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

Matt Gutman can tell you the precise moment when his life was upended. Reporting live on a huge story in January 2020, he found himself in the throes of an on-air panic attackand not for the first time. The truth is that Gutman had been enduring panic attacks in secret for twenty years: soul-bruising episodes that left his vision constricted, his body damp, his nerves shot. Despite the challenges, he had carved out a formidable career, reporting from war zones and natural disasters before millions of viewers on Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and 20/20. His nerves typically punched through to TV audiences, making his appearances kinetic and often unforgettable.

But his January 2020 broadcast was unusual for all the wrong reasons. Mid-panic, Gutman misstated the facts of a story, a blunder that led to a monthlong suspension, not to mention public shame and personal regret.

It was a reckoning. Gutmans panic attacks had become too much for him to bear in secret. He needed help.

So begins a personal journey into the science and treatment of panic attacks. Gutman would talk to the worlds foremost scholars on panic and anxiety, who showed him that his mind wasnt broken; its our perception of panic that needs recalibration. He would consult therapists and shamans, trying everything from group treatment and cognitive behavioral therapy to ayahuasca and psilocybin. And he would take a hard look at the trauma reverberating inside himfrom his childhood, but also from his years as a conflict reporter.

Unsparing, perceptive, and often funny, this is the story of a panic sufferer who took on the monster within. Filled with wisdom and actionable insights, its at once an inspirational journey and a road mapif not toward a singular cure, then to something even more worthy: peace of mind.

Hardcover, Sept 12th 2023