What Topics Interest You? Let Us Know!

As Talia mentioned when she posted her "month-away" notice, we'd love to hear what topics you'd like us to cover.

With that in mind, I thought I'd list my areas of expertise and interest to jump-start the process.

Mental Health/Wellness

• Mood disorders - depression and anxiety


• Stress Management - job-related stress, anger management, school stress and lifestyle issues


• Family relationships - parenting, couples' issues, dysfunctional family concerns


• Women's Issues - Gender-specific issues for women


• Work/Family/Personal Life balance

Substance Abuse/Dependency

• Adults, adolescents struggling with chemical abuse/dependency


• Treatment options - Spectrum of care available


• Family members of substance abusers and substance dependent people


• Women's issues - issues specific to women in addiction and recovery


• Celebrities and addiction/treatment/recovery

Related Topics/General Interest

• Healthy/Unhealthy Lifestyle Trends


• Relaxation and Leisure


• Pets


• Media portrayal/reporting of the above

So there are many, many things listed about which I can share my expertise and experiences. Please leave me a comment or two about your areas of interest. And if you don't see an area that interests you, let me know. I'll try hit on those topics while covering the blog this month.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Do You Have Social Anxiety Disorder? - Take the Quiz

Most everyone panics a bit at the thought of speaking in front of a room full of people. In fact, reportedly that is the number one phobia! And we are all somewhat uncomfortable when meeting new people in social situations. But social anxiety disorder (or social phobia) is much more severe than the norm. It is a debilitating condition that can severely impair one's functioning.

Quiz

• Do you go out of your way to avoid interacting with people?
• Do you often feel closely watched, judged and criticized by those around you?
• Do you worry about upcoming social events/situations for days or weeks in advance?
• Are you uncomfortable eating, drinking or working around other people?
• In social settings, do you experience physical symptoms such as sweating, shaking, pounding heart, blushing, upset stomach or muscle tension?

If you answered "yes" to two or more of the above, you may be experiencing symptoms of social anxiety disorder. (This quiz does not take the place of a thorough evaluation by your doctor and mental health professional.)

Levels of Symptomology

As with most psychiatric disorders, the symptomology is measured in degrees. To meet the criteria for the diagnosis, you must be experiencing distress at the level that it is interfering with your normal functioning. The mild anxiety of new social situations would not qualify. People with social anxiety disorder have a very difficult time negotiating their world. Imagine being anxious and upset about every social situation you are in; work settings, gatherings with co-workers or friends, dating, shopping or even talking on the phone!

Characteristics

The symptoms are accompanied by an irrational belief system characterized by thoughts, feelings and physical responses based on the assumption that everyone is watching, judging and critical of your actions. According to Mayo Clinic.com, as a result of the irrational beliefs, the following associated characteristics may occur:

Low self-esteem

Trouble being assertive

Negative self-talk

Hypersensitivity to criticism

Poor social skills

Screening and Diagnosis

Because there are often physical symptoms accompanying this diagnosis, it is important to see your primary care physician to first rule out underlying physical causes for your symptoms. A psychological evaluation should also be done by a licensed, trained mental health clinician. You will be asked to describe your symptoms and situations that often trigger your anxiety responses.

Treatment

If you have social anxiety disorder, what are your treatment options? Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be an effective treatment. This type of therapy helps you examine your thought processes and help you to realize that it is not external things, people or places that cause your distress, but your own irrational thought patterns. Meditation and other relaxation techniques are often very helpful in reducing anxiety responses.

Medication is often indicated to reduce symptoms so that the patient can best utilize therapy. Anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication are most used. Please check with your therapist and doctor about these options.

Self-Help Options

Traditional self-help, like support groups are not usually an option for patients with social anxiety disorder. The social nature of the group setting is too anxiety-producing. I have had much luck referring patients to support online. One cautionary note: But be aware that peer-led support is not a substitute for treatment from a professional. And in my experience not all online forums are healthy places to seek help. A trusted site like Anxiety Disorders Association of America would be a good place to start looking for online resources.

