Childhood Anxiety

Childhood anxiety is not so very different form anxiety in adults. Hopefully children can get over anxiety and panic attacks faster, if it is caught early and the cause dealt with.

In my case it was not caught early. I was firstly diagnosed with an ear infection (The cause of my dizziness) and then shipped off to see a neurologist and given an EEG scan to check for tumours and epilepsy. It was some obviously a relief to have the results turn up negative, but I do remember being disappointed when I realised that if it were epilepsy I could be treated by taking a simple course of medication.

It was several years before I told my parents about my symptoms and it wasn’t until I was twenty-one that I was successfully diagnosed as suffering from anxiety. By that time I had been suffering frequent bouts of anxiety for nine years.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy wouldn’t have helped much. With childhood anxiety I think the cause is important. It is bound to be unhappiness in the home, parental strife, insecurity, bullying at school or too much pressure. Sometimes a homosexual child may feel constrained by a conservative family, and anxiety can easily result from inner-self doubt or anger. So rather than using CBT alone, I would suggest looking for the cause. If my causes (low self esteem, insecurity, unhappiness in family life, unhappiness at school, not having space to be myself, depression) had been dealt with, I would not have grown into finding the anxiety of my childhood so normal and everyday that is was hard to let go of.

If Childhood Anxiety is not dealt with in childhood it will surely go on to cause anxiety or depression in adulthood.

Agoraphobics - Wanted for TV Therapy Show

"I am currently working at Monkey Productions, an independent TV company, on a documentary about Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia for Channel 4.

We are fortunate to be working with Professor Paul Salkovskis - the Clinical Director of the Anxiety Disorders and Trauma Unit at the Maudlsey Hospital and one of the leading specialists in this condition in the UK. He has devised an intensive treatment programme specifically designed to help sufferers get their lives back on track. This TV series follows on from the success of 'The House of Obsessive Compulsives' which we produced for Channel 4 last year. If you didn't see it, these programmes depicted the lives of 3 people suffering from OCD who underwent treatment with Paul and his team: all three of them improved dramatically. We aim to produce similarly sensitive and sympathetic films about Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia.

I am keen to talk to anyone who feels 'trapped' by the condition about their experiences to learn more about how the condition affects them, and ultimately to find people who are keen to take part in the treatment programme itself. "

If you are interested call Zoe on 0207 749 3169

Phobias - a Cortisol Link/Cure?

This was from the BBC Health Section


Hormone could cut spider phobia

As long as this one doesn't come up the plugholeIt could be easier for those with a fear of spiders to have a bath following a study published this week.

Researchers suggest arachnophobes, and people with other phobias, could be helped by a dose of the stress hormone cortisol, which impairs memory.

The University of Zurich team found giving the hormone before being exposed to the phobia trigger led to less fear.

But a psychiatrist said the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study was not the whole answer.

It seems unlikely that you could remove a long-term phobia by simply altering the chemical levels

Dr Cosmo Hallstrom, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the treatment would not help people stop avoiding the thing they had a phobia of.

Standard phobia therapy involves exposing a person to whatever it is they are frightened of in initially tiny doses, building up to full exposure - by say, holding a spider - so that they are no longer frightened and stop organising their life in a way that means they avoid the trigger of their phobia.

Stress reports

Cortisol impairs the retrieval of memories, so the principle the researchers were looking into was whether giving a dose of the hormone before people were exposed to a spider - or their own personal phobia trigger - would help.

The theory was tested on 40 people with social phobia and 20 with spider phobia.
Half of those studied were given cortisol and the rest a dummy version.

They were then either asked to give a speech in public, or exposed to a spider, depending on their phobia.

In both cases, subjects who received the hormone reported less stimulus-induced fear and anxiety.

Those who were frightened of spiders who were given the hormone treatment saw a progressive reduction of fear during each session over the two-week period of the study.
This was maintained during the final session when subjects received no drug treatment.
Those patients who were not given the hormone treatment who reported the least anxiety released the most cortisol, which the researchers say supports their theory.

The team, led by Dr Dominique de Quervain, suggest that cortisol treatment, in conjunction with behavioural therapy, could be used to reduce or even extinguish phobias and post-
traumatic stress disorders which are triggered by a particular stimulus.

But Dr Hallstrom added: "It seems unlikely that you could remove a long-term phobia by simply altering the chemical levels of something that's already present in the body.

"This is very interesting research. But it is only part of the story.

"Phobias have two components. One is the fear of whatever it is you have a phobia about.

"Bu the other is that you spend your life avoiding that thing. This treatment wouldn't help with that."

Anxiety - Coeliac Diseas and IBS Link.

It is well know that Coeliac Disease can cause depression and breathlessness, (along with lots of other nasty symptoms) but what about anxiety? It can be hard to tell if a food type is causing anxiety although diets high in wheat, dairy, caffeine, simple carbohydrates and sugars have all been blamed before for panic, low mood and agitation.

