Anxiety Success Stories: Amber's Journey With Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, an Eating Disorder, and POTS
Welcome to another episode of A Health Push podcast! On today's episode I'm so excited to be talking to Amber, who's actually the first self-paced Panic to Peace student I've had on the podcast.
If you don't know, my Panic to Peace program is run in two different ways. In the live version of P2P, we meet weekly in a group setting via Zoom. I teach, we have Q&A's, discussions, and supportive conversations. And if you aren't able to attend live, the sessions are always uploaded afterwards and immediately available to you. The live version is great for you if you're wanting extra support, accountability, and motivation.
​In the self-paced version of P2P, you simply press play on the video modules and you learn all of the material at your own pace. The self-paced version is great for you if you're self-motivated and wanting to take the program at your own pace and not within a group.
With that said, let me introduce you to Amber. My students anxiety success stories are always super inspiring, and this one is no different, so tune in to hear all about her journey with anxiety, panic disorder, agoraphobia, an eating disorder, and POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). Let’s dive in!
Childhood Challenges and Feeling Unsafe
Amber first opened up about her childhood, where she often felt lonely, and described herself as a highly sensitive child. With a mom who struggled to regulate her own feelings, this often left Amber navigating her emotions alone.
Throughout her school years, she began masking—trying to fit in, hiding her true self, and developed an eating disorder as a way to gain control. She experienced her first panic attack at 16-years-old, and she describes the experience as many others do - "terrifying."
Hitting a Wall
In her 20s, Amber hit a wall. The control she’d tried to maintain started unraveling, and she realized she couldn’t keep living that way. After opening up to her family, Amber made the brave decision to enter rehab. This was a game-changer—a place where she began reconnecting with her body through therapy, mindfulness, art, yoga, and nature walks.
She described the experience as heavy, but profound, and was able to make some real progress with her eating disorder.
Unfortunately, soon after leaving rehab, Amber's anxiety resurfaced. Panic attacks returned, leaving her feeling raw and vulnerable. This is definitely such a common experience, when we strip away coping mechanisms and are faced with difficult feelings that we need to learn how to feel.
Entering Parenthood and POTS Diagnosis
Amber married a supportive partner, and together they started a family. In the years that followed, Amber started experiencing strange health symptoms—a racing heart, dizziness, blurred vision—that doctors initially wrote off as just anxiety.
 Amber followed her intuition, and through self compassion advocated for herself, and was diagnosed with POTS, a condition that explained many of her symptoms. It was bittersweet—relief to have answers, but also more layers to peel back.
Panic and Agoraphobia
One particularly bad panic attack while driving her son led to Amber becoming housebound for three months. All the symptoms hit—derealization, blurry vision, a racing heart. She recalls finding it difficult to show those emotions in front of her son, but realized that modeling emotional regulation—letting him see her face her fears, was so important.
Amber began tackling her agoraphobia. She started small—just sitting in her car or driving around the block. She leaned into self-compassion, took healthy action, and slowly started to open up her world.
Amber has made so much progress through lots of healthy action and self compassion. She’s even launched a children’s yoga and mindfulness practice to teach kids the emotional regulation tools she didn’t learn as a child!
Amber’s story is so inspiring, so a huge thank you to her for being so vulnerable and thank you for taking the time to listen to the episode. If you’re on your own healing journey, I hope Amber’s story remind you that you’re not alone, and it’s worth every bit of the hard work. Until next time, keep taking healthy action.
Feeling like you've tried everything but you're still struggling with lots of anxious thoughts, symptoms, panic attacks, and fears? Take my FREE 60-minute masterclass today and learn 5 shifts that will actually help you to overcome anxiety, panic disorder, and agoraphobia. And I promise, you won't hear any of the usual stuff from me - like doing breathing exercises, grounding practices, cutting out caffeine, and doing more exposures. Let's get you the peace and freedom you deserve without it being so hard!
Check out my masterclasses here and start experiencing lots more peace, joy, & freedom!
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