and more.

The takeaway is very reassuring. Panic is both completely normal and very treatable. A little

bit of information about Matt before we dive in here. Matt is the Chief National Correspondent

at ABC News where he's won a bunch of awards, well, contributing to such shows as World

News Tonight with David Muir 2020. Good morning, America and Nightline. He has reported from

50 countries across the planet. This is his second appearance on this show. I'll put a link in

...