Let's be clear about exactly what Coeliac Disease is. Coeliac disease is not an allergy or an intolerance, it is an auto-immune disorder which causes your body to attack itself if gluten is ingested. It's an incredibly hard disease to diagnose and doctors can not be really sure if a patient has it until they have carried out a biopsy. Some statistics suggest that as many as one in a hundred people could have the disease. It is serious (increasing the risk of stomach cancer amongst others) and if you have any symptoms you should definitely get yourself checked out.
Is there a link between anxiety and Coeliac disease? Well, there certainly is an important link between the stomach and the mind. Research has found that as many as 90% of those with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) also present some psychiatric issue such as anxiety, depression, or OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). So it would be surprising if Coeliac Disease did not bring out stress and anxiety in someone that already had it inherent inside them. There is as yet no proof that Coeliac Disease causes anxiety but unexplained symptoms, particularly ones that cause nausea and diarrhoea, may well lead to an association being formed between extreme worry and being away from home. Only a couple of painful or embarrassing incidents in a shopping mall would be needed for most people to start to worry about visiting the mall.

IBS is much more common than Coeliac Disease. Rather than being a specific ailment it is more a category of symptoms. For some people it is aggravated or brought on by eating wheat, dairy produce and sometimes oats and rye. It may be unrelated to particular foodstuffs and a careful diet may or may not be useful in controlling symptoms. There is no Cure for IBS as such, as there are as many perturbations of the condition as there are sufferers. Many people do find relief with some experimentation.

When it comes to anxiety rather than see IBS or Coeliac Disease rather than seeing them as a cause of anxiety, perhaps anxiety is the cause of them. Or at least factors which play a large role in exacerbating the symptoms. Often people fond that their symptoms are worse in various locations, such as at work. In these cases dealing with stress may be a far better than solution than any special diet.


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Anxiety Meme

I thought I'd start an impromptu survey meme type thing here by asking what your worst fear is. What is the worst possible thing that you think could happen to you. Is it an unavoidable confrontation with a something of which you are awfully phobic? Like a big hairy spider in your sleeping bag or a Black Mamba hanging from the curtain rail in your shower?

Is it something more socially orientated, like losing your train of thought during an important speech and slouching from the podium to the sound of your own feet as thousands in the audience look at the floor and cringe?

Is it being caught in flagrante by your wife or husband? Catching a terminal disease? Nuclear war or being struck by a meteor?

Whatever really scares the hell out of you, I'd like to know!

Post your answers on the anxiety blog here.

If you don't know what a meme is click here.

1. anxiety
2. meme
3. fear
4. Phobia
5. Snakes
6. Panic
7. attack

Anxiety - The Importance of a High Life State

To beat anxiety you need to keep yourself in a high life state. Most people who suffer from Anxiety, Panic Attacks or Agoraphobia tend to link their symptoms with certain situations: crowded shops, being far from home, elevators, freeways etc. These associations are of course completely erroneous, they are just our minds trying to make sense of something we don't properly understand.

Anxiety disorders seem to develop when people undergo great stress, hardship or fear at a time when their lives are already at a low ebb. Life stressors which tend to create the conditions in which anxiety disorders take hold include:

• bereavement
• work stress
• illness
• divorce
• physical/sexual/psychological abuse

And many more. Anxiety disorders also often seem to spring out of a period of depression.

Unsurprisingly, if being in a low life state helps us fall into an anxiety disorder, getting ourselves into a happier, higher life state greatly helps us climb out of the anxiety and fear cycle. So how do we get into a higher life state when we feel so anxious and rotten? Let us examine two options:

Firstly I recommend looking for the good in your anxiety. Whether you have religious faith or not you probably believe things happen for a reason. “What good can possibly have come of anxiety?” do I hear you say? I suspect that if you look hard enough you will find that you have benefited from your anxiety. I did.

In my case:

• Anxiety caused me to find true happiness because I wouldn't settle for anything less.
• It made me a fighter – overcoming anxiety left me feeling invincible.
• It saved me from a dull career in the financial sector, where I would have become a clone.
• It made me understand the true value of friendship. I would not be the person I am today without it.
  

I could go on but my benefits are not useful to you, we all have our individual benefits. Try and understand what your anxiety has told you, and what you have gained from it. Try to be grateful for it. That is not as ridiculous as its sounds. When you are grateful for your anxiety and you see it as a part of you that is trying to help you, it becomes easier to release.

The second step of gaining a higher life state it to deal with the people who make your life miserable. These are the people you fear, the people who you feel you need to impress, and the people that control you and put you down. Whether you change your relationship with them or remove them from your life is up to you. There are no short cuts or magic wands here. If someone is making you feel rotten then the situation has to change, and you can't hang around waiting for them to act in your best interest. The action you take depends on your particular scenario, in many cases coolly and calmly becoming more stubborn and less guilty pays a lot of dividends. It may take time for friends and family to adjust to the new you, they may even resent the fact that you are willing to put yourself first for once. This is all part of the process, relish every second: because you're worth it!

A word should be said about domestic violence and bullying at school or in the workplace. If standing up to your aggressor will put you in danger then don't do it. Instead, speak to someone else. You do not have to suffer on your own. When you speak out people can help you in all sorts of ways that you can barely imagine, and your anxiety will improve in droves as you take further control of your life!

In part two of this series I will examine several more ways of raising your life state to beat anxiety.

