Anxiety 2 Calm

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Support Anxiety UK
2009-04-18 15:05:00
Hi! Just a quick note for readers in the UK. Anxiety UK, previously known as The National Phobics Society, has had funding withdrawn by the UK government. This will have a major effect on the services that the organisation is able to offer people in very real need. During the current economic difficulties the number of people seeking help has increased and the services of Anxiety UK are much needed. You can do something to help. Making a donation: http://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/donate.php Signing the petition to show your support of Anxiety UK at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SaveAnxi etyUK/ Writing to your MP - asking them to support Anxiety UK - you can find your local MP here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com   Why not visit the site and do all you can to help save it! It also has lots of great info! del.icio.us Tags: anxiety uk,funding
More About: Support

Anxiety, Acupuncture and New Evidence
2009-01-22 23:03:00
There have been a few interesting stories this week that although not directly related, have implications of the treatment of anxiety . Firstly the BBC reported on an interesting study on the benefits of acupuncture. The study was not aimed at acupuncture used to treat anxiety but more at preventing headaches and migraines. There is something of a link here as many people believe migraines are stress related. The study was basically a meta-analysis of thirty-three other studies and found interestingly that acupuncture worked. More interestingly still they found that so-called sham acupuncture worked just as well, that is to say that it doesn't seem to matter whether you stick the needles in the centuries old Chinese positions, or just do it randomly. This suggests one of two things. Either the whole phenomenon is just the placebo effect and there is really no therapeutic benefit, or there is something about stimulating parts of the body which does actually promote health. Ebooks o...
More About: Evidence , Anxiety , Acupuncture

Stillness - Meditation and Anxiety
2009-01-21 22:42:00
I have blogged before about meditation and its beneficial effects on the treatment and control of anxiety. In these posts I have mainly concentrated on Mindfulness Meditation , which is very powerful and still the single thing I would recommend to all anxiety sufferers. Recently I came across "Stillness Meditation" which looks very interesting.  There is a book, which is sadly out of print, called "In Stillness Conquer Fear". It is about a woman's (the author) struggle to overcome agoraphobia and her eventual release (cure!) through a disciplined meditation practice. Deep Zen Meditation - Click Here This meditation practice, to which I believe the author of the aforementioned book, Pauline Mckinnon, gave the name "Stillness Meditation", is very simple. Although I should say that despite the fact that it is simple you still, paradoxically, need to practice regularly in order to achieve stillness. Like all things, you improve with practice. So...
More About: Anxiety

Life is very strange - a cause of anxiety?
2009-01-03 15:53:00
Hi. Recently I have been thinking a lot about existential anxiety and life is rather odd! Here we are on this planet, spinning in the vastness of the solar system, who knows what is beyond the furthest reaches of our telescopes. There are many theories and belief systems that tell us why we are here, but non of them is provable. If they were provable then they could provide a great deal of comfort, they could tell us more about why we are here and what is actually important to achieve in this life. For those who believe, with devotion, these belief systems there is a great deal of benefit: a feeling of worth and reason to live, something to aim for. These motivators should not be underrated as they provide a purpose to people who otherwise might think too much. And thinking too much is arguably the biggest problem here. Many people live their lives with no focus or purpose, enjoying themselves and stocking up on consumer goods. They don't worry about where they came from. In a w...
More About: Life , Strange , Anxiety

Existential Anxiety - Links
2009-01-02 00:40:00
Hi and a very Happy New Year! Let's hope for a peaceful, calm and happy 2009! It won't be a long post today, but I have spent part of my new year's day reading a few interesting articles on Existential Anxiety . I know from my inbox that this has been a hot topic with many readers and relevant to those who suffer from nameless dread, free-floating anxiety and a constant, gnawing background anxious depression that is hard to shift. Here are the links....enjoy reading them! 1) Existential Anxiety and Existential Joy - Long but well-worth reading. 2) Existential Anxiety: a 3-page cyber-sermon - As the title suggests, lots of info and worth taking your time over.   Thank you for reading, and once more happy 2009! del.icio.us Tags: nameless dread,free-floating anxiety,anxious depression,existential anxiety
More About: Links

