Some people feel that anxiety is a problem that originates in the brain and there is no way to use the brain to counteract it since, after all, it is the brain which is the problem. Fortunately, people who suffer from anxiety know that there are ways to think your way out of it.
There are a couple of ways to do this. The most popular way to approach this sort of problem is with cognitive behavioral therapy which attempts to get the individual to think more rationally about the issues that causing them distress. In a nutshell, CBT works by getting you to minimize thinking errors which are cognitive mishits about how a certain situation or circumstance can negatively impact a person. By removing thinking errors you can go a long way towards eliminating your anxiety.
CBT has been shown to be effective in many cases. Some say more than 90% of people with anxiety can find relief from their symptoms by taking part in CBT. I still believe that there are some who will require a more intensive approach.
For instance people with certain conditions such as schizo-affective disorder do not seem to respond as well as CBT. Also, in my experience CBT is especially effective at dealing with social anxiety and panic attacks and phobias but less successful with dealing with generalized anxiety. For this reason, I believe that a person need not stay in therapy forever.
If you have a CBT therapist and have been using his interventions and techniques and are not improving, I believe is time to cut the cord and either see a new therapist or try a new approach. I may be in the minority, but I believe that your obligation is to yourself and your disorder. It is not your problem to figure out how your ineffective counselor is going to make the rent. If I had a million dollars for every person that I knew of that continued to see a therapist in the face no evidence that they were getting better, either because they liked the therapist or felt guilty about leaving them, I would be a trillionaire.
The simple fact is that you owe it to yourself to get better. You do not owe it your therapist to keep the lights on at his apartment. Chances are good that he is just doing fine, helping others.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Anxiety Help For Alcoholics
Anxiety can be very troubling in and of itself. I believe that anxiety can lead many people to self medicate with drugs and alcohol. Because anxiety causes such an unpleasant effect in those who suffer from it, it is not at all unusual to find people who suffer from anxiety who are alcoholic or drug addicted.
Now, I am not sure that they became an alcoholic because they drank so much or that they just triggered a condition (alcoholism) that they were likely to encounter with or without anxiety. Regardless, the two just go together often. So, I'd like to offer some tips for people that have anxiety and are alcoholic.
First, you need to stop wondering whether you drank alcoholicly because you have anxiety. It's really pretty irrelevant whether you have always been alcoholic or drank to bury your anxiety. It is simply not the point. The thing you are going to want to consider, however, is how will you be able to treat anxiety if you are not going to be able to drink alcohol to alleviate the anxiety symptoms. This is a problem, no?
I have some bad news for ya. For a little while you are just going to have to endure your anxiety on its own. You'll have to sit in the anxiety and feel its terribleness because there just isn't a good other option. Benzos are not a good idea for alcoholics, though I do know some who have taken benzos for years and not developed their drinking anew. But, I also want to inform you that having anxiety is not the end of the world. So, you won't be able to obliterate your anxiety with alcohol. Is that really the end of the world. I think you might find, that being able to face your anxiety sober will allow you to actually get over it more quickly.
Stay tuned for part two on anxiety and alcohol.
Now, I am not sure that they became an alcoholic because they drank so much or that they just triggered a condition (alcoholism) that they were likely to encounter with or without anxiety. Regardless, the two just go together often. So, I'd like to offer some tips for people that have anxiety and are alcoholic.
First, you need to stop wondering whether you drank alcoholicly because you have anxiety. It's really pretty irrelevant whether you have always been alcoholic or drank to bury your anxiety. It is simply not the point. The thing you are going to want to consider, however, is how will you be able to treat anxiety if you are not going to be able to drink alcohol to alleviate the anxiety symptoms. This is a problem, no?
I have some bad news for ya. For a little while you are just going to have to endure your anxiety on its own. You'll have to sit in the anxiety and feel its terribleness because there just isn't a good other option. Benzos are not a good idea for alcoholics, though I do know some who have taken benzos for years and not developed their drinking anew. But, I also want to inform you that having anxiety is not the end of the world. So, you won't be able to obliterate your anxiety with alcohol. Is that really the end of the world. I think you might find, that being able to face your anxiety sober will allow you to actually get over it more quickly.