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Anxiety - Keeping in a high life state

When tackling anxiety, panic attacks and phobias it is important to be in a high life state. What do I mean by that? Well, anxiety issues (which often lead to panic attacks and phobias) are often compounded or even caused by stressors in daily life. These stressors could be such things as unhappy marriages, bullying at school or work, a feeling of a pointless life, a pending court case, or an illness. Life is full of ups and downs and there is no escape from the challenges of life, nor would such an escape be desirable; life is exciting because of those ups and downs, and in the ups and downs of others' lives. People who become too rich and comfortable end up drinking themselves to death because life is too dull.

The answer is not to escape life's hardships but to be bigger than them, to enjoy the struggle and know when to take decisions. Many years ago I heard about a woman who had anxiety which had lead to agoraphobia. She was also in a violent marriage which made her desperately unhappy. The therapist pointed out to her that she was wasting her time tackling the anxiety while she was still in that marriage, because it kept her in such a low life state.

I am not contradicting myself, being bigger than an issue means knowing when to take positive action to escape. The guts to do this are an important part of tackling anxiety and panic attacks. So on the one hand you have to be able to take the knocks, and on the other know when the knocks are too big and its time to take a safer path. By taking more control of your life you will be in a better position to tackling your anxiety. You may even see your anxiety diminish radically just by being more assertive and letting life bother you less.

More tips on raising your life state tomorrow!

List of Phobia Cures

by Adam Eason

Phobias are these intense, irrational fears which cannot be overcome even when the sufferer is fully aware (as is usually the case), that there is no reason for the fear. There may have been a very valid reason for it at some stage of your life, but not anymore.

Fear is steeped in anxiety, and there does not seem to be any aspect of life that people don't get anxious about at some time during their lives. But when the fear of that thing is so crippling that we become frozen at the very thought of it - let alone seeing it - you have moved from a simple fear to a paralyzing phobia.

Most people are aware of the phobia surrounding the fear of flying or spiders; I have taken it upon myself to list all phobias. I decided to list all phobias as I keep on getting requests about some unusual ones. I have done my best to create a list of phobias that is all encompassing, some may seem ridiculous, some may give you the wrong ideas, just use the list of phobias in the way that is right for you.

Phobias take many different forms and the list of phobias includes fear of humiliation or embarassment (social phobias), fear of high places (acrophobia), fear of open places (agoraphobia), fear of spiders (arachnophobia), fear of enclosed spaces (claustrophobia) and fear of animals (zoophobia).

Phobias may relate from almost any situation, idea or object and most people have at least one mild phobia that is on the list of phobias. Severe phobias are, however, very disabling and can seriously disrupt normal living.

As I decided to list all phobias and researched the subject even further beyond what I originally knew about them, it seems more likely that a phobia is a simple, forgotten conditioned reflex which is kept active (reinforced) by the repeated drive to avoid the unpleasant experience. There is often an initial sensitising event where you learned the phobic response, however, this is not always the case; it may have been learned gradually and increasingly over time.
This view is supported by the success of behaviour therapy in removing phobias. While most of these fears are rooted in some reality; we all know needles do hurt, dogs do occasionally go for you, new people can be judgmental and so on; a phobia is based in an unrealistic fear: the needle will break off in your arm and the dogs will attack you like in a horror movie. All these thoughts are terrifying to those who suffer from the phobia.

Two of the most common fears noted when I chose to list all phobias and research how common they are, are those of tests and spiders. Test anxiety is rooted in comparing yourself to other people, and is deeply rooted in fear of failure. Spiders are creepy, and are portrayed as so in so much media and a phobic will often become hysterical or faint at the sight of one.

With this list of phobias that I have drawn up, while you may or may not know about all of the technical definitions of the phobias on the list , I reckon that if you do have one of them there is one thing that you know for sure:

You know how that phobia and fear feels in your body and your mind!

And it is not your favourite feeling is it? However, there are answers even when everything else you may have tried has not been successful. If you suffer from any of the phobias or fears on the list of phobias, you may not want to talk about it or want people to know that you have this disorder or somewhere inside you may feel that no one really understands you and how you feel. No matter how compassionate, understanding or competent a friend or therapist may be, you know that they haven't experienced the feeling and terror that you experience in your body.

What's more, for some people that suffer from some of the fears on the list of phobias just talking about your phobia and fear symptoms actually brings on the symptoms themselves. You are in a vicious cycle.

Perhaps the most tragic part of phobia and fear is that they prevent you from living life to the fullest. You may not want to go to certain places or experience certain events for fear it may trigger your phobia or fear. Regardless, phobia and fear prevent us from living a joyful, vibrant life.

Imagine what your life will be like when you are free. When you can be confident and at ease in situations where you used to feel phobic or fearful. Imagine what it will be like when you can talk about your former symptoms as though you are describing a movie where the character is someone else, not you. It is like you have a distant memory of it.

Here is a list of phobia cures and Treatment Options

- Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy helps to reprogram your unconscious minds processes that may be generating your fear. When these processes resolved, people are then free of the symptoms of phobia and fear is minimized.

You can overcome fears and phobias on the list of all phobias using hypnosis. Hypnosis and other forms of modern personal development allow you to enter a state of trance and then deliver suggestions to reprogram, control or eliminate the phobia entirely. Imagine how nice it would be to go into a classroom for a test and not have an anxiety attack, or to be able to go camping in the woods. It works - it really does!

Hypnotherapy is safe and works fast and is becoming one of the most popular treatment options on this list of phobia cures.

- Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

NLP is basically the study and practice of how we create our reality. From the NLP viewpoint, your fear is the result of your programs or "constructs" that you have created that are outmoded and not functioning as you would like them to. With NLP, these constructs are identified, exposed and re-programmed so that your phobia is made vulnerable and subsequently minimized and very often eliminated.

NLP interventions are quite rapid and effective.

- Meridian and Energy Psychology

Meridian and Energy Psychology is emerging as an excellent therapy for fears and phobias because in studies it is shown to be rapid, safe, effective and long-lasting. Energy Psychology is based on a theory and practice that has been around for a couple of thousand years. Energy Psychology has the same foundation or roots as acupuncture, except in this case there are no needles used. You could call it emotional acupuncture - without the needles.

Recent scientific studies have shown Energy Psychology to be very effective. The two main fields of this meridian and energy psychology are EFT and TFT.
Energy Psychologies have been shown to enable you to quickly and easily change your behaviors as well as your thought patterns changing, often very quickly. What's more, you develop skills and techniques that are useful for a lifetime in all situations.

- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Cognitive therapy or cognitive behavior therapy is a kind of psychotherapy used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other forms of mental disorder.
It involves recognizing unhelpful patterns of thinking and reacting, then modifying or replacing these with more realistic or helpful ones. Its application in treating schizophrenia along with medication and family therapy is recognized by the NICE guidelines within the British NHS.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is based on the idea that how we think (cognition), how we feel (emotion), and how we act (behaviour) all interact together. Specifically, our thoughts determine our feelings and our behaviour. Therefore negative thoughts can cause us distress and result in problems.

- Conventional Medicine

Next on this list of phobia cures is conventional medicine. The physiological responses to phobias such as having a fast pulse, sweating, high blood pressure, and so on, can be controlled by the use of beta-blocking drugs.

The bodys beta receptors are tiny areas scattered all over the heart, the arteries, muscles and elsewhere at which adrenaline and related hormones act when you have your phobic reaction. When these hormones contact the receptors their effect is to speed up the heart and constrict blood vessels, so increasing the blood pressure; and to widen the airway tubes in the lungs. All this happens in moments of stress and need for action. The beta-blocker drugs have the same general chemical shape as the adrenaline molecule and so fit into the receptor sites in the same way, effectively blocking them so that arenaline, although present, cannot act.

About the Author

Adam Eason is a world renowned consultant, speaker and best-selling author. Please visit his website for the list of phobias and to discover more about Adams amazing phobia release programme: http://www.adam-eason.com Thank you.

ELIMINATE STRESS AND ANXIETY FROM YOUR LIFE--BECOME RESILIENT!

by Adrianne Ahern, Ph.D.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -Albert Einstein

Each one of us has different levels of resiliency when it comes to dealing with our life situations. Do you need to learn some ways of becoming more resilient?Take this brief Stress Quiz and find out!

1. Do you worry constantly and cycle with negative self-talk?

2. Do you have difficulty concentrating?

3. Do you get mad and react easily?

4. Do you have recurring neck or headaches?

5. Do you grind your teeth?

6. Do you frequently feel overwhelmed, anxious or depressed?

7. Do you feed your stress with unhealthy habits-eating or drinking excessively, smoking, arguing, or avoiding yourself and life in other ways?

The most important first step in dealing with your stress is to accept and acknowledge that it is your emotional reaction to a situation or event in your life that causes your stress, not the situation itself. We can't often do anything about the situation, but we can work with our reaction to the situation-this is where our power is!

I created the Snap Out Of It NOW! Method to help myself, and now you, to become more resilient and more creative. In other words, to learn how to interrupt and SNAP Out of the destructive cycle of emotional reactions that are engaged when faced with a difficult life situation.

Breathing Awareness Exercise:

The breath is your key to self-resiliency. The breath is your entry into your body-bringing light to the darkness, warmth to the coldness, and boundless possibilities for breaking free from your everyday reality.

The following exercise takes less than a minute and you can do it anywhere-at the grocery store, in your car during traffic, even in the middle of a fight or disagreement with another person. Sometimes just one single minute can be your best friend!Launch Yourself to Places You Have Never Gone Before!

1. STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN-acknowledge you are stuck in a negative think-feeling pattern-you're stuck in a destructive cycle of reactions within your own body.

2. Become aware of your BREATH by listening to your breath going in and out your nose. Enter your body with your breath.

3. BREATHE to the negative feeling sensation in your body that's present wherever it may be, and as you exhale you are releasing the disharmony within your body. You are NOW free to deal with the situation in a creative new way!

You are shifting the state of your body and mind away from disharmony (frustration, anger, fear) back to its natural state of harmony (appreciation, love, joy)! Within this state of harmony you are more flexible, resilient, and creative. Isn't it wonderful to have a tool that will launch you into possibilities you never saw before!

About the Author

Dr. Adrianne Ahern has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is the author of the upcoming book, Snap Out Of It...Now! 4 Steps to Personal Fulfillment Using the Power of the Breath Empowering patients for over 15 years to face any challenge, Dr. Ahern gives individuals a new prescription for living a more fulfilled life. Contact: www.SnapOutOfItNow.com

Celexa, citalopram - a personal experience

Celexa, is the brand name of a drug called Citalopram Hydrobromide which is one of the most widely prescribed Selective Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) on the market. It is widely used to treat major depression, panic disorder, anxiety, and agoraphobia.

