Anxiety Forum

[northstar]

Hi everyone!

Because of the volume of people who come through these forums I often find myself repeating the same information over and over again to newcomers. I have no problems spending time writing to people who are asking for advice, but I thought it would be helpful to combine all the information I have gathered about anxiety on my own journey and put it all together so that I can give the link to people I feel would benefit from it I am not an expert on anxiety by any means, but I have learned a lot over the last year on my path to recovery and I hope that other people will find this helpful. The first person you should talk to about anxiety is your doctor, but I hope that the methods listed here will help you alongside whatever you do.

On my way to feeling better again I learned that recovery from anxiety takes a lot of effort, but it is possible. Anxiety takes away our sense of confidence and strength, it is important that we build this up again by being proactive in our own recoveries and there are LOTS of things that you can do to help yourself through it. A lot of people come here looking for answers and ways to help themselves naturally, I picked up quite a few tips on my own path that have been incredibly helpful. I am a firm believer that a combination of lifestyle change, proper nutrition and good therapy is the best treatment for anxiety sufferers, but you have to be willing to make the changes. A therapist once said to me "if you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you've always got". She meant if I kept living the way I was, things would never change. If I wanted to feel different I had to make the changes myself, they weren't going to happen automatically. This statement has really stuck with me. It took me out of the victim attitude and prompted me to take control of my own life again, I honestly think it is the best advice I've ever been given!

So a good attitude towards helping yourself, working with the anxiety and not allowing yourself to be a victim is the first thing you will need on your own journey

DIET & NUTRITION

I find that quite a number of people just don't want to listen to the advice on diet! They don't want to have to make the kinds of changes that are recommended even though it can help enormously. The truth is that your diet is a MAJOR factor in how you feel. Stress drains our bodies of the nutrients we need to feel healthy and OK, and if on top of that you're not eating a diet that gives you the nutrients you need or if you're barely eating at all then your body is going to feel even more drained and stressed out. So one of the easiest places to start healing is to start soothing your body with nutrients and giving it exactly what it needs


Vitamin B

There are a lot of B vitamins, they are important in the running of a happy nervous system. People stressed out with anxiety burn through B vitamins quickly. If you're feeling anxious your body is stressed, you use up those B vitamins and this upsets your body and nervous system further and then you feel even more stressed and so the cycle of anxiety continues. So one of the first things you can do is to start taking B vitamin complex, apparently they work well together so it's better to take a complex rather than 1 particular B vitamin on it's own. It will help to calm your nervous system and give you a better shot at dealing with stress! Ask your pharmacist or health store assistant for advice on the best one to take and make sure that it's compatible with any medication you're on. Oh and be aware that it will turn your urine bright yellow, so don't freak out when you notice it for the first time lol.

Here is a link to a more in depth article on why B vitamins are good for anxiety: http://www.manifest-your-success.com/effective-treatments-for-anxiety.html

Magnesium is also said to be good for your nervous system, it is known to relieve tension. It is often possible to get a vitamin B complex combined with magnesium, again ask your pharmacist / health store assistant about this. When I'm feeling stressed I take a vitamin B complex with magnesium every morning with my breakfast. It is sometimes recommended if you're feeling particularly strung out that you take one in the evenings also to help with sleep. Please remember to ask your doctor about this, I'm not an expert!


Foods to Avoid

This is the part of anxiety advice that most people like to ignore in my experience! There are many things that we put into our bodies without being aware of how they affect us. The following foods are known irritants, stimulants or agitators to anxiety, they can be the source of or majorly irritate anxiety and depression. If you are having trouble with anxiety it is best to avoid these foods as much as possible or at the very least cut out excesses and keep them to a minimum as much as you can. Please be aware that if you eat / drink a lot of these foods that cutting them out suddenly can lead to withdrawal symptoms which can increase anxiety for a short while. It's best to wean yourself off things like coffee rather than going cold turkey, or have a chat with your doctor about the best way to handle it for your own situation. Don't go off everything on this list suddenly either, you'll give your body a hard time with that approach! Take things slowly, you don't want to put yourself under any extra stress.

Some people say that the following foods/drinks should be avoided altogether if you're sensitive to anxiety. I personally feel that it's OK to have them in moderation once you're feeling pretty stable. I cut out everything at the beginning of my own recovery, but that was mainly because of the fact that I had been very ill and wasn't able to eat much anyway! I now enjoy the things on this list every now and again, I really don't have the willpower to cut them out altogether, but I am well aware of how they will make me feel so I try to eat them as little as possible and only have them in small amounts.