Stay tuned for part two on anxiety and alcohol.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
What Keeps People in Anxiety
Without a doubt the thing that I think keeps people in anxiety for long periods of their life is their failure to accept their condition. Now, I don't know how to cure anxiety. But I do know that I am not ashamed and I know that one of the ways you can defeat it is to accept it. Now, some things, there is just no answer to and I have to always remind people that they don't have an anxiety problem they have a defective brain problem. What do I mean?
Let's look at death. Suppose thinking about death gives you a panic attack. You simply can not stomach the idea that you are not going to live forever and you do not believe in an after life. Therefore every time that you think about the fact that you are going to die you become extremely panicked and anxious. Does this mean that you have an anxiety disorder?
No it absolutely does not. It means that you are human! Of course you are afraid of death. If you do not believe in an afterlife and you have a spirit of self preservation every time that you think about the fact that one day you will cease to exist you are going to get anxious. This is not the kind of anxiety that there is a cure from. This is a normal, human reaction to a set of circumstances. No technique is going to get you to accept an after life and no technique is going to get you to live forever. So, if you have fear of death, you either need to accept it or prepare to have a disturbed life. I don't know of a way to cure causation. And Xanax or drugging yourself just puts a blanket over the problem.
Welcome to humanity, pal!
Let's look at death. Suppose thinking about death gives you a panic attack. You simply can not stomach the idea that you are not going to live forever and you do not believe in an after life. Therefore every time that you think about the fact that you are going to die you become extremely panicked and anxious. Does this mean that you have an anxiety disorder?
No it absolutely does not. It means that you are human! Of course you are afraid of death. If you do not believe in an afterlife and you have a spirit of self preservation every time that you think about the fact that one day you will cease to exist you are going to get anxious. This is not the kind of anxiety that there is a cure from. This is a normal, human reaction to a set of circumstances. No technique is going to get you to accept an after life and no technique is going to get you to live forever. So, if you have fear of death, you either need to accept it or prepare to have a disturbed life. I don't know of a way to cure causation. And Xanax or drugging yourself just puts a blanket over the problem.
Welcome to humanity, pal!
Anxiety Stories You Can Learn From
I think that one of the reasons that I have been able to overcome my anxiety disorder is that I realize that my story can help so many other people from struggling with anxiety. But, I think I need to make a certain clarification up front: When I say that I don't have anxiety any more I actually mean something very specific, I mean that I rarely worry anymore. Now, what does that actually mean, let me explain.
I struggled with a very profound anxiety disorder for more than a decade. However, the thing that was always the biggest bother to me was the shame that I felt about my anxiety. But, I also had physical symptoms. My palms got sweaty, I lost confidence, my stomach turned, I felt nervous. And, just to be clear, I sometimes still get those symptoms today. But I say that I have overcome my anxiety because they do not haunt me. In fact, I can usually just turn them off as if I had a switch in my brain. I don't feel any shame or guilt because I have come to the point where I accept that I have an anxiety disorder. Therefore, I don't worry about my anxiety anymore. It doesn't rule me. And for that I reason alone I can declare that I have defeated anxiety once and for all.