I used this drug for some time, taking the standard dosage of 20mg a day. Occasionally larger doses are prescribed if 20mg are found to be insufficient, and often the elderly or inform are started on a lower dose of 10mg which is increased when tolerance has been established.

Side effects are what most people think about first when anti depressants are mentioned, there has been much made in the media about addiction and suicide. Celexa does have a good side effects profile, to you and me that means that the side effects are usually mild and short lived. And in terms of addiction the relative long half life of the drug (the amount of time it spends in your system) means that it is much easier to come off than drugs like Seroxat (Paroxetine Paxil, Seroxat, Deroxat). Side effects that I encountered included very short lived bouts of dizziness, lasting less than a few seconds, and a week long drop in libido. Within a week all side effects had effectively passed and I never had anything that made me want to stop taking the drug. I never really experienced nausea or a dry mouth, and my sleeping improved quickly. I would say that on the very first day of taking the drug I felt as weird as I have ever felt in my whole life. I felt a spacey depression that was most unusual and odd. I would describe it as absolute helplessness. It passed later that day when I applied some techniques that I had recently learnt. (more on that tomorrow)

Would I recommend Celexa?

Well, from a side effect standpoint I would have no qualms (although of course everyone one is different and some people can not tolerate Celexa).

The question is, does it work?

Well, I think that it stops the really dire lows and keeps you stable, but it is not a pep pill and it does not put you on cloud nine. Neither does it change your outlook on life or your major cognitions, so while it does make desensitization easier if for example you were agoraphobic, it won't make problems disappear, or didn't for me anyway. For that you do need to use therapy as well as drug treatment. Drugs are just symptomatic relief.

Please read the disclaimer.

Low Motivation - Anxiety / Depression

Sometimes you can be too depressed to tackle your issues. It can seem to others as if motivation is low, as if you are not really interested or not really bothered as to whether you succeed or not. Obviously this is not the case, in fact you want to succeed so desperately, and the task seems so daunting, that you really feel low about it.

What can you do to raise your spirits? Well, it might be worth investigating if some kind of secondary gain is holding you back. Often depression can keep from doing the same things the anxiety stopped you from doing. If this were the case then you would have much more enthusiasm for the areas of your life that don't involve tackling old fears and phobias.

Otherwise it's time to get on the motivation trail. There are a couple of good books that I'll list here tomorrow, and a few good motivation sites. Motivation quotes, although often cliched, can be really helpful.

The important thing is to do something, now! Read something about motivation, take a small piece of action, write down your reasons for not acting and argue them out. Do Something!

Or, try a bit of paradoxical intention, try to demotivate yourself, try and really do nothing!

Until tomorrow!

Anxiety and Depression

How closely is anxiety related to depression? Well, sometimes it seems they are almost one and the same thing.

For some people one leads to another. Obviously feeling anxious and scared of things can be so debilitating that it is easy to see why people become unhappy and in some cases get clinical depression. While often people get depressed. It can also happen the other way round. Depression tends to leave the sufferer worrying and feeling miserable about the future, two factors which can easily bring on anxiety and panic attacks.

But what if the link is more than a cause and effect? Perhaps, in some cases, anxiety and depression can have the same root, or anxiety can mask depression. It is certainly accepted that anxiety can be a mask for other symptoms. I found, as I unravelled my anxiety, a lot of depression underneath, I found that most of the things I had felt scared to do in the past I now had no desire to do, as if they were going to be black and awful. In that sense my phobias in effect got worse, although I felt not so much anxiety as depression.

The good news was that that heralded the end. It was a case of dealing again with the underlying attitudes, the problem was that in that state you don't actually want to change, because that will mean taking on all the things you don't want to do.

What's the answer? Well, just to keep chipping away at it until it cracks and breaks up. I would certainly recommend doing more than just CBT, CBT when you are depressed is a miserable business anyway, and CBT for depression isn't that great when you don't really understand why you are depressed.

The only sure thing is: if you do nothing, nothing will change.

My Experience with Xanax for Travel Anxiety

My experiences with Xanax (alprazolam)

Xanax is a member of the benzodiazepine family of minor tranquillisers, just like Valium. It is not identical though. One major difference between valium and xanax is that valium stays in your system for longer and therefore keeps you calmer for longer. Xanax passes through your system relatively quickly and people often report its effects wearing off within four hours.

I was prescribed Valium for a number of travel phobias, including travelling by plane, train, bus and car (obviously not as a driver). It is extremely effective. When travelling by train I felt completely normal, so much so that I questioned whether the Xanax was actually working; I had expected to feel somehow out of it. My thoughts were completely lucid, I negotiated platforms and ticket offices without problem, and enjoyed the ride. I also had a similar experience in elevators, feeling calm and relaxed.

Interestingly I had been lead to believe that Xanax wouldn't change the way I thought, that I would still have negative and catastrophic thoughts in my mind, but without the physical symptoms. This was not quite true. In fact I did have catastrophic thoughts at first but these quickly subsided and I ended up feeling quite good about myself. I would say that it is worth taking as little as possible as on a higher dose I did find that the xanax made me feel a little bit spacy which was ever so slightly disconcerting. That said I never had major side effects at all from xanax.