Winter / Christmas not the worst time for depression
2008-12-21 21:14:00
It has long been thought that mental health suffered during the winter months, especially around Christmas time, and that the season brought a peak in the suicide rate. As it turns out, this is in fact an urban myth.It was hypothesised that the dark, gray winters and and the lack of vitamin D from the sun caused SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) and some of this may be true. But the fact of the matter is, suicide is more common in the warmer months, probably peaking in May.Which doesn't mean to say you can afford to be complacent about depression in winter either with yourself or the those around you. Some people certainly do feel worse in winter and this is worrying. So what can be done to banish the winter blues?Firstly, don't worry about mild low mood. Clinical depression should be diagnosed and treated under the eyes of professionals, but worrying about feeling low can just lead you into a cycle of anxious depression. Doing something tends to make you feel better. And if that...
More About: Depression , Winter , Time

Venlafaxine and Mirtazapine and Weight Gain
2008-12-14 18:48:00
On this blog I have often talked about my experiences of weight gain when using the drug Citalopram / Celexa. It has been pointed out to me that these are not the only drugs that can have this side effect. Mirtazapine, which is a NaSSA (noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant) and Venlafaxine, which is a SNRI (serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) have both been known, according to readers of this blog, to cause weight gain. In the case of Mirtazapine weight gain is listed as a common side effect, whereas with Venlafaxine it is listed as a rare side-effect. Interestingly, Venlafaxine also causes weight loss in some patients. More Info on Overcoming Anxiety - click here Weight issues with anti-depressants can and do happen, and it is worth talking to you doctor about them if you are worried. In my case, after sometime I was able to reduce my dose and then exercise more to lose the excess weight. It did take some time. I would also like to add that doctors sho...

Existential Anxiety - more
2008-12-04 17:38:00
Over eighteen months ago I wrote a post on this blog about Existential Anxiety and, although it was only short, I got many emails in response. I think there is so little information out there about existential anxiety because it is not really taken seriously as a psychological problem. More often, it is considered to be something people suffer from when perhaps they are looking for a path in their life; something worthwhile to do. This is of course true, however existential anxiety where symptoms amount to more than just a nagging urge that there is something else can make this a much more serious problem. Often anxiety is related to a feeling of being out of control and our existence on this spinning planet, in this universe, here for reasons we don't fully understand is something that really is way out of our control. The great thing about that is that we can't really avoid it, which is the danger with a lot of anxiety disorders: you avoid triggers and end up with phobias like ...

A healthy lifestyle and anxiety
2008-12-01 19:26:00
There are three areas of life where we need to be healthy to help us overcome anxiety . They are diet, exercise, mental health. Firstly diet. I have several tips for a lower anxiety diet: Keep your blood sugar levels more constant as insulin spikes and low blood sugar can lead to anxiety, panic and worse. Don't over do the sugar, satisfy sweet cravings with fruit and a bit of dried fruit. Don't use artificial sweeteners too much, they are confusing to the body and have a dubious health record. Don't eat too many simple carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, pasta, pizza), they act like sugars. Instead snack on nuts and wholemeal foods (fruit can be a great alternative to wheat based products if they disagree with you.) Avoid caffeine as this aggravates (sometimes even causes) anxiety and panic, disrupts sleep, and affects blood sugar. Drink Decaf coffee If you need a hot drink to replace tea go for roibush, herb or fruit.  Cola's should ...
More About: Lifestyle , Anxiety , Healthy

Free-Floating Anxiety and a good relaxation technique.
2008-11-25 23:37:00
Anxiety is often classed as "free floating", that is to say it has no recognisable cause or trigger. Often this kind of anxiety, especially when it has been present for some time, is more irritating than worrying. It seems to be almost in the background, a little niggle that stops you from relaxing fully, perhaps a slight difficulty breathing or a tightness in the neck, throat or other muscles. Sometimes this free floating anxiety can manifest as fidgeting, a chronic cough or other physical symptoms or other things like insomnia. Of course free floating anxiety is not always just an irritant, it can for some people be a deeply worrying and disabling occurrence, leading to panic attacks or sever bouts of anxiety and stress. Either way, you can not avoid this kind of anxiety because it is either always there or creeps up on you suddenly and without warning and this is perhaps what leads some people to self-medicate alcohol or non-prescription and illegal (recreational) d...
More About: Free , Technique , Floating , Anxiety , Good