1) Sugar & Processed foods e.g. pizza, white breads & white pastas

Sugar will send your body into a roller coaster of blood sugar highs and lows. You'll feel good for a while after eating it, but soon after you'll crash and feel awful. These constant ups and downs can really drain your body and bring on major mood swings, headaches, brain fog, and fatigue amongst other things. If you have anxiety sugar is really not your friend, so if you eat a lot of sugary foods then you really need to think about cutting down if not cutting it out altogether. Sugar doesn't necessarily mean putting spoons of sugar in your tea or binging on sweets, there is sugar is so many processed foods, you need to start reading the ingredients listings on what you're consuming and judging the amounts of sugar in them.

If you look across the internet you will find lots of people who report major improvements in anxiety after cutting sugar out of their diets, use google yourself to have a look!

Refined carbohydrates like white breaks and pastas burn up in your body rather quickly and can have the same effect as eating sugary foods. It's best to swap them for things like wholegrain breads and flours, these will burn up slowly in your body and keep your blood sugar levels stable for longer and help you to feel much better.


2) Caffeine

Unfortunately caffeine is also a major no-no for people who suffer from anxiety for many reasons. Caffeine is a stimulant! That means it's supposed to get you up and going. If you have anxiety you need to relax, taking a stimulant is not going to help. It puts your whole system on edge, increasing tension and making you feel strung out, it stops your body producing the natural hormones you need to sleep in the evenings and it can cause increased heart rate and palpitations which are often a main worry for people with anxiety. The cycles of withdrawal and exhaustion can leave your body worn out and stressed out, you don't need this on top of an anxiety problem. Did you know there are also several psychological disorders related to caffeine and caffeine addiction??

Caffeine doesn't just mean coffee, it also means tea, chocolate and soft drinks like coke, so you need to be very aware of how these types of foods/drinks are going to make you feel if you choose to drink them. Once again if you google anxiety and coffee you will find TONS of people across the world who have reported major improvements once getting rid of excess caffeine in their diets.

Please be aware that caffeine is very addictive and cutting it out should not be done all of a sudden if you're a regular drinker as the withdrawal symptoms can be difficult. Talk to a doctor about the best way for you to withdraw from it

Take a look at this video entitled 'Caffeine is a Mental Illness' for some more information: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=24156323


3) Alcohol

Alcohol is another one to avoid if you have anxiety problems. It will play havoc with your blood sugars (more on blood sugars & why they are so important later in this article!) and make you feel terrible. Like refined carbs and sugar it will burn up in your body really fast and a couple of hours later you'll come crashing back down and that's when it will make you feel anxious. A hungover person burns through their body's nutrients in no time at all! So it drains you of the vital nutrients you need to feel stable and happy adding to anxiety problems.

Unfortunately a lot of anxiety sufferers tend to use alcohol to hide from how they feel, but without knowing that alcohol will only add to the problem. It's best to avoid alcohol as much as possible or keep it to a minimum when you're having a drink with friends. I often have a glass of wine if I'm in the pub with friends, but one glass and soon I'll have heart palpitations so I have to be aware of how it's going to affect me with each glass I consume. In the past drinking alcohol would have given me those heart palpitations, but I didn't know that the drink was actually causing them, I just knew that all of a sudden my heart was racing and thumping really hard and that would make me worried and anxious. Now that I know that the alcohol will give me palpitations I don't panic when I feel them, I just know it's time to stop drinking lol.


4) Sodas

Soft drinks or sodas are liquid sugar and caffeine!! Need i say more? lol. Honestly they're terrible for you, people sensitive to anxiety really need to pay attention to this fact!

I find that people are often less aware of this one and are really surprised when they hear it. It's best to keep them at an absolute minimum.



Other foods to keep to a minimum are fatty & fried foods, salty foods and MSG (MSG is found on Chinese food and crisps/chips/corn snacks). If you have access to organic food and can afford it then take advantage of it The basics of diet for anxiety are healthy, whole foods will keep you happy. These days information on proper nutrition and diet is so easily found, we have no excuses to indulge in unhealthy diets. It's all about moderation and making the right choices for your health. So you now know how all of these foods can make your anxiety worse, the choice is yours on what you put into your body and so you can choose to take this advice or not.