Local Resources

If you are looking for a therapist or just want more information, try your local library's Web site or call your local Mental Health Association. If using the phone causes anxiety, try asking a trusted family member or friend for help. But try not to rely too much on that resource. You want to take some of these steps towards getting better on your own!

Calm yourself with Music

Music has long been used to heal, soothe and uplift. Lovers use music to set a romantic mood, movie producers use music to add drama and excitement to scenes and mothers croon lullabies to help their children relax and fall asleep. So, it’s no wonder researchers have investigated the healing power of music and found it to be helpful for pain management, stress relief, depression, anxiety and much much more.

A couple of days ago I received a review copy of the CD Relax: A Liquid Mind Experience which is billed as “over an hour of the most deeply relaxing music on the planet”. Those are pretty big boots to fill, so I gave it a whirl. The label warned me to use care when operating vehicles as the CD may cause drowsiness, but being a natural born rule breaker I popped it straight into the car player and set off.

Much to my surprise the music did have a slight soporific effect. That's pretty unusual for me. I'm a very poor candidate for hypnosis or other audio designed to sedate or help me fall asleep. While I often find music calming it's rare for it to have a sedating effect on me, so I give the CD kudos for achieving that.

Liquid Mind is the name used by Chuck Wild for his New Age music creations. The ‘Relax’ CD is one of several CDs aimed at helping people relax and improve their well-being. After a period of panic attacks and agoraphobia Chuck searched for music that would help him achieve feelings of serenity while being melodic and uplifting. When he was unable to find any, a counsellor suggested he compose his own and Liquid Mind was born.

Liquid Mind is a form of New Age music, although Chuck says he draws on influences from nature, such as the sound of the Ocean, as well as from classical composers such as Beethoven and Brahms.
According to Chuck

Liquid Mind albums seem to have an immediate "slowing down" effect on the listener, and may also help some people get to sleep, and relax deeply after a tension-filled day.

I received emails by the hundreds from grateful people using my music to go to sleep, to relax, to calm hyperactive children and adults, to heal from surgery

Chuck's Liquid Mind Music is proving popular. In November 2005, Chuck presented at the American Music Therapy Conference regarding the use of slow music in treating anxiety. Liquid Mind VII: Reflection won the Coalition of Visionary Resources Award for Best Meditation/Healing Music album of 2005.

The CD Relax: A Liquid Mind Experience is currently #1 on the Canadian iTunes New Age chart, and #4 on the US iTunes New Age chart. I'm more gobsmacked that there is a New Age iTunes chart, than I am at the success of Chuck's Liquid Music.

Verdict:
I’m on the fence with this one. The music is sedating, so if you’re looking for a way to calm down or a tool to aid in meditation Liquid Music could be for you. However, New Age music isn’t for me. Given the choice I prefer the sound of Tuis in the garden (click here to hear Tuis) or a CD of Mozart or Haydn. While I found the music sedating I also found it vaguely annoying. The music does what it’s supposed to, but if it isn’t to your taste, then like me you’ll probably only want to use it in short bursts. I could never imagine using it as background music as the creator suggests but I could envisage putting on a single track to give me something to focus on while sitting quietly for a few minutes.

Mouse experiments reveal 'flight or fight' hormone's role

Both extensive psychological research and personal experiences confirm that events that happen during heightened states of emotion such as fear, anger and joy are far more memorable than less dramatic occurrences.

In a report this week in Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers and their collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor and New York University have identified the likely biological basis for this:

a hormone released during emotional arousal “primes” nerve cells to remember events by increasing their chemical sensitivity at sites where nerves rewire to form new memory circuits.

Describing the brain as a big circuit board in which each new experience creates a new circuit, Hopkins neuroscience professor Richard Huganir, Ph.D. says that he and his team found that during emotional peaks, the hormone norepinephrine dramatically sensitizes synapses – the site where nerve cells make an electro-chemical connection – to enhance the sculpting of a memory into the big board.