Celexa - more anxiety info
2008-11-16 21:51:00
Citalopram / Celexa  is one of the topics that I consistently get emails about. Not surprising as it is one of the most commonly prescribed SSRI's for anxiety and depression in both Europe and the USA. I can speak both personally and for many other people when I say that Celexa is a drug that has helped many people and can really help turn a life around. It is also of course not a cure-all and not a drug which everyone gets on with. Many of the people who email me comment about weight gain issues associated with Celexa (follow the previous link for my article on that). One new question I had recently was this: "Can Celexa actually change your metabolic rate"? The writer went on to say that it seemed that weight-loss had become all but impossible and her appetite had gone through the roof, even though she had been off the medication for some time. The official answer to that question is a firm "no". The manufacturers and the licensing authorities do not...
More About: Info , Anxiety

Feelings of Unreality - more
2008-11-07 20:07:00
One of the most commented upon and emailed posts on this entire blog is one from 2006 called Anxiety and feelings of Unreality. It seems that all over the place people are suffering from something which is actually quite hard to put into words. Some people call it depersonalisation, some people call it feeling unreal, some call it feeling odd, strange, detached. Often people say that they feel that nothing is real and that they could just disappear suddenly. As I said in that original post, there are a few possible medical causes for this so a visit to a doctor for a full check-up is a must. That said, for most people reading this blog it will be the fact that these feelings of unreality seem to stem from anxiety disorders which will be most salient. The fact of the matter is that because of the way anxiety effects the chemical balance of our brains, sometimes (or indeed often and regularly) odd feelings can manifest. I am no doctor but I am lead to believe that this is particul...
More About: Feelings

Health Anxiety
2008-11-03 18:20:00
Our health is something that can cause us the most anxiety of all. While some people drift through life ignoring health concerns such as obesity, smoking and alcoholism, people with anxiety tend to move to the other extreme by worrying too much. Let's look at an example. You discover one day that you have a mouth ulcer, not a particularly painful one, but none the less an annoying one. You have had mouth ulcers before but this one persists, let's say for more than a month. Perhaps, building up in the back of your mind is an anxious thought maybe it is something more serious than a mouth ulcer...maybe it's cancer! Of course then the first stop is Google. And if you enter mouth cancer you get a very general list of symptoms, including persistent mouth ulcers! Then, straight away black and white thinking kicks in. Suddenly you have got a deadly disease, your anxiety levels rise, the adrenalin flows and the thoughts spiral out of control. You start to Google treatment only to find...
More About: Health , Anxiety

Anxiety and Diet
2008-10-27 17:57:00
I have long been skeptical about the links between anxiety and what we eat. That said, I think there are some points which really need to be looked at. These mainly fall into the categories of Comfort eaters, people who eat to lift their mood and relieve anxiety, foods which make anxiety worse and actually cause anxiety, and foods which are beneficial. Some people might use foods, normally simple sugary carbohydrates, to calm them down and lift their mood. This is common in people who have anxiety along with depression. Some argue that this kind of eating is a subconscious attempt to get back to the happiness of childhood where sugary foods came with happy occasions like parties. Whether this is true or not, this kind of eating to stave off anxiety has several negative aspects. Spikes in blood sugar and therefore disturbed insulin levels can lead to symptoms such as dizziness, feeling distant, getting the shakes and more seriously be involved in hypoglycaemia and diabetes. Eatin...
More About: Diet , Anxiety

Depersonalisation Disorder and useless terminology
2008-10-23 20:10:00
Over a year ago I posted on this blog about Depersonalisation Disorder. I said that I thought it unnecessary to have a name for something which was in essence just a symptom of anxiety. I was continuing an argument I had made elsewhere on this site about the endless anxiety terminology which is trotted out for no earthly purpose. I stand by every word I say but I want to clarify a few things. 1. Terminology can be unhelpful because when people start to feel they have "got something" rather than "feeling a certain way" they can get into a more negative mindset. It can lead to the belief that what they have is more concrete and unmovable than it is. After all, generally speaking, people believe they have anxiety because they feel it, and feel it because they believe they will. It is of course a circle. More Info on Overcoming Anxiety - click here 2. For some people psychological symptoms are caused by identifiable problems (which may be physical). For some peopl...
More About: Useless