Here is a link to a short article on good diet choices for anxiety sufferers: http://www.anxietypanic.com/nutrition.html


Blood Sugar / Hypoglycemia

Low blood sugar problems, or hypoglycemia, is a rather unknown cause of anxiety. When I discovered it it changed my life Eating to keep my blood sugars stable is what I believe really helped me recover! I'm not very good at explaining the science of it, so here is a great passage from www.hypoglycemia.org that explains it quite simply:

"Hypoglycemia - hy-po-gly-ce-mi-a (n.)
An abnormally low level of sugar in the blood.

What does this mean?
In simple layman's language, hypoglycemia is the body's inability to properly handle the large amounts of sugar that the average American consumes today. It's an overload of sugar, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and stress.

In medical terms, hypoglycemia is defined in relation to its cause. Functional hypoglycemia, the kind we are addressing here, is the oversecretion of insulin by the pancreas in response to a rapid rise in blood sugar or "glucose".

All carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits and grains, as well as simple table sugar), are broken down into simple sugars by the process of digestion. This sugar enters the blood stream as glucose and our level of blood sugar rises. The pancreas then secretes a hormone known as insulin into the blood in order to bring the glucose down to normal levels.

In hypoglycemia, the pancreas sends out too much insulin and the blood sugar plummets below the level necessary to maintain well-being.

Since all the cells of the body, especially the brain cells, use glucose for fuel, a blood glucose level that is too low starves the cells of needed fuel, causing both physical and emotional symptoms."


The resulting drop in blood sugar can cause a whole host of problems that may sound familar to you, although it varies from person to person:

heart palpitations (often occuring an hour or two after a meal or waking you up in the middle of the night)
sweating
nervousness
shaking & trembling
headaches
tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
muscle twitches
lack of concentration
difficulty breathing
derealisation
brain fog
depression
panic
anxiety
generalised anxiety / free floating anxiety
extreme hunger
chest pain
crying spells
mood swings
exhaustion & fatigue
dizzy spells
lightheadedness
anger
blurred vision
sleepiness (especially after meals)
cravings for sugary foods
poor memory
irritability
weakness (feelings like "rubbery legs")
insomnia
waking in the middle of the night/in the mornings with anxiety/palpitations
symptoms seem worst in the mornings and get easier as the day goes on


If you find yourself recognising a lot of these symptoms then it's worth looking into hypoglycemia. It's very easily managed through diet, some sources say it's completely reversible Basically you'll want to eat foods that will burn up slowly in your body and release a steady rate of glucose into your bloodstream keeping your blood sugars stable and happy. The best way to do this is to keep a healthy diet and eat small amounts of food regularly. Try to get protein in with most meals, e.g. have a boiled egg for breakfast and snack on nuts. The foods I've listed above (the ones to avoid) will aggravate hypoglycemia, refined carbs, sugar and alcohol will all burn up quickly in your body sending your blood sugars soaring. If you eat a lot of these foods regularly think of the roller coaster of highs and lows happening in your body every day, no wonder you're feeling stressed and worn out.

A similar effect will happen if you eat very little or skip meals - you won't be providing your body with the fuel it needs to work normally and you'll put your whole system under tremendous pressure (not to mention the fact that you're not getting the proper nutrients your body needs!). So not eating very much is just as bad for you as eating the wrong kinds of foods. It's incredibly important not to skip means ESPECIALLY breakfast! Often people with hypoglycemia find that the mornings are when they feel worst. This can be down to the fact that you haven't eaten all night long so naturally your blood sugars are low. The best way to remedy this is to eat a good breakfast as soon as you can when you wake up. Bananas are a great natural glucose boost - at the very beginning I used to keep a banana by my bedside and eat it as soon as I woke up to tide me over until breakfast. I also often eat a banana a little while before I sleep or if I wake up at night and feel restless & unable to sleep. I find it very helpful to keep snacks nearby e.g. in my desk at work I keep a drawer full of fruit, nuts and popcorn and I snack on these healthy foods throughout the day.

I have read that it is common for hypoglycemics to have phobias connected to where they first experienced the low blood sugar problems. For example: imagine you are driving in your car when for the first time you experience heart palpitations, anxiety and maybe difficulty breathing. These symptoms are very distressing and you don't know what is causing them, it seems as if they're coming out of the blue. You start paying close attention to the symptoms and get more and more worried and it blows up into a panic attack. All of a sudden your world has changed, you feel uncertain, shaky and nervous at the very core of your being. Because you were in your car when this happened you then start to associate the car with panic and fear and a phobia begins. When you climb into your car you instantly feel stressed and worried and of course your body reacts to this and sends you into 'fight or flight' mode causing and endless cycle of panic and fear all connected to driving.