I struggled with a very profound anxiety disorder for more than a decade. However, the thing that was always the biggest bother to me was the shame that I felt about my anxiety. But, I also had physical symptoms. My palms got sweaty, I lost confidence, my stomach turned, I felt nervous. And, just to be clear, I sometimes still get those symptoms today. But I say that I have overcome my anxiety because they do not haunt me. In fact, I can usually just turn them off as if I had a switch in my brain. I don't feel any shame or guilt because I have come to the point where I accept that I have an anxiety disorder. Therefore, I don't worry about my anxiety anymore. It doesn't rule me. And for that I reason alone I can declare that I have defeated anxiety once and for all.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Where to Find Anxiety Help
There are several ways to find help for anxiety. In this article, I am going to talk about where to find anxiety help. Okay, let's get started. First, a little a bit about me. I am an anxiety veteran. I became acutely aware of my anxiety when I was 12 years old, or maybe even younger, as I grew older into my late teen years my anxiety symptoms became more pronouncd. In high school, which can be the worst setting for a person suffering from anxiety, my experience was very much like a disaster. I can't say I had good memories, but I was somewhat comfortable in my anxiety and I was accustomed to my environment and things were not great but they were under control. When I graduated from high school and headed off to college my anxiety disorder really took on a life of its own. I was living in a college dorm with perfect strangers and I no longer was in the familiar confines on my high school. For these reasons, plus some personal stresses, my anxiety just took off. I wasn't making new friends as I was avoiding high anxiety situations at all costs therefore for the most part I stayed alone or with a few friends from high school. I found the dorm the most anxiety producing environment of all so I very rarely stayed there, I was always out and away from where my anxiety was most acute and I also started drinking alcohol heavily to combat the anxiety symptoms. I needed help for my anxiety but wasn't sure where to turn. Unfortunately, I started to struggle more severely with my symptoms and was simply unable to continue in the present situation. I left the dorm to move back in with my parents and in short order left college all together. At this point my anxiety disorder simply took total control of my life. I stopped associating with high school friends and began isolating entirely. For a couple of years I did not go out socially at all. I was also very depressed but more than anything, I was just anxious all the time. It was misery. I finally started to get out of this situation and take steps to begin to combat my anxiety. I realized I needed to find some anxiety help and I started looking at various options. Because I couldn't work do to this disorder I needed help from my parents to seek treatment even though I was now into my twenties. Luckily for me, they were willing to help me and I started to look for anxiety help.
The first thing that I did to find anxiety help was make an appointment with a therapist. The therapist that I saw wasn't an anxiety specialist though I didn't know this at the time. I showed up for my appointment riddled with anxiety. I felt terribly awkward and I just wanted to leave his office the entire time. I talked a little bit about my situation and the thing that I took from those first few meetings was that he wanted to help me. I wasn't sure if he knew how to help me, but it seemed that he did want to help and that made me feel better. Within a few months of seeing the therapist, who specialized in adolescents and young adults, I was referred to a psychiatrist to get on some medication to help me with this anxiety. I began on a long journey of trying different medications that has lasted until this day. He put me on an antidepressant, an antipsychotic and a benzodiazepine. I was on a hearty dose of all three. I started to feel a little bit better but, honestly, I still had a lot of anxiety symptoms. I wasn't going out with any friends and I thought there had to be more to life than this. I also started to put on a lot of weight and have other side effects that I didn't really care for. Because I wasn't cured and still needed anxiety help I continued to see the psychiatrist to manage the medications. Managing the medications meant trying lots of medications and lots of combinations of them. I can't say that we ever really figured it out, however we certainly tried a lot of things and I am grateful that my psychiatrist was a patient man. I also continued to see the therapist. I believe I started to stabilize. I felt a bit better but still could not work or interact due to severe social anxiety. Finally, after a few years, I realized that I need anxiety help from a specialist and I left my therapist to find someone more active in anxiety interventions and things of that nature. What I found when I went to get anxiety help from an anxiety specialist is that many so-called specialists don't exactly have the answers. We did a lot of talking like I had done with my previous therapist and I believe that he also wanted to help. The problem really lied in the fact that the specialist had never had any anxiety of his own. I don't think that this meant that he would be ineffective but the methods that he taught to help my anxiety were things that he had learned from a textbook rather than things that had actually worked for him. Anyway, I continued to see the specialist every week for a few years while also continuing to try new medications with the psychiatrist. The process was ongoing and it had been a number of years since I had started this journey to get anxiety help. I still was hardly working and was dependent upon my parents to meet my needs. It wasn't the best situation, but I was getting better. However, I realized that these anxiety medications is addition to having side effects were doing a couple of other things that I wasn't too happy about. The benzodiazepine that I was taking was being particularly problematic. When I would miss a dose I would have all kinds of problems and I realized that I had become entirely dependent upon it. This was a stark realization for it would have been one thing if it would have been an anxiety cure, but I still had the anxiety and now I had another problem as well: I was addicted to prescription drugs. I thought that there had to be a better way to get help for anxiety than this. So, on the one hand, I was addicted to benzos but on the other hand, my anxiety had gotten a lot better. I realized that I needed to get off the benzos and begin to find other ways to relieve my anxiety. This was a long process that actually required a medical detox because going off benzos can be dangerous. It took about a year to 18 months before the benzo withdrawal symptoms started to subside. The whole thing was quite an ordeal but I realized that I would be better off without being addicted to benzos and I do believe that I am today.
