No Time to Panic: How I Curbed My Anxiety and Conquered a Lifetime of Panic Attacks

ABC News correspondent Gutman (The Boys in the Cave) delves into his “twenty-plus-year battle with panic disorder” in this enlightening outing. During his career at ABC, Gutman developed a “public persona of jovial fearlessness” whether reporting from Venezuela on the country’s crumbling healthcare system in 2016, or crossing into Ukraine the day after the Russian invasion in 2022, despite “a rising crescendo of panic attacks” triggered by live broadcasting. After one such episode caused him to make a “fundamental journalistic error” while delivering a live report on the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Bryant’s daughter Gianna, and seven others, Gutman decided to seek out solutions for panic disorder. Over a period of about four years, he “turned the handle of almost every door” to treat the issue, including trying a smorgasbord of pills, breathwork that granted him relief for weeks, a guided “mushroom experience” that improved his mood, drinking ayahuasca, and undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy. In the end, Gutman found “everything worked, some things more than others,” and realized firsthand the value of disclosing the condition to gain “psychological relief” and release shame. While his list of tips for fellow sufferers is relatively generic (“don’t let it fester,” “meditate,” and “breathe”), Gutman’s up-close dispatches from his “circuitous road toward healing” are self-aware, sharp, and vulnerable. Anxiety sufferers should take note. (Sept.)