Anxiety Motivation and Planning
2008-10-22 18:34:00
A lot of people with anxiety have motivation problems. Anxiety is part of the human bodies Fight or Flight response. It might be useful to see the fight or flight response in terms of motivation. This very basic, fundamental part of us which is so active when we feel anxious makes us do one of two things: run away or stand and fight. It is quite common for people who suffer from anxiety and panic attacks to have problems with motivation. It is not in fact that they lack motivation it is that they are very highly motivated to stay away from things which might be dangerous and stressful. People with anxiety have great motivation and strength of mind, but it is sadly pointing in the wrong direction. So what can you do to overcome this and start to empower yourself and move forwards? They key lies in planning. It is not a good idea to choose where you want to be and go for it, you actually need to do much more planning. This is especially true when getting to where you want looks so d...
More About: Planning , Motivation

Anxiety and Rational Thought
2008-10-21 22:30:00
Most of us realise how irrational our thinking is when we are anxious or stressed. Most of us that have suffered from any kind of anxiety or panic have had those vivid, stubborn, intrusive negative thoughts going through our head. In the cold light of day of course we know they are not true - if we had stayed in that supermarket check-out queue we would neither have had a heart attack nor died, and you've felt like you were fainting many times but have in fact never fainted. So, our automatic negative thoughts are complete rubbish. CBT to the rescue, we can simply identify them and replace them with something more positive and realistic. Except we can't. When we are in a heightened state of anxiety, identifying and replacing thoughts by recognising how irrational and untrue they are is almost impossible. CBT gets round this by suggesting thoughts are written down first, and then dealt with. This is a much better approach as the process of writing things down slows us down. Probl...
More About: Thought , Anxiety , Rational

Links for 2008-10-16 [del.icio.us]
2008-10-17 07:00:00
Hypnoanalysis is a big scam read it before you pay them a penny
More About: Links , 2008

Hypnoanalysis for anxiety - Scam
2008-10-14 23:35:00
Hypnoanalysis, analytical hypnotherapy, pure hypnosis - call it what you will. For those of you who are regular readers of this blog and have an interest in anxiety disorders this treatment is probably known to you. Just to recap I have recently had the chance to view hypnoanalysis from the eyes of a long term sufferer of anxiety and phobias. It has been an education into the dark arts of scamming money from people with anxiety and panic attacks. The therapy promised a lot, and when I say a lot I mean it promised the world. The web-sites and brochures of those therapists involved speak of "cures", "solutions" and a complete cessation of symptoms - fast! They have testimonials where people, with blandly implausible sounding names, wax lyrical about how their anxiety, depression, phobias and OCD evaporated. Sounds great. Problem is, it doesn't work and is basically a money making exercise which takes advantage of human misery and desperation. More Info on Overco...
More About: Anxiety , Scam

Anxiety Treatment - Testimonials, can you trust them?
2008-07-27 00:19:00
Look anywhere on the Internet for information on mental health or anxiety and you will find people telling you that what they think is best. More often than not there is some kind of financial advantage waiting for them if you follow their philosophy - it could be by buying their ebook or visiting them for treatment. The question is, how on earth do you know if what they are saying is true - can they really help your anxiety? Most people who suffer from things like anxiety and low self esteem have a habit of thinking negatively. They would tend to look for reasons why treatment won't work, rather than look for reasons why it might. Add to this the fact that many of the treatments on offer for anxiety have not been ratified by proper scientific study and you have recipe for skepticism. There is one important tool in the armoury of marketing and information: the testimonial. More Info on Overcoming Anxiety - click here. Testimonials try to circumvent the problem of statistical p...
More About: Treatment , Trust