If you'd like to know more then talk to your doctor about it, it is possible to test for it. Here are some links to sites with further diet information:
http://www.hypoglycemia.org/
http://www.medicinenet.com/hypoglycemia/article.htm
http://www.anxietyforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3750

Here's an online test you might like to check out:
http://www.hypoglycemia.org/hypo_test.asp



OK now you've got tons of helpful information that's easy to implement, so start taking care of yourself and give your body the support it needs to be happy. Now let's see what you can do about getting looking after your mental health too

THERAPY

As well as the physical symptoms that come with anxiety there are plenty of mental ones that are difficult to deal with too, mainly an overall sense of fear and uncertainly, lack of confidence, depression and cycles of irrational worries that seem impossible to break. Many people also talk about feelings of impending doom. It's great to look into getting your body in shape through diet, and if you follow the guidelines above it can really help, but it is also very important to deal with these mental symptoms appropriately too. Therapy can be of major help in this area. I went to see a psychotherapist once a week for just over a year and to be incredibly honest it's the BEST gift that I have ever given myself. It opened up so much to me. The act of talking alone is a release. A good therapist will guide you through self discovery and help you to strengthen the parts of your personality that are confident and more rational. If you're having difficulty breaking cycles of worry or simply dealing with stress in an ordinary way then it's 100% worth discussing with your doctor or opening the golden pages to see who's in your area. There are often anxiety/depression help groups that you can join in your local area, have a look around and see what you find

I have heard many excuses from people unwilling to go to therapy, but most of them are just procrastination to be very honest. If you want to help yourself then you have to be willing to do the things that work! Some people say they can't afford it: I say if you had a physical problem you'd pay to see your doctor, it should be exactly the same with your mental health. Therapy doesn't have to be expensive, you can go as often or as little as you please, search out all the options available to you. Talk to your doctor about what you can afford. Some people say they don't want to talk to a therapist: I feel that this is fear talking, the part of ourselves who'd rather hide from our problems than deal with them. As someone who has experience, therapy is the most amazing space to talk in, it's a complete blank slate for you to work with and you have someone dedicated to support you & work with you through difficult times. I will admit it is hard to open up, but the benefits of it are just so many that it's not worth being afraid of. Facing up to your fears is one of the bravest things that you can do And I have also seen people who say that they don't "believe" in therapy: I'm not sure about this one, but I think it may be down to a basic misunderstanding of what therapy is, it's a bad idea to dismiss something as not working before you've really looked into it or tried it out

So if you find yourself collapsing under the pressure of the anxiety and really crippled with the worry of it then please do talk to your doctor about trying out therapy. As well as relieving stress by simply talking about our problems it can also help by leading you to understand how your mind works and how our ways of thinking can contribute to how we feel. It can also be handy for learning exercises to deal with panic and anxiety attacks and helping to build your confidence back up. You can focus on specific fears or phobias if you wish. You may discover triggers to your fear and learn to work with them. You will learn skills that you can put into place in every day life and a clearer understanding of how your mind works is a wonderful experience I highly recommend it! There are different kinds of therapies, talk to your doctor about the best one for you or use google yourself and look into what you feel would work for you. I found Neuro Linguistic Therapy (NLP) the most helpful, it works on breaking down unhelpful thought patterns and replacing them with healthier ones. It also gives you good down-to-earth advice and exercises that you can put into practice in every day life. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is also recommended for anxiety & panic sufferers, it's supposed to be excellent for those irrational worries or obsessive compulsive behaviours, ask your doctor for therapists in your area.

Your mental health is important, make sure you take care of yourself if you need it, don't neglect it. Like I said before, I firmly believe that a combination of healthy diet and good therapy is the best way to combat anxiety, so give yourself the support you need


EXERCISE, YOGA & MEDITATION

Exercise is fantastic for anxiety! It promotes your body's production of feel-good hormones like serotonin that will naturally lift your mood and make you feel better. It will also distract you from the anxiety and wear you out naturally which will help you to get good sleep at night. Plus it's a good excuse to get out and into the fresh air Going to a class or joining a sports team can be excellent fun. If that's not for you then go jogging, get your bike out for a ride, take a brisk walk or do like I did and buy an exercise DVD to do at home in your own time. Don't overdo it, take things easy and at your own pace.