Norepinephrine, more widely known as a “fight or flight” hormone, energizes the process by adding phosphate molecules to a nerve cell receptor called GluR1. The phosphates help guide the receptors to insert themselves adjacent to a synapse. “Now when the brain needs to form a memory, the nerves have plenty of available receptors to quickly adjust the strength of the connection and lock that memory into place,” Huganir says.

Huganir and his team suspected that GluR1 might be a target of norepinephrine since disruptions in this receptor cause spatial memory defects in mice. They tested the idea by either injecting healthy mice with adrenaline or exposing them to fox urine, both of which increase norepinephrine levels in brain. Analyzing brain slices of the mice, the researchers saw increased phosphates on the GluR1 receptors and an increased ability of these receptors to be recruited to synapses.

When the researchers put mice in a cage, gave a mild shock, took them out of that cage and put them back in it the next day, mice who had received adrenaline or fox urine tended to “freeze” in fear – an indicator they associated the cage as the site of a shock – more frequently, suggestive of enhanced memory.

However, in a similar experiment with mice genetically engineered to have a defective GluR1 receptor that phosphates cannot attach to, adrenaline injections had no effect on mouse memory, further evidence of the “priming” effect of the receptor in response to norepinephrine.

The researchers plan on continuing their work by going in the opposite direction and engineering another mouse strain that has a permanently phosphorylated or “primed” receptor. “We’re curious to see how these mice will behave,” Huganir says. “We suspect that they’ll be pretty smart, but at the same time constantly anxious.”

Research may explain higher anxiety rates in women

A new study finds that young girls and women are more likely to believe that negative past events predict future events, compared to boys and men.

Researchers believe this may help explain why females have more frequent and intense worries, perceive more risk, have greater intolerance for uncertainty, and experience higher rates of anxiety than males. The findings, from studies conducted at the University of California, Davis, are published in the September/October 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

In two studies involving 128 people, a researcher investigated 3- to 6-year-olds’ as well as adults’ knowledge that worry and preventative behaviors can be caused by thinking that a negative event from the past will or might reoccur in the future. The ability to explain emotions and behaviors in relation to past events is considered a fundamental part of adult social understanding that is important for processing past trauma, assessing risk, and making decisions.

In the first study, participants listened to six stories featuring characters that experienced negative events and then, many days later, felt worried or changed their behaviors when they saw the person or animal that had caused them prior harm. Children and adults were asked to explain the cause of the character’s worry or behavior and then to predict how a naïve friend would react to the same situation. The second study was the same as the first, except that the person or animal in the final scene only looked similar to the one that had caused harm in the past. In addition, for some trials, participants were asked to predict how the character was likely to respond to seeing this new person or animal.

Although there were no gender differences in the frequency with which participants provided past-to-future explanations, in both studies, female children and adults more frequently explained characters’ reactions as motivated by possible versus certain harm (that is, what might happen versus what will happen). Moreover, female children and adults more frequently predicted that characters who encountered “similar perpetrators” would feel worried because they thought the new person or animal might cause the same harm as the one from the past.

The studies also found that children and adults believe negative past events forecast negative future events, even when the person or animal only resembles the past perpetrator of harm. Between 3 and 6 years of age, children increasingly understand that people’s worry and behavior can be caused by allowing memories about past negative events to influence their anticipation of the future, and they are more aware that others who didn’t experience or know about the negative past would feel differently and make different decisions.

“These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years,” according to Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, assistant professor of psychology, a researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, and the author of the study.

Back to School Anxiety

I'm not just talking about the anxiety it causes in children, but the parents as well.

First, the children. Just think about all the worries swirling around their young minds as they prepare to enter another school year. They worry about their clothes and fitting in. They worry about the schoolwork in itself. Will it be much harder this year? Will I be able to handle the work? They worry about friends and new teachers. Imagine having to change jobs every year and all the anxiety that goes along with it. This is precisely what our children deal with every new school year.

