Anxiety and how to cope

Dr. Jeanette Answers Your Questions About Anxiety

Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks and Panic Attacks

 

Natural Anxiety Help Question

"My life is ruined with anxiety attacks and panic attacks. Is there any hope for me? I have tightness in the chest with anxiety and cannot breathe. Drugs do not help." Lisa in Australia

Natural Anxiety Treatment Answer

First, let me congratulate you on being aware of your anxiety. Most people live in denial and do not even know they are anxious even though their foot is jumping up and down and they are biting their nails.

You can learn how to overcome your anxiety attacks and panic attacks naturally.

First, let's review anxiety attack symptoms.

Anxiety Attack Symptoms:

1.  Tightness in the chest, heart pounding
2.  Upset guts, flipping stomach
3.  Hyperventilating
4.  Cannot catch breath
5.  Thinking something terrible is going to happen
6.  Racing thoughts of disaster
7.  Cannot perform the task you need to perform

If you have any of the above you are probably having an anxiety attack or panic attack.

Anxiety attacks and panic attacks are similar. A panic attack has a higher pitch than an anxiety attack.  In both situations, you are overwhelmed and are not relaxed and self confident.

What Causes Anxiety Attacks?

Panic attacks and anxiety attacks occur when your out of control thoughts attack you. You may or may not be aware of your negative, nasty, mean, obsessive thoughts. However, your judgmental thoughts are attacking you when you have an anxiety attack.

When you get caught up in your out of control mental energy, you become overwhelmed by your thoughts. This mental energy can become so overwhelming that it can completely paralyze you. This is when you panic.

Anxiety Treatments:

1. Medication

Drugs do not cure anxiety. Medication masks your anxiety problem and keeps you from reducing your anxiety unless you deliberately use the medication along with a desensitization plan to reduce your anxiety.

Legal medications are extremely harmful to your body and should only be used in an anxiety reduction program with an experienced holistic psychologist, relaxation therapy teacher or emotional health coach.

2. Systematic Desensitization

In the old days, during my post doctoral training at the Behavior Therapy Unit at Temple Medical School in the 1970's with Joe Wolpe, MD, Father of Behavior Therapy, we used systematic desensitization to treat anxiety.

With systematic desensitization we taught people to relax their body and then imagine the things they were afraid of in small steps until they were no longer afraid.

Systematic desensitization is very effective in reducing anxiety attacks, panic attacks, PTSD, phobias, stress anxiety, social anxiety and GAD symptoms.

Systematic desensitization is still the treatment of choice when the best anxiety help is available instead of quick, managed care solutions.

Learning Research Has Proven:

1. You do not have to live with high anxiety that ruins your life.

2. You do not have to suffer with or through anxiety attacks.

3. Anxiety is a learned behavior and you can unlearn it.

Therefore, you can use desensitization when you know exactly what scares you. For example, if you have a fear of driving crossing a bridge based on a past experience that really happened to you, use systematic desensitization to get rid of your anxiety.  It works.

3.  Cognitive Behavior Therapy

The most popular current treatment for anxiety is Cognitive Behavior Therapy. CBT teaches you to think positive thoughts.

Having to think about thinking positive thoughts is probably the reason Cognitive Behavior Therapy has a high recidivism rate according to the last study I read.

Another reason Cognitive Behavior Therapy is limited is you can obsess about positive thoughts in the exact same way you obsess about negative thoughts. Obsessing is the real problem. Thinking is the real problem.

4.  Meditation and mindfulness

Meditation and mindfulness are also used to treat anxiety with some success.  However, these are mind-trying-to-solve-its-own problem approaches.

Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.”

This is absolutely correct when it comes to unlearning anxiety. This means you have to get out of your brain and the same consciousness that created your anxiety to find a successful treatment for anxiety.

5. Yoga

Use yoga if it works for you. Use anything if it works. Be glad it works.

However, yoga is a mental, mind treatment because your brain tells your body exactly how to posture itself.  Your brain is the dictator.

In addition, you are not paying any attention to your anxiety and your real fear.  This means you are NOT unlearning any of the anxiety responses and anxiety behaviors that you learned in your past. 

Relaxation Therapy and yoga without desensitizing your past anxiety responses is limited in value.

6. EMDR 

EMDR is a simple technique that falls under the systematic desensitization program mentioned above. Dr. Wolpe himself saw the value of EMDR before he died.

EMDR works to the degree that you are desensitizing your past memories and past conditioned responses so that you unlearn them.

For more about EMDR and learning research read this article, EMDR and Learning Theory, published in the Association for Humanist Psychology Publication.

What is the Best Anxiety Treatment?

Thinking positive thoughts is not enough. Talking about your anxiety is not enough. Relaxing is not even enough.

To be successful in reducing your anxiety you have to unlearn your unhealthy anxiety behaviors that you learned in your past.

To be self confident you must get to the root cause of your anxiety and unlearn your anxiety behaviors.   Then you will know what is really going on inside of you and you will know exactly how to help yourself.

Dr. Jeanette's Approach is Original

My holistic psychology approach is based on learning research with new, effective body awareness, energy awareness and emotional health additions that really work in real life.

As a holistic psychologist my approach is totally different from a traditional psychologist: If you do not know or understand the difference please read about the difference between the old and new psychology.

When you are in the middle of an anxiety attack, the first thing you need to do is learn how to stop hyperventilating. This is essential.

The first lesson in the online course, "Overcome Anxiety Naturally" teaches you how to stop hyperventilating using the simple method used at the Behavior Therapy Unit. Read more and order the Overcome Anxiety Naturally ecourse.

Next, you need to get back into your body and relax if you can relax.

However, often you cannot relax no matter how hard you try to relax. In this case, you need a more physical way to handle your excessive anxiety energy.

Let me explain. Your anxiety during an anxiety attack is fast and furious. This high level of anxiety is like lightning.

When you are anxious you are moving too fast. This fast energy is the real problem that you need to take care of immediately.

You do not need to ignore your anxiety, distract yourself or pretend like there is nothing to be afraid of.

This would be a serious mistake. Discounting your anxiety will only make you more anxious in the future. Anxiety builds up over time.

Instead, look to nature for answers. What happens to lighting in nature?

Lightening is immediately grounded.

Nature does not let fast and furious energy continue. It is not safe to do so. Nature stops lightning immediately. You need to do the same with your mental attacking energy.

Currently you let your out of control anxious energy go on and on. Fast and furious energy is dangerous.  This is the reason you are so scared during an anxiety attack.

Your nervous system becomes very upset. You could have an accident and harm your body.

This means you need to learn how to ground your energy so it does not harm you or others as soon as possible.

When you are overwhelmed, you need to learn how to bring yourself back into a safe, grounded state as soon as possible.

Can You Overcome Anxiety Naturally?

Yes!

You can learn to ground your energy and keep it grounded by living in your body.

This is one of the major ways my new, holistic psychology anxiety approach is different from others.  You will not be safe and secure until you get back into your body.

Nature made your body to ground your mental energy and keep you safe and secure. I discovered how to ground my energy when I was 34 years old. 

You too, can learn how to live in your body and be safe and secure.  You can definitely overcome your anxiety attacks without using drugs and live a rich and full life.

I have taught thousands of people via private sessions, groups sessions, workshops, and online courses how to stop mental anxiety attacks.