I continued to see the anxiety specialist to get anxiety help and I continued to change medications. By now I had returned to college but I had not really worked much due to all this anxiety. I was still drinking a lot of alcohol to cope with social anxiety. It was a trying time. Finally, I decided that seeing this specialist who had never had any issues with anxiety was a waste of my time and resources. I did not get angry with him, for I believed that he was doing his best to help me, however it just seemed like so often he was just shooting in the dark trying to tell me what he thought should help my anxiety rather than what he knew was effective for anxiety help. Also, in this time I started to take herbs for anxiety help and anxiety relief and I can't say that I got any benefit from them whatsoever. And I continued to take the antidepressant and antipsychotic medications while still seeing the psychiatrist who I had started with. I was also getting older. And I started to take steps to overcome my anxiety. And those are the steps that I have started this blog to share with you. I realized that medications, while helpful, were not an anxiety cure all and that meeting every week with a so-called anxiety specialist was not particularly useful either. I learned that I, as a sufferer of anxiety, could give myself my own brand of anxiety help that would be more effective than this help that I was paying so-called experts for. I started a long process of learning that has brought me where I am today. Today, I am anxiety and I started this blog to share my methods with you for free. Therefore, if I had one piece of advice it would be to look for anxiety help within yourself rather than from so-called experts.
The first thing that I did to find anxiety help was make an appointment with a therapist. The therapist that I saw wasn't an anxiety specialist though I didn't know this at the time. I showed up for my appointment riddled with anxiety. I felt terribly awkward and I just wanted to leave his office the entire time. I talked a little bit about my situation and the thing that I took from those first few meetings was that he wanted to help me. I wasn't sure if he knew how to help me, but it seemed that he did want to help and that made me feel better. Within a few months of seeing the therapist, who specialized in adolescents and young adults, I was referred to a psychiatrist to get on some medication to help me with this anxiety. I began on a long journey of trying different medications that has lasted until this day. He put me on an antidepressant, an antipsychotic and a benzodiazepine. I was on a hearty dose of all three. I started to feel a little bit better but, honestly, I still had a lot of anxiety symptoms. I wasn't going out with any friends and I thought there had to be more to life than this. I also started to put on a lot of weight and have other side effects that I didn't really care for. Because I wasn't cured and still needed anxiety help I continued to see the psychiatrist to manage the medications. Managing the medications meant trying lots of medications and lots of combinations of them. I can't say that we ever really figured it out, however we certainly tried a lot of things and I am grateful that my psychiatrist was a patient man. I also continued to see the therapist. I believe I started to stabilize. I felt a bit better but still could not work or interact due to severe social anxiety. Finally, after a few years, I realized that I need anxiety help from a specialist and I left my therapist to find someone more active in anxiety interventions and things of that nature. What I found when I went to get anxiety help from an anxiety specialist is that many so-called specialists don't exactly have the answers. We did a lot of talking like I had done with my previous therapist and I believe that he also wanted to help. The problem really lied in the fact that the specialist had never had any anxiety of his own. I don't think that this meant that he would be ineffective but the methods that he taught to help my anxiety were things that he had learned from a textbook rather than things that had actually worked for him. Anyway, I continued to see the specialist every week for a few years while also continuing to try new medications with the psychiatrist. The process was ongoing and it had been a number of years since I had started this journey to get anxiety help. I still was hardly working and was dependent upon my parents to meet my needs. It wasn't the best situation, but I was getting better. However, I realized that these anxiety medications is addition to having side effects were doing a couple of other things that I wasn't too happy about. The benzodiazepine that I was taking was being particularly problematic. When I would miss a dose I would have all kinds of problems and I realized that I had become entirely dependent upon it. This was a stark realization for it would have been one thing if it would have been an anxiety cure, but I still had the anxiety and now I had another problem as well: I was addicted to prescription drugs. I thought that there had to be a better way to get help for anxiety than this. So, on the one hand, I was addicted to benzos but on the other hand, my anxiety had gotten a lot better. I realized that I needed to get off the benzos and begin to find other ways to relieve my anxiety. This was a long process that actually required a medical detox because going off benzos can be dangerous. It took about a year to 18 months before the benzo withdrawal symptoms started to subside. The whole thing was quite an ordeal but I realized that I would be better off without being addicted to benzos and I do believe that I am today.
