A lay follower shared that she had suffered from panic disorder for years and had to take medication daily. But after living through an extremely difficult and frightening period in her life, one where she had to stay present and mindful through every moment of it, she found that she was able to stop taking her medication and return to a normal life — flying on planes, riding elevators alone, things she couldn't do before. She asked Ajahn to say more about this.

The First Case

Ajahn recalled a lay follower who had suffered from panic disorder since their teenage years, all the way into their twenties. Years of treatment hadn't helped, so they researched online and learned that mindfulness practice and Buddhist meditation in Thailand were said to give good results. They decided to come and ordain for a training course, and it was during that program that they met Ajahn.

While there, a severe panic episode struck, serious enough to require hospitalization in Chiang Mai. The doctors had no idea how to treat it beyond medication, so the person was set apart from the group and placed under Ajahn's direct care.

Ajahn asked them plainly: did they really want to recover? If so, they should stop the medication — because healing has to happen at the moment the symptom actually arises. He told them: the instant you feel an episode coming on, come and tell me right away.

Ajahn explained what was actually happening: karmic residue was releasing itself, causing the body to secrete something that produced a burning sensation in the head — lasting only moments before it passed. What made it unbearable was an "inner voice" that kept repeating, over and over, "You're going to die. There's no way out." It was this voice — not the physical sensation itself — that triggered the terror, the loss of mindfulness, and the loss of emotional control that landed the person in hospital.

Ajahn taught that when this happens, we need to understand that the "heart-mind" is not "us." The heart-mind is like a child; we are like the parent. When it becomes frightened, like a child crying, our job is to comfort it — not to panic right along with it. If a parent cries along with a crying child, no one is left to soothe the child.

The method Ajahn gave was this: as soon as the sensation begins, gently place a hand on the chest, over the heart, and say, "It's okay. It'll pass in just a moment. Don't be afraid." Done again and again, the episodes grew shorter and eventually stopped — because the karmic energy causing the sensation was actually quite small. It was the inner voice amplifying the fear that made it so severe.

The Second Case

Another lay follower had lived with panic disorder for ten years, unable to leave the house alone — always needing someone with them, unable even to ride in a car or fly. After beginning meditation practice, the condition improved, but only on the surface, because the root of the problem — the karmic seed — was lodged deep within, and only merit could dissolve it fully.

So this person sat in continuous meditation throughout the day — morning, midday, afternoon, and evening — for about three months. They then returned home to continue practicing there, and later came to sit with Ajahn at the Chonburi center for roughly a year. The condition improved enough that they could travel independently again. But later, while traveling abroad, they encountered a public protest, and the symptoms flared up once more. They returned to practice at the Chonburi center together with their family for about another six months, after which the condition finally settled and they were able to return to ordinary life and work.

Ajahn concluded that conditions like these stem from an unwholesome system with karmic causes underlying them. What's needed is simply to abide within the right, wholesome system, and to use wisdom to resolve the problem systematically at its root — that alone is enough to bring resolution.