Now let's think about the parents/guardians of these youngsters. As parents, worry is par for the course. We generally worry about everything involving our children. From the most mundane to the issues which truly merit worry. I, on one hand, look forward to my girls heading back to school. I work from home and having them underfoot all summer can be slightly distracting, if you know what I mean. ;) On the other hand, it upsets and worries me to no end. I know it's not right to worry about my children 'fitting in' with the others, but the truth is, it does matter immensely. I don't want my girls to be outcasts. It's not right nor is it fair, but it's the way the world is. I worry about their worries. I worry about their new teacher. I worry about the ever increasing amount of homework they'll have. And, I mostly worry about leaving them in the care of someone else all day long. I don't doubt our school district's teachers but it is difficult in this ever changing world to trust someone else with your most prized possessions.

So I practice breathing techniques regularly to help curb the anxiety. I've been both meditating and power walking daily in the hopes that it will help to calm me. As for my girls, I tell them they are beautiful and smart. They always get straight A's. I encourage them to be excited about this new adventure. Which is what it is, an adventure. And that should be fun and good, right? So why do I worry so much about this?

Anxietycoach.com: Online help for anxiety disorders

I've come across this site a few times recently and have always kind of 'swept it under the rug'. But in light of my theory on always keeping the door open for new treatments, I figured this wasn't exactly fair and decided to check it out.

This site is "dedicated to helping people who have significant trouble with fears, phobias, and anxiety. We offer free self help information you can use to foster your own recovery; a workbook for people with panic attacks and phobias..."

I think the workbook idea is nice since you could use it as a journal to track the stress which lead to either a full blown panic attack or just anxiety. It also offers a guided program to help beat the anxiety and tricks to aid you. They also teach breathing exercises as well as lectures and workshops. Sounds plausible. It's always interesting to see and learn how others deal with their anxiety issues. I find it comforting, really. Like, I've said before, it's nice to know you're not alone in this.

This might a nice supplement to other forms of treatment. Maybe give it a shot and peruse the site a bit. You never know, it might lead you to an effective relief exercise or lesson.

The Exercise Prescription for Depression

After decades of investigation, there is now indisputable evidence that regular physical exercise can relieve and perhaps even prevent stress, anxiety, and depression. Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center, offers six practical exercise tips to help you ease depression or anxiety with exercise.

How options can decrease anxiety and panic

Lessons from Panic

OPTIONS - Pathways to Well-Being

In finance, an option is a contract, or a provision of a contract, that gives one party (the option holder) the right, but not the obligation, to perform a specified transaction with another party (the option issuer or option writer) according to specified terms.

In human terms, options imply contracts you make with yourself. They aren't obligatory, but they will help you TRANSACT with yourself!!

I did a little checking and discovered that the term OPTIONS often surfaces when working with the most vulnerable populations, who often do not feel like they have options, like impoverished youth, youth facing mandatory military service, those with illiteracy problems and so on. In the middle of a Panic Attack we do not FEEL as though we have options, we feel like it's fight or die ... or we run away. We are vulnerable.

OR options are associated with the PRIVILEGED, those who have money as a tool and can "buy" something or use their power over others. The use of options is something we can do get our power back, an empowering set of possibilities.

And the possibilities for healthy living are literally endless. Below is an exercise to help you tap all those inner potentials.

In a PANIC attack, or in an intense anxiety situation, the idea we have options appears pretty limited, maybe even non-existent. Am I ringing any bells yet? A good preplan for panic attacks is giving ourselves a way to feel empowered. So being able to recall the exercise below was part of what became for me, a big tool in my recovery tool kit. It's these little time savers that make a difference over the long haul. Using these tools can turn our lives around.

We find out when we list out a few options that we have more time, can use our energy wisely, live with a passion (instead of internal constriction), wish to LIVE in reality and can go from an emotional/mental prison to freedom very quickly.

Options exercise:

Take a DEEP breath -- relaxing right into it -- and then:

1. Take a piece of paper and number from 1 to 10

2. Write down each and every option that comes to mind, including those really dire ones.

I mean take a pen or pencil and list out the ghastly options we don't like anyone to know are there, burying themselves in our mind, such as: eating an entire chocolate cake, calling up an old toxic friend (or two or three), taking a trip down to the local bar where we got plastered last panic attack and so on. In a panic, our minds are likely to throw up the MOST despicable options at a "time like this". So we want to take a good look at those, later.