Joining a yoga class is a great plan, not only will it give you exercise but you will also learn breathing and relaxation techniques that can be very beneficial. Joining a class and learning to meditate will also help you to acquire relaxation skills that can be really helpful with stress reduction. If you don't want to go to a class then buy a meditation CD and try it at home in a nice peaceful space. I used to listen to a meditation CD to help me relax before sleeping, I found it very soothing and calming. If you're having a rough day then it's nice to switch on a good meditation and chill out for a while


GETTING GOOD SLEEP

Good sleep is another great way to help your body deal with anxiety. Naturally, feeling on edge all the time is going to take it's toll, so doing your best to make sure your body gets proper amounts of rest each night is a wise idea. Lack of rest will only wear your system out further and make you feel worse. If you're finding it hard to sleep there are lots of methods you can try out to aid natural rest, but perhaps that a whole other article in itself lol. Take a look around through the posts on this forum, you will find plenty connected to natural sleep methods.

Here is a link to some advice on getting to sleep: http://www.path2healthyliving.com/NaturalSleepRemedies.html


BE KIND TO YOURSELF, SUPPORT YOURSELF & DO THE THINGS YOU LOVE TO DO

Another thing I want to address is giving yourself the support you need throughout a difficult patch. I found with anxiety that I tended to be very critical of how I felt, not allowing myself the space and time needed for healing but pushing on with things and doing my best to ignore the anxiety instead of stopping to take care of myself. Eventually I realised that it is incredibly important to be good and kind to yourself when you're feeling bad, don't push away from the feelings or ignore them. Accept how you're feeling and act on it, be good to yourself, be kind and make sure you reach out for help, do the things you need to help yourself and don't allow yourself to become a victim to your own anxiety. And don't ignore how you feel, it'll only make things worse in my own experience. Figure out what you need and do it!

So start doing the things that make you happy, it will lift your spirits and help you to be more positive, and it will distract you from anxious feelings. Make a date for yourself at least once a week where you do something that you love. Sign up for a class that you've always wanted to do. Take out a camera and start taking photographs for fun. Book yourself in for a massage. Learn to dance. Take your kids out for a frisbee game in the park. Go to the beach and listen to the sea. Buy a cookbook and learn how to make delicious cookies. Start a self defense class to build up some confidence. Basically go out there and face the world, live life, don't allow the anxiety to control you


OTHER METHODS TO CONSIDER

Here are some other methods that I found quite helpful when I was feeling bad, they either helped me to get vital relaxation time in or provided release and support when I needed it most:

Acupuncture

Aura-Soma Therapy

Keeping a journal and writing out the anxiety

Punching a pillow (you'd be surprised how much this helps!)

Cranio-Sacral Therapy

Talking to someone when you're feeling really bad (don't be afraid to reach out)

Learn about anxiety and what it does to your body - learning about how it works and the actual physical reaction in your body can take a lot of the power away from it, but STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE! lol lots of anxiety sufferers have a tendency to google every symptom they have and come up with all kinds of illness like brain tumours and cancers which gives them even more worry. Google is not a doctor! If you have a problem go talk to your actual doctor, it'll be far more reassuring than any internet search engine

Here is a link to a great resource, it's a group called Psychtruth who make very informative internet videos on anxiety and other mental health issues, you might find them quite interesting: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.viewVideos&channelid=40586223


ABOUT MEDICATION

I don't know a lot about medication except for the fact that I took about 3 Xanex tablets at different occasions when I felt in danger of actually hurting myself. I had to be coaxed into taking each tablet and to be honest they didn't really have much of an effect for me. I was almost put on Lexapro but luckily my doctor allowed me to try things my own way first and thankfully it worked for me. I'm absolutely not anti-medication. It can be quite helpful if someone is in an extreme state and really needs a chance to calm down before starting to work on getting better. But I do tend to think that meds treat only a symptom without looking into the actual root of the problem. All across the internet you will find people who have tried drug after drug with little or no success, this says to me that the drugs are really not doing the whole job. I think if you're going to take the meds route it's best not to rely on them alone to fix the problem, but if you put in place the kind of lifestyle changes I've written about here along with your medication then I think you have a much better chance of feeling better We all want that magic pill that will take the pain away, but unfortunately it really doesn't work like that, like I said before it takes effort and pro-activity from the sufferer.