I have never taken Xanax on an airplane but I am told that it works extremely well.

You can read more of this article on the Anxiety 2 Calm drugs pages.

Mindfulness - A cure for anxiety?

For those people who are really dedicated to getting over their anxiety, meditation can be the key.

The are literally thousands of types of meditation, and many books, CDs and Videos out there which will tell you how to meditate. I’m going to ask you to forget nearly all of those.

All meditation will relax you, but that in itself is not a solution to anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias. Most meditations seem to take you away from the present moment and take your concentration away from your body. Such escapism may bring temporary relief from anxiety but will not free you from it, and meditating through anxious moments is hard.
Enter Mindfulness meditation.

So, why is Mindfulness Meditation so good for getting over anxiety? There are a few reasons: firstly, through practising mindfulness meditation you learn to be in the present moment. That might sound odd, after all we are all in the present moment all the time – how else could it be? In fact, anxiety, panic, and phobias do not really happen in the present moment. Think about it a second. They happen when you concentrate on bad memories from the past and catastrophic predictions about the future. Mindfulness meditation recognises this and allows you to stay in the present, where everything is just as it should be.

Secondly, with mindfulness meditation you stay in your body and become aware of your body. You become aware of all the tension and stress you are holding in the moment throughout your body. This allows your mind to accept, and not misinterpret tension as a signal to start panicking or feeling anxious.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly of all, mindfulness meditation teaches you to be aware of your thoughts as passing entities which are present in a given moment and then fade as all thoughts do. When you learn to see anxious and catastrophic thoughts in this light you are much better placed to chose how to react to them, or indeed whether to react to them at all.

After diligent practice, the mindfulness meditator can decide to let his/her catastrophic thoughts be, to not react to tension, and to focus on what is happening in the moment. The completely different outlook on life which the meditator nurtures revolves around acceptance and understanding, not reaction and fear. In terms of anxiety and panic, the results can be spectacular.

For more information on Mindfulness and some book reviews click the link: MEDITATION PAGE.

Valium, a personal experience.

Valium, firstly what is it? It's a minor tranquillizer Benzodiazepine. Valium is actually a brand name of the drug Diazepam. It's used for the short term treatment of a range of anxiety symptoms (and also used to treat seizures, spasms and alcohol withdrawal). There is a wealth of information on the Internet about Diazepam/Valium, I will use this space to share some personal experiences.

Perversely, the first thing I felt after taking Valium was anxiety. I have never liked taking medication or drugs and the idea that valium was going to work so powerfully on my brain, and actually change feelings. My anxiety increased for some time and I felt dizzy. I am sure that this was purely psychosomatic, as I have never felt any similar symptoms while taking it consequently. After thirty minutes or so I felt calmer, and started to feel effects of the medication. The light in the room seemed more vivid, and my arms felt a bit lighter, I did not experience any change in the tightening of my throat that heralded anxiety for some more time, but eventually I did feel quite relaxed but not so relaxed that felt able to go out and challenge my phobias. I should mention that I took the Valium at about seven in the evening, by the time I wanted to go to bed at half past eleven I was wide awake, in fact I had some trouble getting to sleep, but when I slept I was out like a light for hours, and woke up late the next day.

The next day I felt an odd kind of hangover, again I think this might have been psychosomatic. I felt slightly dizzy and distant, with a faint nausea in my stomach. The problem is I read the label. They always tell you to read the label but in the case of anxiety sometimes it might be better to have someone else read it for you and pass on the useful information. Valium is not by any means alone in this; all the ant-anxiety drugs I have ever seen come with extremely frightening labels and instructions. I think this lead me to believe I would undergo much discomfort from taking the drugs. Often an anxiety sufferer's mind wants to see the worst, and then make it happen.

This article is continued with a positive experience of Valium on the drugs section at Anxiety 2 Calm.

Anxiety, Vizualization Exposure

Exposure Therapy, the most dreaded part of any phobic's treatment. It's the time when you have to actually face whatever has been scaring you, causing anxiety, or making you have panic attacks. But perhaps you should stop and wait just for a moment. Are you doing everything you can to make exposure therapy quick, easy and relatively painless?

Some people aren't afraid of anything and go through life without anxiety, shrug off bad news and thrive from stress. They are as tough as old boots. Over the last few decades experts have devoted hours to understanding why some people are more optimistic, fearless, and hardy than others. There are a few obvious reasons like upbringing, possibly some genetics, diet, and brain structure which play a role, but none of those things damn you to a life of uncontrollable anxiety, far and hopelessness. So what do the successful people do differently?
Visualization.

For years people have done visualisation exercises for the purpose of relaxation, the standard one being to visualize yourself on a beach feeling the warmth on your skin. As relaxation techniques they are very effective for most people, resulting in a lowering of blood pressure and pulse rate, and helping relieve muscle tension. Most people report feeling calmer. This is great for general anxiety, stress and worry but only of limited help when it comes to tackling phobias. Relaxation is good and obviously it's better to tackle a phobia with a relaxed body than with a tense one, but state of mind is very important and the site of the phobic situation, be it entering an airport, seeing the elevator doors or hearing the subway train approaching, can bring all of that relaxation crashing down.

So what can be done to make a different kind of visualization work for you? Let's examine two options.