On the other hand, our Survivor inside also remembers some pretty good options, and is really excited to let them have some fresh air, so write down options like praying, meditating (not always easy in a panic attack, but the rest of the exercise should clarify that), take a walk, listen to some LOUD and WILD rock and roll, visit a friend, drink a glass of water or brew some tea ..

Hey, this is up to YOU! This is YOUR list! This is YOU figuring it all out in a framework you can understand.

You will find the limitless possibilities; a good list of 10 will help us reconnect with our intuition.

Write down ONLY ten, no more. We are not aiming for overwhelm. Concentrating on verbs helps us see the possibilities for action and find solutions, if you have a mind to do that.

3. Decide which you are willing to do. Circle those which seem appealing.

Take a look. What ten things were SCREAMING at you ..? The reason we do ten, is that it forces the mind to list more than one, thus we see how our having options is the greatest resource bank to draw on.

If you are like most of us, you will quickly and noticeably just leave the old, stale, self-harm non-options where they belong -- on the piece of paper. By now, your inner balance should have reached a point of equilibrium.

By now, those dire option will seem like what they are, dire and undesirable - these will hurt those we love and who love us. They surely will not lead to growing a healthy self of SELF esteem. They don't lead to growth and change, and perhaps we notice that they were robbing us of our human birthright which is, after all, creativity.

By looking at the list when we are feeling a bit less desperate we find that we can find at least one, or two or maybe more events or activities that we CAN do -- right now.

4. DO one of the circled OPTIONS!

This taking back our right to make decisions is very empowering.

Maybe things are so bad, we have to call a crisis hot line. This is actually an act of self empowerment, strange as that notion may sound. Our hands and mouth connect so that our brain can tune into in some new information by simply dialing a phone number and becoming ready to listen. Our mouths get used in a productive way as we speak our truth. For resources, here is a list of great numbers to call. It really is a great DO option.

You'll find it really doesn't take much to find that you have lots of power, right under your nose.

That's one thing about meeting our needs, they usually -- if not always -- can be fixed by something just as close as our nose, our fingers, our eyes, our ears, or our tongues. Use of the five senses rapidly changes our emotional landscape and our minds begin to clear.

5. Celebrate your success!

This can be so important as it reinforces that we can find our way back from any and all crises. It's a healthy form of self parenting and an amazing stress reducer.

The importance of a long term recovery PLAN

Meditation is a powerful tool for many. But if our mind/body/spiritual connection isn't authentic, meditation can stop us from experiencing emotions that need to be dealt with. It is a great and powerful recovery tool, but I have doubts about its use when having a panic attack. To be useful, some form of meditation must be used every day, even if it's just a few minutes of sitting quietly. I personally call this psi time; you can call it what you like.

I've met meditation addicts. This is a controversial area and not everyone will agree with me. Most people use meditation for the intended purpose - to help relieve a sense of inner peace and to help the subconscious mind unlock inner truths. According to Dr Thynn Thynn, meditation can be as addictive as your

morning cup of coffee or tea. You can become addicted to meditation also. Although this is definitely not a bad conditioning per se, there are many subtleties that one must be aware of in meditation. The mind is very tricky, and one must always be aware of how the mind can be trapped.

If you are using meditation to help your subconscious find new options to deal with your panic then that is a healthy use for meditation. But, if you are using meditation as a way to escape from having to deal with your underlying issues, or to repress anything outside your "comfort" zone, then you will stay stuck in old unhelpful patterns. I have hung out with people who suppress their problems and end up reverting back to the same old, same old answers that never worked. As Ernie Larson has pointed out, insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. You can only resolve these issues and thought patterns by digging deep into the mind/body connection.