If you feel you want to try out drugs talk to your doctor about the best one for you. A lot of people ask what is the best kind anxiety medication, unfortunately there is no answer to this question. Drugs will have a different effect on each and every one of us, so there is no way of telling if what worked for one person will work for you. And please don't take medication that has not been prescribed for you specifically. There several anxiety medications that are addictive and it's really best not to take them unless you're being supervised with your doctor. Your doctor is there to help you, if you feel like you need help then speak to them frankly and they will do their best for you.


SMOKING

Ok be prepared for some more bad news lol - smoking is not helpful for anxiety. Once again you will find many anxiety sufferers across the internet who have reported feeling much better once giving up cigarettes. Nicotine is a stimulant and can increase those "fight or flight" anxious feelings. It can also cause breathing problems which are often quite a worry for people with anxiety.

Many people will claim that smoking helps to reduce their anxiety. I heard recently that the truth about this is that all the cigarettes are doing is satisfying your body's craving for nicotine. Your body is feeling anxious because it wants that nicotine hit and is satisfied for a short while when you have a cigarette.

Once again it is not recommended that you stop smoking cold turkey, especially with anxiety, as the withdrawal symptoms can be quite difficult to deal with. Talk to your doctor about stopping, or call a helpline for information (there are so many of them these days!).


ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES

This one is often surprising to people who are taking them! And it came as quite a surprise to me too, I am convinced that they played a big role in my anxiety problems. Your doctor doesn't exactly tell you to watch out for major mood swings, depression or anxiety when you're taking them even though many women have had these exact experiences with them. We also don't think (I know I didn't) about the effect that taking these extra hormones is going to have on our bodies - our hormones are delicately balanced by nature, if we're putting more of them into our systems every day it's going to have some effect and unfortunately for many women the extra amounts of hormones tigger depression & anxiety. Birth control pills are also know to deplete our bodies of vitamin B which as you know from the beginning of this post is absolutely vital to a happy nervous system.

I am in no way telling you to stop taking your birth control pills! I'm just giving you something to think about. If you feel they may be playing a part in your anxiety issues then talk to your doctor about them. It is also good to think about taking a vitamin B complex with them to top up the vitamins they can deptele, just make sure with your pharmacist that any supplements you take are compatible with your pill



****

OK I think that's just about all I have at the moment! I really hope that some of you out there find this helpful. If I think of anything else I'll add it on, and please feel free to add on other posts with tips that have worked for you. Also please feel free to share this information with anyone else you think would benefit from it

Please let me know how you are all getting on, if you want to ask questions you're welcome to ask here or to PM me!

Éadaoin

[badheadsrus]

Of all the internet forums I have ever read(and there have been many on different subjects ranging from motorbikes to tropical fish)that is the best most infomative,comprehensive,helpfull post I have ever had the pleasure of coming accross.Well done and THANKYOU.

[Evilbob333]

An excellent, informative and well written post! And you say you're not an expert on anxiety! You know a damn sight more than the GPS i've been seeing! Thankyou for giving up your time to write this out!

I've attached a couple of links to some articles that back up what you've written about, specifically the importance of sleep. Thanks again Northstar!

This article concerns the stress response and gives some great insight into the stress response process and the cognitive processes that underlie it;

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=1229&cn=117

Although written concerning depression, i found this article had a lot of interesting points to make regarding the role of sleep in anxiety/depression. It also makes some very valid points regarding the types of therapy most effective in treating such conditions;

http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/learning_path.html

These next two are online interactive CBT programmes that may be of some use to those who cant afford to see a therapist, or unable to attend therapy for any reason

http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome

http://www.livinglifetothefull.com/index.php

Hope this helps back up the already fantastic article written by Northstar
_________________
_______________________________________
Evilbob333

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius

[northstar]

badheadsrus thank you so much for your kind words, i really appreciate them

evilbob nice work on the added links, thanks for including them! i must have a look through them now. i want this thread to be all about help and resources, so really thanks for you additions

i know you recently started CBT and were pleased with the first session, keep us updated, it'd be great to know how you're getting on! i don't know much about CBT (when i asked one of the doctors about it she didn't want to give me a referral but thought the anxiety would just pass on it's own ) - so any first hand information on it is a good way to learn about it i reckon

i also just realised i left 2 important topics out of the post, smoking and oral contraceptives, so i'm gonna add them in when i get a chance!