I continued to see the anxiety specialist to get anxiety help and I continued to change medications. By now I had returned to college but I had not really worked much due to all this anxiety. I was still drinking a lot of alcohol to cope with social anxiety. It was a trying time. Finally, I decided that seeing this specialist who had never had any issues with anxiety was a waste of my time and resources. I did not get angry with him, for I believed that he was doing his best to help me, however it just seemed like so often he was just shooting in the dark trying to tell me what he thought should help my anxiety rather than what he knew was effective for anxiety help. Also, in this time I started to take herbs for anxiety help and anxiety relief and I can't say that I got any benefit from them whatsoever. And I continued to take the antidepressant and antipsychotic medications while still seeing the psychiatrist who I had started with. I was also getting older. And I started to take steps to overcome my anxiety. And those are the steps that I have started this blog to share with you. I realized that medications, while helpful, were not an anxiety cure all and that meeting every week with a so-called anxiety specialist was not particularly useful either. I learned that I, as a sufferer of anxiety, could give myself my own brand of anxiety help that would be more effective than this help that I was paying so-called experts for. I started a long process of learning that has brought me where I am today. Today, I am anxiety and I started this blog to share my methods with you for free. Therefore, if I had one piece of advice it would be to look for anxiety help within yourself rather than from so-called experts.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Anxiety Help Please
I have to say that for a long time I thought that in order to overcome anxiety I just needed the right anxiety help. I went to psychiatrists and therapists. I got on anti-anxiety medications. And I even went to an inpatient psychiatric hospital. I did all these things in search of an answer for anxiety. I confess that I was desperate. I really wanted help with my anxiety. However, the thing that I did that was a mistake was look for outside anxiety help. Now, please understand what I am trying to say. I needed anxiety help and I needed to look outside myself to get the most severe symptoms under control. I believe that my therapists did there best work to help me with my anxiety and in many cases what they provided was beneficial.
Also the anxiety medication that I was on did help in some ways. And I am still on psychiatric medications to this day and I never advise that people get completely off their medications. However, I do believe that certain medications such as benzodiazepines can be more harmful than beneficial and in many cases should not be used. Though, if you are on a benzodiazepine you should never just stop taking it. Make sure you consult a doctor because if you stop taking this kind of medication abruptly then you can end up having extreme withdrawals or perhaps even dying from a seizure. That's how serious this medication can be and why I feel like I never should have taken it in the first place.
Anyway, I believe I needed anxiety help and I sought out professional experts to help me with my anxiety. However, the thing was, and this is after going to a therapist every week for 15 years, I realized that they can not really help you with anxiety that much. Because they aren't really anxiety experts. In fact, they are mostly not experts at anything. If you need help with anxiety you have to remember that the only real expert is you. You are the expert on your own life and your own health. I don't think that you should be presribing yourself medication but realize that farming your anxiety problems to a team of experts will not improve your situation much at all if my experience is any indication. You are going to need to adopt some new strategies of your own and I will be discussing those strategies on this blog. So, remember that you can do something to get anxiety help that much is certain.
Also the anxiety medication that I was on did help in some ways. And I am still on psychiatric medications to this day and I never advise that people get completely off their medications. However, I do believe that certain medications such as benzodiazepines can be more harmful than beneficial and in many cases should not be used. Though, if you are on a benzodiazepine you should never just stop taking it. Make sure you consult a doctor because if you stop taking this kind of medication abruptly then you can end up having extreme withdrawals or perhaps even dying from a seizure. That's how serious this medication can be and why I feel like I never should have taken it in the first place.
Anyway, I believe I needed anxiety help and I sought out professional experts to help me with my anxiety. However, the thing was, and this is after going to a therapist every week for 15 years, I realized that they can not really help you with anxiety that much. Because they aren't really anxiety experts. In fact, they are mostly not experts at anything. If you need help with anxiety you have to remember that the only real expert is you. You are the expert on your own life and your own health. I don't think that you should be presribing yourself medication but realize that farming your anxiety problems to a team of experts will not improve your situation much at all if my experience is any indication. You are going to need to adopt some new strategies of your own and I will be discussing those strategies on this blog. So, remember that you can do something to get anxiety help that much is certain.
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