And ditto for the affirmations "racket". What I mean by this is that in a crisis, it's hard to trust WORDS. It's great to SAY, right aloud, with each syllable ringing above the din, "I CAN COPE!" But what I am saying is that writing down "I am a beautiful and loving person" 100 times is like scratching on a blackboard with chalk after being found guilty at school. AWK!

Try everyday to take time out for both these things. Make friends with your mirror and say the afirmations right aloud to yourself and get totally comfortable with saying them. But don't expect them to be cure alls during a panic attack.

Ever hear this joke ...? The good news is you are in recovery. The bad news is there are no days off.

When we start making a plan for recovery, the tools we select should accomplish job. No need to use a sledge hammer when a gentle pat will do the job. Prayer, meditation and affirmations are part of Daily Plan - they are not rescue workers.

What looking at active options accomplishes

During a panic attack, what I need is more room for growth. And I need it NOW. My bet is so do you when out feeling overwhelmed.

I know that if I start writing other types of activities down I get the relief I need. Usually it is my Inner Child who just wants to have some FUN. I find instead of engaging in "word work" that I want to reach UP! and OUT, flinging away all the webs and creepy crawlies that are lodged in my inner garden.

I am a walking meditator. I CAN sit for hours, I've had years of practice. And I can go "way out there" with mediation, too, in terms of hitting "other worldly" states of consciousness.

But I find that when my body is full engaged in the walking meditation activity, those inner promptings have a way of coming right to life inside this old noggin of mine. My best ideas have a way to flow. The possibilities enlarge while I am out there among other living beings. Nearly every really good thought I have had has come on "walks". When I lived in the UK, going to Stonehenge and sitting waiting for "answers" didn't do much for me. I went to the awesome Avebury, took a walk all the way round those inimitable stones (where did they come from?), crossed the old riverbed and climbed to the top of the hill. I felt AWESOME! That is when I realized, "Virginia, you are a walking meditator." All of me became open to CHANGE. Even the air I was breathing up on that tor seemed charged with possibility.

The two tools of sitting mediation and affirmations "work" and are most wisely used in a disciplined manner, setting aside prescribed times, rather than being used as a "fix". They deserve proper respect, not to be utilized to "cover up" and distract us from truly dealing with our problems. Most "word answers" have layers upon denial that might mask the real problem, still waiting to be addressed.

Instead, this list making frees up our right brain, coming up with just the right answer!! I love seeing that all I want to do is dance, dance, dance the night away and shake my sillies out. Indulging this craving allows me to get my "stuff" in a proper perspective, which only time can provide.

I am truly amazed how checking in with this "assignment" has accomplished for me over the years. I have a profound sense of what I am really excited about doing, what makes me doze, what has been imprinted on me as being "acceptable". After all, emotional well being is, at least in part, socially determined. Nobody wants to live in shame spirals by straying too far from what their social connections tell them are acceptable.

This options list making is easy, simple and HONEST. The ability to help me in moments of panic increased the longer I employed it. And that has made me into a better, kinder person. I take out my contract, no obligation but to myself to be just as I really AM; happy, joyous and free. What a freeing option. The lists become a way to take an inner breath, a process not an event.

Care to try it ...?

This is the fourth in a series of Lessons from Panic

Related Stories:
Lesson 1: Inside panic and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Lesson 2: Learning to set reasonable goals and deal with PTSD
Lesson 3: Cut to the Chase - write about it!

Working on the Moon could create Mental Health Issues

Loony or realistic? According to a Rutgers University—Camden researcher, in the not-too-distant future, some jobs will challenge workers placed far, far away from it all.

On the moon, in fact. Associate professor of management at the Rutgers School of Business—Camden, Chester Spell, says the lunar settlements of tomorrow – or, for that matter, the space stations of today – carry long-term implications for the mental health of employees working in isolation for extended periods. He believes depression and anxiety will reach new levels among those employees, creating mental and cardiovascular health problems as well as a sharp decline in productivity.

