About Jon

Obviously, my name is Jon Mercer...

I was born in town too small to have a Wal-Mart ;-) in South Georgia in 1964. I had a difficult childhood and by the teen years had developed the beginning stages of social phobia and panic attacks. Of course, at that age I had no idea what was happening to me, which made the symptoms all the more confusing and painful.

And I made the very common mistake of trying to hide my symptoms and feeling ashamed of them. By the way, this is always a BIG mistake, because anxiety and panic disorders thrive on secrecy, shame and fear.These points are obvious to me now, but at the time I didn't really have a clue! Live and learn...

I made it through high school (just barely) despite my symptoms continuing to worsen, and having a talent for music, I became a professional musician. A few years later I enrolled in college and majored in Psychology, not because I had any intention of ever becoming a psychologist, but because I was desperately trying to "fix" my own problems.

While I learned a great deal in school, I was still not able to "cure" my problems. And so I began to see one therapist after another, most of whom were a complete waste of money. Eventually, showing no improvement, I allowed my Dr to prescribe antidepressants. This was the beginning of a 6 year 'addiction' to antidepressant medicines.

Of course, at the time the Dr's assured me that these medications (SSRI's) were NOT addictive. I learned better when I tried to get off them and discovered the horrible withdrawal symptoms.These days, the manufacturers of SSRI's admit there are withdrawal symptoms, but at that time, the Dr simply looked at me as if I were the biggest fool he'd ever seen, and laughed it off.

Long story short: I did manage to get off the medications under my (new) Dr's supervision, though he recommended against it. This was my first real step toward recovery from panic and anxiety.

In the years that followed, I studied anxiety-based problems and treatments of all types, amassing a huge library of information from a variety of sources and perspectives, trying to find the one "key" that would release me from these problems. But although I had learned an enormous amount about the problem, both from personal experience and academic study, I still didn't have the one answer I was searching for.

And then...it hit me. It was as obvious as the sky above. I couldn't believe I didn't think of it before. I now had the one simple idea that would defeat panic and anxiety. I had found a simple concept that quickly and easily "starved" anxiety and panic symptoms.

My own symptoms disappeared quickly, and never returned. Later that same year I began working as a personal deveopment coach, and a few of my clients had anxiety problems. So I explained the techniques that had worked for me and was shocked to see how quickly they improved too.

I put together EasyCalm based on these same ideas about a year later, and the system has honestly been more successful than I ever could have imagined. I'm really grateful for the many positive emails I get about the system every day. It's pretty nice to turn on the computer in the morning and find a great "success story" email waiting in the inbox. Kind of makes the whole day a little sweeter.

Jon Mercer