What Hypnoanalysts Believe about Anxiety, Panic, Depression and Low Self-Co
2008-07-15 19:37:00
As I have said elsewhere, looking for a solution - dare we say Cure - for anxiety and other mental health problems through regression is controversial. At the moment, hypnoanalysis (also called pure hypnosis) is at the cutting edge of addressing anxiety, panic, depression etc through releasing emotion attached to past trauma, especially in terms of guilt and shame. Let's look at the treatment of these anxiety and self esteem conditions through the eyes of a hypnoanalyst. They believe that anxiety, depression and other common mental health (and many physical) problems arise from trauma that occurred in very early childhood. They believe that the trauma is ring-fenced off in a part of the brain where they are probably unconscious but sort of seep out - poisoning the rest of life by supposedly protecting us from perceived threats or causing low self-esteem and low self-worth. More Info on Overcoming Anxiety - click here.  Through the process of hypnoanalysis we are able to u...
More About: Depression , Panic

Phobia Treatments - Desensitization
2008-07-10 16:29:00
Phobias are treated in many different ways. Some people favour a Flooding technique where someone is subjected to what they are phobic of until their symptoms subside and they learn, the hard way, that there is no danger and therefore nothing to be afraid of. Another popular treatment is desensitization, either with or without a Cognitive element (where faulty negative thinking is challenged). Of course the alternative healthcare brigade come out in force for phobia treatments, with everything from EFT to Zero Balancing being touted as a instantaneous miracle cure. Desensitization is the most common approach however, so let's examine it in more detail. The theory goes that for some reason (and in desensitization the reason for the initial fear, the cause of the phobia, is not considered at all important or relevant) a fear response has become attached to an object or situation. They theory states that if the subject can be persuaded to confront that situation and accept that the...
More About: Treatments , Phobia

Massage for anxiety and stress relief
2008-07-05 19:06:00
Is massage therapy any good for anxiety? Massage s have been around for years. It is one of those treatments that like acupuncture can be traced back through the ages. In fact it is probably even older than acupuncture - after all to place your hands on some part of your own or someone else's body that is in pain or trauma is one of the most natural thing. Research on the therapeutic efficacy of massage is fairly thin on the ground. Of course practitioners swear by it and certainly so do some clients. There is no doubt that it can be helpful for muscular injuries, but is it any good for anxiety, stress or any other mental health problem? The answer is that temporarily speaking it probably is of some use. Research has found that the touch of another human being is calming and so in times of stress and anxiety this is likely to be helpful. And of course feeling a hand on your back, especially when it belongs to someone who cares about you, is bound to make the horror of a panic attac...
More About: Stress , Anxiety , Relief

The Power of the Subconscious - Anxiety
2008-06-29 13:51:00
Hi! Just a quick post because I came across something that might be useful for anxiety. The other day I was browsing in a bookshop and I came across a book called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind: One of the Most Powerful Self-help Guides Ever Written! by Joseph Murphy (also available in the USA - click here). Like many self-help books it promises the world, almost literally. It is not specifically aimed at anxiety sufferers, more at people who are unfulfilled and unhappy. I was intrigued, as I am interested in how we manifest our life and how what we believe and what we are conscious of effects our reality. And also of how what we are unconscious of is reflected on those around us.  I have heard it said that we can achieve what we want by focusing on it. I didn't buy this book, because I have kind of vowed never to buy another self-help book again. If they are worth their salt they are probably available in the library anyway. As luck would have it, I googled around the...
More About: Anxiety

Relationship Anxiety
2008-06-28 01:59:00
I recently received a comment on a blog which I think needs to be dealt with in some detail. The comment was on a blog post from some time ago which dealt with the effects of anxiety on sexual health, intimacy and impotence (especially performance anxiety). You can read the full post and the comments, entitled Anxiety , impotence, Male Sexual Health and Performance by following this link. The comment I am referring to is the sixth one from the top. To summarise: a relationship has developed in which a man is pushing his partner away in terms of intimacy, saying that he "can't give love" and worried about "the loss of freedom" that a relationship brings with it. These problems, it seems, are not that uncommon. What's more they are common amongst people who suffer from anxiety and depression and also common amongst people who are unhappy in life even if they aren't really aware of their emotional situation. I would argue that this goes far beyond sexual perfor...
More About: Relationship