If it sounds far-fetched, Spell notes that existing research already finds that workers in earthbound, quasi-isolated work environments, such as remote Australian mining towns or Antarctic stations, experience higher levels of depression. Just imagine, observes Spell, what might happen if those workers were placed in the extreme isolation of a lunar environment, where interaction with their coworkers may determine their very survival.

One scenario, suggests that depression experienced by one worker will spread among the rest of the employee base. “The anxiety and depression of individuals working in teams relates to what co-workers think about their working conditions, above and beyond their own feelings,” explains Spell. “In other words, attitudes can spread among group members like a ‘social contagion’ and potentially lead to reduced mental health among other team members.”

“Relatively scant attention has been paid to this issue,” says Spell, who adds that “studies to date suggest that the link between isolation and worker mental health may be a critical one for a lunar base.”

What do you think? Will space travel create additional depression? Or will space travel create new and exciting environments for workers?

Cut to the Chase - write about it!

Lessons from PANIC ..

Part III

This article could go by loads of names. You could call it my thang about counter-intuitive therapy, you could call it what finally worked for me.

It could also be called "cutting to the chase".

It could be called when I finally learned to quit running and get on with my ACCEPTANCE of anxiety. This item has gone through MANY changes in recent days.

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/images/PlatoCave.jpg

HOW I VIEW PANIC

Panic to me is an inner call to WAKE UP and smell the coffee, so to speak. It is my body's way of telling me that it's time to shake out my sillies and take a good, hard look at why I am DISTRESSED. In another, future article I am going to post all the notes from the psychiatric community as to what EXACTLY they label as anxiety disorder(s), panic disorder(s) and such. But I thought I should really touch base with you all as to what I think it is.

I believe as I do because PANIC, anxiety and fear is nothing new to the human race. People used to have it but they didn't have labels or drugs to use. And they wrote long and hard about it, too, trying always to come up with solutions to it. Plato, for one. And it is very prevalent in the Eastern mystical traditions to deal with it, too. It interests me that currently most of the suggested therapy is coming from Eastern traditions. Recently, in North America, going to native shaman has become the "in" thing; maybe because it works.

Having been a sufferer of EXTREME panicky states, I realize now that all the writing I have done about it has been my best therapy. And there are good reasons for this.

Have been sitting in the cave, resisting these states, I got nowhere. I felt like a "victim" of Catch-22, as in the novel by Joseph Heller. The more anxiety I "produced", the more anxious I became. The more my anxiety alienated others, the more anxious I became.

They say "confession is good for the soul", but I found that even well intentioned therapy didn't help all that much at the time. In all honesty, I doubt if I could have continued the way I was without REAL therapeutic help. I had repressed, suppressed and denied too many things. Plus the well-educated therapeutic community was "hip" to some things about my existence that I had NO IDEA might be causing me to be so .. so ... anxious. Being a motherless daughter was one of those things I really couldn't have figured out on my own. Dealing with the rejection of my body, was another. I gave up my Theatre Arts major at University because I could not STAND being viewed on stage. I was unable to handle people watching me!! I ended up in radio. Therapy did help me through that transition. I was able to finish school, get a job and become self supporting.

The upshot of my experience is that I have learned to WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING THAT MAKES ME ANXIOUS. By "objectively" telling myself what is causing me so much anxiety, I can start to deal with it. It may take me quite a while to get it all down. I found that writing with a pencil is best - it flows along nicely that way. The feelings begin to surface. Writing on a computer is TOO LINEAR, it is designed for narration only. A pencil is the BEST tool for me.

And that leads to the second step (see the picture above ... Ascent to Sunlight!). I just do the hard part which is get to grips with the FEELINGS. I write them down and look at them. My feelings, or as some like to call them, emotional tones, are what keep me "in the loop". I used to joke .. "but I don't DO feelings". I would rather do 3,000 word essays about feelings than to have them. But when I take a good "look" at them, when those feelings come into focus, I can DO something about them.

They just don't see so damned important in the light of day on a page. They seem pretty NORMAL, really. I am just struggling, like everyone else, to cope with life, death, the instability of the world ever changing and me sitting around being STATIC. My writing always, always changes this. Studies have shown that writing about anxiety (or journaling) is probably the most effective way to deal with panic and anxiety that has ever been proposed! No wonder workbooks on anxiety, fear and panic are such BEST sellers! It's obvious .. ya gotta write it down.

