Potions that cultivate relaxation and calm are useful, but true anxiety disorders or depressive conditions require cognitive behavioral therapy and sometimes medication. "Panic attacks" and "anxiety attacks" are basically the same thing, and people who are afflicted with them have "anxiety disorder," which can include a wide range of concomitant somatizing disorders, vestibular and perceptual effects, and phobias and obsessions. A lifestyle overhaul and some sort of counseling or medication regimen is often required. And while meditation, shamanic, or magical practices are great for thought transformation, people who are clinically depressed or suffering from clinical anxiety disorder or other forms of emotional illness should do that sort of thing under guidance from an experienced and responsible person. Such practices can actually make certain emotional and psychological illnesses worse. --Something that has been documented in the medical literature.
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Leaving aside those principles of magic that play on the superstitious and that, whatever they be, are unworthy of the general public, we will direct our thoughts only to those things that contribute to wisdom and that can satisfy better minds . . . -from De Magia by Giordano Bruno (born 1548; burned at the stake February 16, 1600). My Webpage
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