Sometimes I wonder if we are tampering where we don't belong. But do we have a choice. We have polluted our water so bad we have to chlorinate it now so it is safe to drink. We have to use pesticides now because we have made an ideal environment for bugs to grow. And we have created an ideal environment for stress to grow. So with mental issues. There is  fork in the road just like there was with water and bugs. In the last couple of decades with the help of instruments that can look at the smallest bits of the brain we now have a pretty good Idea how it works and what can go wrong. We also have the internet to get the information out where it can do some good. What are we doing with this information. For the most part we are using it to design better and stronger drugs so we can go on destroying our brains. We don't need them anyway we have computers. And Tylenol and pepto bismal and of course SSRI's and Benzo's. But believe me the pain from a panic attack is far worse than any headache or sore stomach. Even if it doesn't last as long, and often they do. So I have to wonder why we are not using the information to understand and prevent panic attacks instead of just design better pills. CBT works (if it is CBT), how can it not. But like everything else would it not work better if you understood why it works. We don't need more pills, as we age we need pills to counter the damage we have done physically over a lifetime. Do we need to be taking them for our head. It is pretty limited what we can do to put off the aging since so much is inherited. I can't reverse the damage to my body, but I can reverse the damage to my brain. Because it is not damage. It is realigning to suit input. And as such it can be realigned again to suit a better input. It actually does this by changing pathways strengthening and thickening the ones used most. Yes they have actually traced this happening. Surprised the hell out of me when I learned this because nothing actually moves as in healing a cut or a broken bone. Neurons just use different pathways creating different memories in the parts of our brains that control thought. Better memories better control. Yet if you trace the electrical waves in a negative brain compared to a positive one you will see a difference. So in fact there is no reason that when you get better you can't stay that way. After all only you can change the pathways back. And why would you. Is this more information than we need. Not really if it gives us a concrete reason to try. Even if we can't understand it, it gives us more reason than just doing it because it is supposed to work. Lots of things are supposed to work but fail because we don't know why they work. You can bake a cake from instructions but can't really modify it unless you know how the parts work. So what, it is still a cake even if it could be a great cake. But this is the computer age. And it can fix anything! Almost! Well not really! Be nice if it could. But it is information and we should use that information because our brains work with information. They change with information and we can only get better with information. Positive thought is information, negative thought is information. The choice is yours. This is CBT also, anything that changes negative thought to positive is CBT. Anything that keeps it there is success. Knowing that the brain changes to do this is probably more than we need. But not for me. for me knowing helped a great deal.