My original self-inflicted "therapy", taught to me in a workshop -- two decades ago -- was to simply take responsibility for any and all problems that cropped up in my life. This would reduce any urge I had to get into blame, finger pointing, resentment, guilt, arrogance and/or manipulation I was pulling to create "situations".

HOW I BEAT PANIC BY JOURNALING

The exercise I use goes like this:

1. On a piece of paper I would write down my "problem". I mean really DEFINE it, in terms I understood. Didn't matter how much blaming of others I was doing or "reasons" that I "would" have certain problems, I took the responsibility on as "my" problem.
2. Then, I would write the following: The reason behind me, Virginia, having the problem whereby ______________ and here I would fill in the blank with what was causing me anxiety or emotional PAIN.
3. Then I would write, in Capital Letters IS ...
4. I would then write every single idea that came into my head about WHY I had created this problem. After each "reason", I would write IS again and put down the next thing about the problem that popped into my head. And that would get followed by the "IS" and so on.

Okay. It is a real sad thing to say, but I could come up with at least 20 reasons I had created the problem! Sometimes 50! But the heart of the matter would always emerge .. or the multiple "reasons" would emerge -- some old, stale way of thinking that was keeping me STUCK. One idea that might be "the one" would be that there was simply the "old" belief that it wasn't okay to feel bad. The STUCK would have made me panic, but not when actually examined. One reason would somehow just "feel" like the right one, though. Do you know what years of doing this accomplished? I've always finished the exercise realizing that I was "okay". That what I felt was perfectly within human reality and not so unique and unrealistic at all. I would always find out that I am a member of the human race and still lovable. Wow! I usually finished the exercise by doing my favorite of all affirmations, "I am enough, I have enough, I do enough" And I would take as big a dose of that affirmation as the situation required.

One could say that this exercise was my little dialogue with a God of my understanding -- the page was my confessor, so to speak and the exercise sure took me into the light each time I did it. It returned me to sanity. I have made lists over the years answering the same three questions on paper, over and over ... Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going ...? Amazing to go back and look at the answers and realize how much I have grown and find the seeds of self knowledge that came later. I do left handed portraits of myself every six months, but that is a tale for another time.

I did have one other "trick" and still do. I simply make a cup of herbal tea. It makes me see that taking everything a step at a time will make the horrible moment pass. But during a panic attack, making a cup of tea can be quite an undertaking. I do it anyway. and I BREATHE.

I took a look at a pile of books that have come out about anxiety, phobia, panic .. I think this one is pretty good Panic Attacks Workbook: A Guided Program for Beating the Panic Trick. It's a workbook. I am not so sure that all the attention it gives to making sure you have a "label" is necessary. Having a "label" is not necessarily going to reassure a person predisposed to intense anxiety. Still, the author does make four extremely good points right at the beginning of the book. The quiz that defines your exact label might actually reduce your anxiety level!! Right on the Amazon site, you can read the four things he asks you to do before you buy or read or work the workbook.

I love the fact he tells you to "get a buddy" as No. 4. It reassures me that he really gets it. A problem shared is a problem halved, at the very least. I used to take my written exercises into the therapist to discuss them; that served as my buddy. Dr. Carbonell is helping you establish that you are part of a community before you even begin. I have had Panic Disorder with agoraphobia. It happened when my landlord threw away all that I owned. I simply could not trust anything would be there when I came back if I went out anywhere during the next three months so I didn't want to leave my home. This workbook could have been a big help to me. This workbook will be a godsend to anyone newly "diagnosed".

I have had amazing results from James Pennebaker's books. If you're experiencing anxiety, panic or other emotional problems these books could TRANSFORM you entire life.

In the time since I read the first one, Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions, which convinced me my writing it all out was the thing to do, Pennebaker has produced a workbook, Writing to Heal: