Panic Attacks, Near Death, and a Song 12 Years in the Making: P2P Student Tom’s Story
Panic Attacks, Near Death, and a Song 12 Years in the Making: P2P Student Tom's Story
What does real recovery from panic disorder actually look like?
Not the cinematic version where someone throws their pills out the window and drives off into the sunset never to have a panic attack again. The real version. The one that's slow and unglamorous and built on blind faith and small steps taken over and over again until one day you realize how far you've come.
That's Tom’s story. And it's a good one.
A Near Death Experience That Changed Everything
At 28 years old, Tom had a near death experience that triggered debilitating panic attacks and completely upended his life. What followed were years of avoidance, medication changes, losing close friends, and slowly watching the life he wanted slip further and further away.
One of the biggest things panic took from him was music. There was a song, a song tied to that near death experience, a song that he couldn't record. Couldn't get on a plane to record. Couldn't even get on a freeway to begin working toward it.
For over a decade, that song sat unfinished.
The Work That Actually Works
Tom is someone who really did his homework. He absorbed everything he could find about anxiety, panic, and how the brain works. He took my driving course. He joined Panic to Peace. And then he did the hardest part: he actually showed up, week after week, and committed to taking the small steps even when progress felt invisible.
There's no magic moment in Tom's story. No overnight transformation. What there is instead is someone who kept going when it was hard, who stayed patient when he wanted results faster, and who slowly, quietly started reclaiming his life one exit on the freeway at a time.
I always say the people who make the most progress are the ones who stop trying to heal overnight and just focus on taking the next small step. Tom is the embodiment of that.
The Freeway Moment
One of my favorite moments Tom shares in this conversation is the morning he decided to get on the freeway before a session with his panic specialist. He dropped his daughter at daycare, turned on Come and Get Your Love to feel good, felt his heart rate climb — and then said to himself: thank you, heart. You work.
He got on the freeway. He drove four exits. And when he got on his call that morning and told his specialist what he'd done, the response was: “you're already in the f*** it phase.”
That's the work. Staying when every part of you wants to leave. Saying I see you to the fear and moving anyway. And slowly, slowly, teaching your brain that it doesn't need to sound the alarm anymore.
Flare Ups Are Part of It
Something Tom says that I really want you to hear: a flare up is not a setback. A few days before we recorded this episode, Tom had a moment of anxiety on a run. And instead of spiraling, he thought, okay, that drawer is still back there in my brain and it opened up today. That's okay. I'm still here. I still have things to do. I'm going to keep going.
That is what recovery looks like. Not the absence of hard moments, but a completely different relationship with them when they show up.
The Song
At 40 years old, Tom is about to release the song he almost never got to record. He got on a plane. He went to the studio. He did the thing that panic told him for over a decade he would never be able to do.
And he did it not because the fear disappeared, but because he stopped waiting for it to.
If you are in the middle of panic disorder right now and wondering if recovery is actually possible — please listen to this episode. Tom is proof that it is. The work is worth it. The small steps add up. And the life you want is still waiting for you on the other side of the fear.
Join Panic to Peace
September 2026 is your last chance to enroll until September 2027.
Get on the waitlist here.
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You don’t have to stay stuck. Healing is possible and it’s closer than you think.
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