This article is continued at the visualization section of Anxiety 2 Calm.

Attitude and tackling anxiety, panic and phobias

When it comes to tackling anxiety or panic attacks, and taking those first steps or the giant leap into a phobic situation, your attitude can either make you or break you. A Cognitive Behavioural Therapist I know once told me that the client should always have the attitude “let's see what happens”. She saw each anxiety provoking situation like a scientific hypothesis waiting to be tested. The client would say “I'll go mad!” and she would say “let's test that hypothesis, let's see what happens.” That simple mantra to repeat in your head while tackling anxiety and panic can be surprisingly useful. If panic rises up with in you, instead of saying “I can't handle this”, you can say “let's see where this goes”. The more you realise that it doesn't go anywhere the more confident you get. One of the best ways to quickly overcome panic and anxiety is to learn to accept it and not be afraid of it. The eminent Australian anxiety, panic attack and agoraphobia expert Dr Claire Weekes once summed up her numerous books, recordings and radio appearances, in effect her whole career, in one word: accept. The attitude of acceptance goes a long long way.

A word or two should also be said about the work of Dr Reid Wilson who's excellent site Anxieties.com has a section on attitude. He talks at length on the subject and I recommend you visit. In short it's a good idea to try and learn from you panic or anxiety, tell yourself that it's OK to feel anxiety, that you don't have to fight it, that you can handle the uncertainty of the future, and handle setbacks.

Too many people approach anxiety and panic attacks with the same negative attitudes, namely: I can't take it, I can't cope, I must relax right now, I have to get out of here, why do I have this, there's no way out of this. These attitudes are your enemy....

This is the first part of an article on Anxiety 2 Calm's free Overcoming Anxiety Course. You can view the remainder by clicking here: Free Anxiety Course.

Anxiety types: Acute Stress Reaction

Acute Stress Reaction is a label given to a particular type of anxiety. It is anxiety which comes on very quickly after a sudden life changing event, like the break up of a relationship, a bereavement, or unexpected job loss. The symptoms, which can vary in severity often include some or all of:

Anxiety
Constant worry
Very negative future outlook
Depression
Restlessness and agitation
Low appetite
Difficulty sleeping
Fear of being alone
Confusion
Feeling of helplessness
Depersonalization (spacy, out of body feeling)

Treatment

One cure is time. Unlike Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which tends to appear sometime after the event, an Acute Stress Reaction, usually starts almost immediately and will normally go away on its own eventually.

Medication such as Benzodiazepines (valium, xanax etc) can be prescribed to aid sleep and calm agitation. SSRIs like Prozac, lexapro and Celexa are sometimes prescribed. It should be noted that drug therapy is not necessarily the answer.

Severe Cases - EMDR

If the Acute Stress Reaction continues the initial cause should be worked through with a therapy. EMDR can be used to quickly re-processes the traumatic memory and often brings rapid relief. Simple counseling may well help if EMDR is unavailable.

The sufferer would do well to cut down on caffeine and make efforts to keep their diet stable and regular. Often people can "snap out" of an Acute Stress Response when they find hope that whatever they thought was going to be so bad (being unemployed, going through treatment for a serious medical condition, adjusting to life alone etc) is in fact possible and still holds some enjoyment.

Anxiety Support Groups

I can only write here about my own experience with anxiety support groups here in the UK on the good old NHS. I was sent to a place called the "Winner's Centre" or "Victory Centre" or some such other well thought out name. After an assessment with quite the oddest and least approachable counselor I've ever met I was tacked on to a support group which had initially been for women only. They added me and another guy to make up the numbers. We started off talking about our problems, but it turned out that most of the people there had quite different issues to me. The women did not have phobias of transport or agoraphobia, they had, well I don't know what they had...They cried and bitched each other. Isn't that kinda normal? Anyway, for some reason I suffered this rubbish for twelve weeks, it didn't help my anxiety one bit and I didn't do much good for their emotional problems. All I learnt was that some people are thoroughly depressed, anxious, and unhappy because their heads are completely full of their own problems and they have no idea about anyone else's!

You may have a local anxiety support group that is really good...But frankly I don't know what help and encouragement anxiety sufferers can give one another. I fear they might just sit around re-enforcing the labels they have been given and forgetting that they are normal healthy human beings with the same capabilities as everyone else.

Anxiety and Children

Anxiety in children is not uncommon, in fact the number of children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder has risen dramatically in recent years. This could be due to the stress put on children by the pressures of modern western society or could be due to the current fad of labeling everything; ten years ago feeking shy, awkward, and edgy was just part of being a teenager, now it has to be "social anxiety disorder".

Much childhood anxiety is actually separation anxiety. It seems that it is removal from the comfortable familiarity of younger years is the most painful time. The changing relationship between children and parents is often a major cause of stress and therefore anxiety and depression. In the 24/7 modern western world family relationships seem to have all but gone out of the window, this may be one reason why the natural trials of life are appearing as anxiety in children.

In most cases I would argue against labeling children as having "Social anxiety" or "generalized anxiety disorder" (GAD). Instead it may be better to look at it as children experiencing
anxiety attacks, which then pass as all anxiety does. Rather than being overly concerned and exacerbating the problem with medical/psychiatric labels it should just be a time to make children feel more secure and more loved, anything else, particularly anything with the idea of toughening a child up by being harsh, is likely to be counter productive.

Anxiety in children can be helped with the same treatment as adult anxiety (CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy), but in recent years it has become apparent that SSRIs such as Prozac and Paxil should not be prescribed to children due to an increased risk of suicide. Anxiety in children passes with time and love. Drugs not normally necessary.

Anticipatory Anxiety

Anticipatory anxiety is not just the stuff of actors and musicians, it effects many people and many situations. In fact most of the anxiety felt is in anticipation of something. If you think about it a panic attack is often an anticipation of fainting, or dying, or going crazy. The funny thing is that research done on phobic people (in this case agoraphobics) has found that almost everyone over rates the fear and anxiety they are about to feel, by large percentages. So in fact almost all of the anxiety felt is never manifested.

With the thought in your head that anticipatory anxiety doesn't do much and doesn't come to much, what else can be done to stop this menace?

The cognitive behaviour therapy approach is good for dealing with catastrophic thoughts, and this alone can deal with the anticipation.

Some medication such as beta blockers can be used to reduce the adrenalin and stop shaking and the physical symptoms of nervousness.

SSRIs and Tranquilizers such as Valium and Xanax do not really change how you think, although they may be useful to some extent.

The best therapy is experiencing anticipation and realizing it doesn't come to anything, then it will decrease. Read about Claire Weekes' approach here.

High tryptophan diet for anxiety?

Tryptophan is a substance that is used by the brain to make serotonin. It can be consumed in two ways, either as a food supplement or as part of a natural diet. Foods which are rich in tryptophan include turkey, tuna, milk, and cheese.

So, if one were to consume those sources of tryptophan would one's serotonin levels rise up and relieve anxiety, panic attacks, and depression? Well, science is divided. Raising serotonin levels is what SSRIs like prozac and Celexa do, but they do it by stopping re-absorption not actually by increasing the amount of serotonin present. By putting the building blocks of serotonin into your body, by consuming tryptophan you are actually increasing the amount of serotonin.




Or are you?

Some people say the supplement is much better than medication, others say you can eat a high tryptophan diet to cure anxiety, still more people say a high tryptophan diet is all but useless. It is certainly true that studies have found tryptophan to be more effective with less side effects than SSRIs when treating anxiety and depression. And of course this research doesn't penetrate the minds of too many doctors as the bug pharmaceutical companies have got the market sewn up and know what's good for business.

On the otherhand do you need supplements? Why not get enough naturally by say drinking a pint of milk a day? Well, Some people say that tryptophan taking as part of a normal meal will not reach the brain in sufficient quantities to make a difference due to the competition of other amino acids which outnumber tryptophan. This is a little simplistic. It seems that if you eat or drink tryptophan containing foodstuffs then you may be able to raise your serotonin levels. As always it's a minefield and your body is unique. I say drink a pint of milk a day, spread out both with meals and on an empty stomach, and see if you feel better

There seems to me a good chance that a high tryptophan diet will improve mood as long as you are not on a massively high protein diet and have some complex carbohydrates going in as well.

5 - HTP Anxiety Remedy?

5 HTP has been touted as a cure for various Serotonin deiciency related illnesses such as Anxiety, Panic Attacks, weight los, insomnia, and depression. 5 HTP, or 5 hydroxytryptophan to give it it's full name, is manufactured from an African Plant called Griffonia simplicifolia, it is not really practical to get enough of this in your natural diet, so concentrated supplement form is the only way forward. It is commonly found in Healthfood shops and is not normally classed as a drug.

Dosage of 5 HTP. When it comes to supplements slack regulations allow manufacturers to be vague. For anxiety, depression, panic attacks and agoraphobia normally 50-100 mg are recommended three times a day. This can be adjusted depending on success and tolerance. For insomnia a single dose half an hour before bed is recommended, again of approximately 50-100 mg. For weight control the same dosage is suggested twenty to thirty minutes before eating. To avoid side effects it is better to start on a low dose and gradually increase.


Dangers: 5-HTP is pretty safe. It is not associated with the same number of severity of side effects as traditional medical antidepressants such as Prozac, Celexa, and the other SSRIs. There was a rumpus in the past about a contaminated batch of l-tryptophan in the USA which caused serious illness and death. This was not due to the supplement but to the contamination of one brand in one factory.

Side effects: nausea, constipation, gas, drowsiness, or a decreased sex drive. These are usually mild if present at all, and pass quickly. Generally 5-htp's side effects are considered much less than SSRIs.

Length of time
Generally it can take 2-4 weeks for 5 htp to start working, or achieve clinical effectiveness

Efficacy of 5 HTP
Definitely some clinical trials have found that 5-htp is for some people more effective than SSRIs. As ever the results of all the studies are hard to interpret and be sure about as researchers are oftened skewed. Pharmacology is a dirty business.

Warnings etc
Speak to your doctor! 5 HTP can react badly with SSRIs, MOAIs, some over the counter medications and may not be suitable for everyone. Speak to your doctor! (worth saying twice!)

In my opinion, 5 HTP can do good things for the anxiety, panic attack, and agoraphobia sufferer. It may be possible to get the same effect by increasing tryptophan rich foods into your diet! More about that tomorrow!

Cheers.