If you suffer from panic attacks or anxiety, you know how it can affect your life. Anxiety disorders and panic attacks can be disabling, frightening and difficult for other people to understand.

There is also the added danger of heart problems such as angina pectoris, which is generally regarded as harmless by doctors. But, it isn’t harmless, particularly if you do nothing to change your lifestyle and put yourself in a position where you are not so stressed that you fear for you life every day.

Some people who call themselves experts say that there is nothing to fear in modern, civilized life. They say that people who have anxiety attacks are only imaging the dangers that they are in. What fortunate people these psychologists and arm chair experts must be. They are lucky people, indeed, if they have not been victims of domestic violence, police brutality, or have been faced with having to walk to work in an urban environment where they were threatened by every other man they passed on the street and assaulted in crosswalks.

But, to those of you who have been repeated victims of crime and violence that has caused your body and your mind to react with an understandable level of anxiety and panic after the fact, there is one thing that you may have to come to grips with. The reason you feel anxious and panicked is that you are living under too much stress. And, I’m not talking about normal stress in this instance. Normal stress would be something like having to go to an unpleasant job every day. No, I’m talking about the kind of stress that causes you to fear for your life on a regular basis because you do live in an urban setting; because you do live in a city with a corrupt and criminal police force that is out of control; or because you – by virtue of the fact that you are not a big hairy he-man – are the repeated victim of psychos and stalkers.

It is a fact that some people are repeated victims of crime. They just are. There is a large percentage of victims of violent crimes who go on to become multiple victims. It is a complete and utter mystery to the criminologists and psychologists who have studied this – who try to find a reason why the victim is causing this to happen to herself. More women than men suffer from anxiety attacks. The reason for this are obvious. Women are more likely to suffer from anxiety because they are most often the targets of domestic violence, rape and other violent crimes.

Now, ask yourself is there a rational reason for your anxiety and panic attacks. It doesn’t matter if the people around you don’t understand it – they’re not you. They don’t know what happens to you every time you dare to leave your house in some urban areas. They are not experiencing what you are and they have not walked in your shoes. If I just described you in any of the above, then you should listen very carefully to what I’m about to tell you because it could save your life.

If you want to keep your health, you have got to change your lifestyle. I realize that this is a big thing that I’m proposing and you may not be able to do it over night, but if you are under stress because every day people cause you to feel threatened, it is time to start making the plan today. You’re not being unreasonable. You’re not crazy. You can’t take the advice of people who have not experienced what your’e going through.

Do some research and find a nice quiet rural place. If you are not adept with self-defense weapons, arm yourself and learn how to handle weapons properly. Investigate the laws and the crime statistics of any area before you move there.

Figure out right now how your are going to support yourself. Remember, it is possible to make a living entirely online these days. Put a plan in place that will free you from the hostility you are surrounded by. Even if it takes a year or two for you to put the plan in action, you will be saving your health and the sanity of yourself and everyone around you. I say that because if you have friends and family who are close to you they can see what is happening to you, too, they just don’t understand it.

I know what all of this is like because this very think has happened to me. The first thing I did was try to find a big, hairy male companion who intimidates other people. This doesn’t work in all circumstance, unfortunately. And it has the drawback of the fact that your bodyguard usually turns on you and attacks you at some point. I’ve heard this story again and again from other people.

What you can do is make a long-term plan to get to a safer, less hostile environment. Plan to go to a quiet place where you blend into the background physically. Drive the plainest car in the most common color (silver, grey or white). Find little place away from a lot of other people and start a new life.

If that sounds drastic to you, consider this. It’s not nearly as drastic as being stalked and harassed by perverts every time you open you open the door of your urban apartment and dare set a toe out on the street. It is a solution to the problem of living in the dangers of the city that a lof of people undertake. They do it all the time. For the sake of your health and probably your very life, you cannot afford to live in such circumstances and you must make a plan to get out of the situation and to a place of safety. Once you feel safe, your anxiety attacks will decrease in frequency and probably disappear completely.