When most people think of the holiday season they think about Christmas gifts, food, and lights but when you have an anxiety disorder you might be focused on your nerves instead. We’ve all heard of people getting the holiday blues, but what about holiday nerves?

The holidays unfortunately can present an anxious person a lot of potentially panic causing events. Crowded stores, visiting friends and relatives, travel, the coming of a new year, even shorter days can all be enough to get you down.

An Illinois hospital near Chicago has seen a sharp increase in the number of people seeking help for mental ailments. This has had an adverse effect on the hospital’s ability to accept new patients. The Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates, IL has turned away at least 1,200 patients this year alone.

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Whether you’ve had an anxiety disorder for months or several years something is bound to happen. That is you are bound to feel good at some point. And when this happens you should of course feel good about feeling good. But when you do feel good do you enjoy it? Or are you waiting for the next time you won’t feel good?

A young Utah woman struggles with the anxiety disorder OCD and a morbid fear of death. But instead of hiding from her fears she has decided to confront those fears headon. She has teamed up with a campus psychologist who has suggested that she visit her local funeral home to help her overcome the OCD and phobias that rule her life. (Click image to watch video)

In response to my call for help I received a great topic idea from one of my readers. The topic is exercise induced anxiety and whether or not lightheadedness and dizziness are caused by anxiety while exercising or is there something else going on?

If you have spent any time reading this blog or any other online resource about anxiety disorders then you know one of the most common bits of advice given to anxiety sufferers is that they exercise. Sometimes though even something as positive and good for you as exercise can cause problems.

In an effort to make Anxiety Guru a resource for all people that suffer from anxiety disorder(s) I’m asking that my readers lend a helping hand. This is your opportunity to do something to help someone just like yourself.

You can select from the list below or come up with your own creative way to help. We all need and seek information, stories, and resources about our condition. The goal here is to create as large a resource as possible. All contributions are welcomed and appreciated.

Cheer up you because I know you feel like your on the never ending train wreck from hell (anxiety disorder). But alas everything is not as bad as it seems. Now I have anxiety like you do so I would never scam you and say everything is peaches and cream. At the same time however I would seriously advise you to not despair and to stay positive.

As we search for the best ways to defeat our anxiety symptoms sometimes we assume that the best solution to our problem just has to be complicated. How else could such a problem be dealt with right?

Well I think that this is in fact not true. You’ve heard all the cliche’s before, the shortest distance between two places is a straight line or how about the best solution is usually the most simple one so on and so forth.

In an effort to sooth their anxiety many anxiety sufferers turn to avoidance as a coping tool. Anxiety sufferers will avoid going to certain places or avoid certain people just to make sure that they won’t feel bad.

It’s almost like we anxiety sufferers would rather hide from the world than deal with the symptoms, thoughts, and feelings that drive us mad. But avoidance is ultimately not the answer to your troubles.