A Chipur Reader’s Review | The Linden Method

Panic attack symptoms, PTSD, chronic and acute stress, generalized anxiety. People helping people, that’s what Chipur’s about. So when a reader asked if she could post a review of The Linden Method, I was more than happy to take her up on it.

I love writing for Chipur, presenting my thoughts and feelings on all things mood and anxiety ick. But it’s important to tune-in to what’s on the minds of others. I mean, sharing always ramps-up learning and healing. And that’s why I’m huge on guest posts.

So, okay, let’s see what Magda has to say about The Linden Method…

The Linden Method is a very popular anti-anxiety kit marketed and written by Charles Linden. The packet includes a booklet, some hypnosis CDs, and a CD featuring calming exercises. When my beleaguered and bewildered parents bought me the set in the early 2000s, the cost was upward of $300.

After seeing me sink to my knees in sheer terror on some vacations and early evenings at home, and now contemplating a move of nearly 1,000 miles, my parents wanted to help. When I think of them shelling over that cold hard cash to help me, their looney tunes daughter, I just wanted to rattle them and cry. I still have guilt over that purchase.

Charles Linden has been through it – no doubt. His book featured a lengthy autobiography section up to the present day. The method boasts a “proven 100%” cure rate – but here’s the catch – only if YOU follow the program correctly. This leads one to believe that if one deviates from this course even an inch, one is subject to completely obliterating their chances of recovery.

I remember skimming through the tips section. It was a grab bag of good and bad suggestions. Some of the good ones were activating the dive reflex, practicing hypnosis, phoning a friend (with no lifelines!), and the rest ran in this similar vein. However, the stinkers were doozies. For example, one of them boasted that at night if you were feeling anxious to eat an apple. If you were still anxious, eat another. This was only one of the tips, I must stress.

The tips concerning grounding, hypnosis, and breathing were good. But, remember, you must do them correctly, left to your own devices. One of the pillars of recovery was not to talk about your panic attacks. Even if you were having one you were not to talk about them.

I remember pawing my way and clawing open the last CD – the one with “the cure.” It was a recording of Linden talking and the message was (and I quote): “The problem is you.” The tears rolled down my face. Surely, this can’t be the answer I was looking for. It’s not this simple. Sure, Linden has a point. Our inner critic and negative schemas are powerhouses that generate fear responses to stimuli. In that respect, he is right; we have learned our way into our own conditions. But, as panic attack sufferers, most of these tricks, such as distraction and the infamous apple exercise, are not new to us.

Linden is not all bad. He opened my mind to the calming process of self-hypnosis which I use to this day. When I can’t sleep or I’m mired in fear, I do a YouTube search, pull up a clip for hypnosis for anxiety or an NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) track and etch the experience on the backs of my eyelids for a solid thirty minutes. Without Linden’s guidance, I would have shunned hypnosis probably for the rest of my life. And it was good to read that someone experienced what I do to this day.

The Linden Method has come down in price and carries many endorsements. If you think some of the strong points of the Linden Method are a fit for you and suit your personality, then please check it out. There is now a help line and many more implements into the program that did not exist when I tried it. It has streamlined and amped up its outreach. Linden does know what it’s like to suffer. The question is: are you suited for his style?

Good stuff, Magda, and it’s appreciated.

Folks, there are tons of traditional and non-traditional remedies for panic attack symptoms, PTSD, stress, OCD, depression, bipolar spectrum issues – anything we deal with here on Chipur. And the thing is, what doesn’t work for one of us may flow wonderfully for another. Go figure, that’s the crap-shoot current state of affairs within the realm of mind challenges treatment.

So, the Linden Method – whether your experiences with it have been good or bad, let us know in a comment, k? And if you want to learn more about it, here ya’ go.

Hey, one last thing. If you’d like to submit a guest post, drop me a line and let’s chat. And I’m always looking for stories of courage and hope. Wantin’ to hear from you.

Plenty more articles where this came from. Peruse…