photo credit: NathanF If you're anything like me than you are anxious about something almost everyday. This is a sometimes light but ever present feeling that something is wrong. This is always compounded when something is, or at least perceived, to be wrong. In both cases a good tip is to wait and see what happens before getting panicked. A good analogy is a bridge crossing. The bridge's span in this case is representative of an anxiety symptom. How do you cross it without veering off course? Now trust me when I say that doing
NPR: An Obsessive Compulsive’s ‘Life In Rewind’
Story Highlights: OCD sufferer Ed Zine suffered from OCD symptoms from a young age. Zine and Harvard psychiatry professor Michael Jenike uncovered the roots of Zine's OCD. "Life In Rewind" is a book co-written by Ed Zine and Dr. Jenike. Zine has recovered from severe OCD.
The Top 100 Things You Should Know About Anxiety Disorders
Over the course of a decade you can learn a lot about anything. You can become an expert at car repair, kitchen remodeling, hair styling, or in my case you can learn all about anxiety. Since 1999 I have been battling anxiety non-stop and as a result I've learned a thing or two about this topic (I've recovered since then). Many of my thoughts on this issue are short thoughts or blurbs that I've collected over the years and for no particular reason I wanted to jot them down. I can't possibly recall everything but here is a good chunk of
The Time I Became Too Relaxed
Relax, relax, that's what people are probably always telling you to do. And more to the point I'm sure that's what you wish you could do on demand, but anxiety has a way of cramping this aspiration. But do you really want instant relaxation? A boneless body on tap? There was this one time that I became way too relaxed and I want to talk to you about it. Like you and many others I sometimes would lose sleep because of my anxiety and as a result would lie awake on my couch late at night. Well about 5 years ago I had one of these late night
Mars vs. Venus: Women And Anxiety Disorders
Over the years I've heard the phrase, "women suffer from anxiety disorder twice as much as men" many times. However, there was never an explanation attached to such statements, so today I wanted to present a few ideas about the possible reasons for this. Based on all the research information I reviewed it turns out that women having double the rate of anxiety disorders as men is not just a catch phrase, but a statistical fact. And its not just restricted to one type of anxiety disorder either. Women have higher rates of GAD, panic
Here’s An Effective Way To Lower Your Anxiety
Over the life of this blog I have talked a lot about how changing your thinking can lead to less anxiety. But what does 'change your thinking' even mean? Today I want to talk about a specific thing you can do (or think) to achieve the goal of less anxiety. Have you ever heard people say that we should all try and live in the present? Of course you have but who cares right? Well not really, because this simple old school saying (like most sayings) is true and effective. It's just that people hear sayings like this so much that they tend to
Study: Social Anxiety Sufferers Are More Sensitive To Negative Comments
It's bound to happen at some point in everyone's life. Somebody makes a negative comment and it hurts your feelings in a big way. But according to a new study conducted by researchers affiliated with the National Institute Of Mental Health social anxiety sufferers react more to these types of comments. The study subjects were split into two groups - those with and without social anxiety disorder . The two groups were shown a series of negative comments and those without an anxiety disorder were found to react far less negatively than their
The Truth About Chemical Imbalance Theory And Antidepressants
A few years ago I visited my primary doctor because of chest pains and after a few tests he confirmed that I had an anxiety disorder and not heart disease. After the test he spoke to me for about 5 minutes, prescribed Prozac , and told me to have a great day. At first I really didn't think much about this, but for reasons unknown to me, I stuck the little bottle of pills in my pocket and vowed to never ingest any of it. In retrospect it may have been my natural suspicion and anxiety about things I knew nothing about, but over time it
The Building Blocks Of Anxiety Disorder
Although general feelings of anxiety and panic can arise from out of the blue for many anxiety sufferers their condition has built up over time. The reason for this progression in anxiety is related to things like life stress, genetics, brain chemistry (controversial), and your environment. Once a person becomes anxious it is very easy for them to slip into a constant state of worry and anxiety. I've heard the progression of an anxiety disorder explained and described in many different ways but there is one explanation that I encountered