Update to Anxiety 2 Calm Free Programme - Root Cause
2008-06-22 20:32:00
Hi! After years of procrastination I am finally sorting out the free programme that I mean to put online ages ago, and has been partially online since summer 2006! I am so lazy and I am sorry. Anyway, today I uploaded the first of the new pages which will suggest exercises to do. This page is all about exercises and advice for discovering root causes of anxiety. Some people believe that finding the cause of anxiety and releasing any emotion attached to the original trigger event is the only way of truly recovering or curing yourself of anxiety. Other people, most notably current psychological opinion, suggests that finding the root causes is not necessarily helpful at all. The argument will run and run. If you think you might have a past cause of anxiety to deal with, it's better to start now than wait for science to come to some kind of consensus! For the main page of the Free Anxiety Programme - Click Here!   del.icio.us Tags: anxiety,root cause,free programme,anxiety...
More About: Update , Root

Hunger Hormone Ghrelin has antidepressant anti-anxiety effect
2008-06-16 12:56:00
The BBC today reported some interesting research from Nature Neuroscience which suggests an important link between Ghrelin (a hormone produced in the stomach to tell the brain to produce feelings of hunger) and depression and anxiety. It is quite hard to tell from the report whether having higher or lower doses of this hormone might help: "Our findings in mice suggest that chronic stress causes Ghrelin levels to go up, and that behaviours associated with depression and anxiety decrease when Ghrelin levels rise," This quote by Dr Zigman would seem to suggest that being hungry makes us calmer. Problem is, a lot of anxious people actually comfort eat and other certainly use foods like chocolate and ice cream to calm themselves down in a crisis. Like the antidepressant Celexa, a side effect of raised Ghrelin levels would be somewhat liable to lead to wight gain, as it induces hunger. Maybe that is something that could be remedied before any potential product came onto the...
More About: Hunger , Effect , Anxiety , Anti , Antidepressant

Hypnoanalysis for Anxiety - The clinical, empirical proof and evidence
2008-06-14 18:25:00
The fact of the matter is, there is no proof hypnoanalysis works for anxiety. That is to say that there are no rigorous scientific studies that have used acceptable research methods to prove that Hypnoanalysis is better than a placebo therapy or one of the other therapies available like CBT when it comes to treating anxiety disorders or panic attacks. Does that mean you should avoid hypnoanalysis like the plague? It is after all expensive and won't there be some strange man messing around in your head? Actually, I wouldn't say that at all. For while there is no evidence that Hypnoanalysis works, there is no evidence that it doesn't. The statistics have never been crunched, the experiments have never been done. It is difficult to do such research as there are many different approaches to hypnoanalysis. That said, a university psychology department that had the inclination and the funding could conduct a trial using one of the mainstream hypnoanalytical methods. It would also mak...
More About: Evidence , Proof , Anxiety

anxiety and hypnoanalysis
2008-05-25 17:22:00
There are many treatments for anxiety and very little research to show what works and how. At present, if you are not taking a SSRI antidepressant like Celexa, or having CBT, then scientifically you are on dodgy ground, because they are the only officially recognised long-term treatments for anxiety. But, the thing is the SSRI's only treat the symptoms, and there are a lot of complex cases where people do not get the relief they feel they need from CBT...that leaves us in the domain of unproven anxiety solutions. Like hypnoanalysis. It is very hard to test the efficacy of something like hypnosis, because there are different techniques and every practitioner is different. There also isn't one standard training or accreditation. Hypnotherapists tend to say they can cure everything and anything! I have seen a documentary where a renowned hypnotherapist failed to make any impact on a simple phobia. I have also seen a documentary where a man was treated with hypnotic regression and in...
More About: Anxiety

Relationship Breakdown Anxiety
2008-05-19 12:18:00
Most of us have been chucked, dumped, ditched and jilted since we were teenagers. Very few lucky people have never experienced the heart-wrenching, sickening low that follows the ultimate rejection by someone you love. In a way, being chucked can be worse than bereavement! When someone you love decides that they are happier without you in their life it is impossible to comprehend. It is a great stress on life. It is also worse for the anxiety sufferer more often than not because they tend to have lower self-esteem and tend to beat themselves up over what has happened. They also have a tendency to attach themselves to people and objects, so breaking away can be all the harder. Normally most people who get chucked go through some phases. Firstly we tend to feel shocked - this can often manifest as insomnia, agitation, inability to relax, racing mind and worry. Then we often go into denial in which we may have relatively euphoric episodes where we believe everything is going to be ...
More About: Relationship , Anxiety