[GetRidOfAnxiety]

Great post man, I'm allways happy to see people like you that like to help others, good work!
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Anxiety Relief! A Natural Technique To Stop
Panic Attacks and General Anxiety Fast!

[dman50]

Excellent post Northstar. I wanted to expand just a little on your statement about helping yourself and not allowing yourself to become a victim.

As I look back now on a certain time of my life I acknowledge that I allowed myself to dwell on things that made me anxious. I ended up creating things in my mind that were not true. I feel that I victimized myself by allowing these negative racing thoughts to dominate my mind. Of course this only made my anxiety worse. I could not sleep and was getting very worn out and run down. This also made me angry. The negative thoughts made me feel sick when I had to leave for work in the morning. When I finally got fed up with this I decided to work on a technique that might help put my mind at ease. I did this by consciously replacing the negative crap with positive thoughts. I conditioned myself to change my thoughts immediately from negative to positive and did everything in my power to maintain those positive visions and thoughts until the negative stuff was gone. This was not easy at first, but once I started doing this the frequency of the anxious negative thoughts lessened.

Sometimes I would just go outside and change the scenery, go for a walk, read a book or just really focus hard on something pleasant that happened to me. Whatever the case, I changed the way I was thinking. In turn this helped me change the way I felt in a more confident positive way about my anxiety. Even more importantly I changed by life by getting out of the job I felt trapped in and hated. I also made a promise to never allow myself to get back in a situation like that again. This is another important point. Do not involve yourself with things that make you anxious or unhappy. Stay away from that stuff.

I am also a firm believer in regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, and avoiding too much sugar and caffeine. A Naturopathic Doctor once told me that if most people suffering from anxiety would just reduce or eliminate sugar and caffeine from their diet they would see an immediate improvement with their anxiety problems.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

dman50




_________________
Dennis Manz
Helping People Eliminate Anxiety Naturally
stopanxietynow@aol.com
http://www.thenaturalanxietycures.com

[Bree]

Great post. Can someone sticky it?

[northstar]

i know it's not good internet etiquette to bump your own posts, but i wanted to make sure this stayed on the main page for quite a while so that more people will see it, i hope no one minds

[Axel8]

This stuff really is so helpful, as is this whole forum. GP's and doctors in general know so little about about Anxiety disorders. Some would argue that it is an area for Psychologists but so many of the symptons are so intensely physical you would think that other doctors would be more educated on the issue.

I wish I had found this forum a year ago. Although I have seen some good doctors I really think I could have saved myself alot of stress and mental anguish through these discussions and advice like that posted here

[182shaun]

yoooo
well id had anxiety for years, im 22, had a miserable last 5 years went to councilin and anti-ds for half a year, had horrible stress sweats, im a law student n cudnt concentrate ......... took things into my own hands exercise is amazing i lived such an unhealthy lifestyle of alcohol fast food n dvd nights ha... but started running n now am in a gym.... i look better am alot fitter ..... and am free from crippling anxiety. i eat well blah blah listen to this advice n the [ppl b4 me i havwe stopped my anti-ds i am now "fine" and so happy sure it may come bk but so what it will go again n it wont cum bk as bad as it used to be!!!!! get health maaaaaan

[northstar]

i'm glad you're all finding this helpful! i honestly would have loved to have had some of this information this time last year when i was suffering the most, i'm really pleased to be able to share it with others

[MakeItStop]

I agree that nutrition plays an important role in anxiety. I've been doing alot of reading about nutrition and anxiety and have found alot of interessting bits so I was very happy to see a post about it here. I always get anxiety after a night of drinking since it depletes vitamins and it really bothers my sleep so now I take vitamins a soon as I wake up. I have found that vitamins and exercise make me feel alot better and almost anxiety free. So many Doctor's are so quick to give out prescriptons when sometimes the answer is so simple. Who wants to take pills that make you feel like a zombie when you can feel much better without taking them??

Anyways, thanks for the post, I think it's GREAT!!!

[dolphin]

Thank you Northstar. The information you put up here I used when I was at the peak of my anxiety. I'm sure you had another post somewhere though.

I've only just started drinking coffee again after a few months now my anxiety levels have decreased.

[northstar]

[northstar]