Anxiety and Panic

If you suffer with an anxiety related disorder, you are one of the estimated 89 million persons worldwide who do so. That's a very loose figure I believe, and could well be in excess of 100 million. Many sufferers either don't know that they are afflicted, and many go undiagnosed. Also, there is still a stigma attached to mental health issues, regardless of efforts by various groups who have endeavored to remove that stigmatic tag.
Anxiety disorder is the most common emotional disorder and is more common than alcohol abuse or depression.
As an indication of depth and intensity of feelings experienced by people suffering with a ‘mind problem’, I have included an actual letter from a woman who has suffered with severe anxiety, and panic disorder for some years. It illustrates in quite a dramatic way that “mind – body connection”. She kindly gave her permission in allowing this to be published, in order that we may all begin to understand this problem a little more fully. For obvious reasons of anonymity her name is not shown. For those of you not familiar with the anxiety based disorders, it may indeed be educational. Take note just how physical the symptoms can be. The letter is printed verbatim, but with her name excluded.

Anxiety at it’s Peak:

Hi Dan, just had to email you to ask you a couple of questions, if you don't mind. For the past 10 days I have been having the worst time, I feel as though I have been living in terror mode. Each day I have been waking up nervous, a shaky jelly mess from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. There is a revving inside that has made me feel terrorized. I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything other than the scared body reactions I'm getting, they feel like they are pulsing through you like bolts of electricity. All the muscles in my body have tightened to the point where they feel like to move is going to break them. There is pain in muscles and bones and I've had these crampy twitches in the whole body. My shoulders are up around my ears most of the time I can’t seem to drop them and relax. I've noticed too that I have had heaps of static electricity in my body as well. I am finding the cold weather is affecting me as well and the revved terror feeling is worse as the day gets colder. My body seems to lock up and when I check my blood pressure it has gone way up and then I start having thoughts like "Oh my god, am I having a stroke or is the pain I feel a heart attack" "is this numby feeling in my hands, feet and legs because my circulation is bad" terror, horror, "am I dying" My mind gets so terrified I cant talk to anyone and my body revs up even more then. I have had bubbly sick stomach and pulsy bubbly heartbeat feeling in my abdomen, as well as foot and leg cramps that tighten the muscles so much they feel like they will break. I get this stiffness in my body that scares me and I feel like I'm on overload that I might just loose the plot one day. The days seem so hard and when I have to entertain, even my family, I feel like I can’t handle the body sensations, I can’t concentrate on conversations even. There are days I wonder if I am going mad, it feels that bad. Are these things I am feeling all a part of anxiety Dan? Because all I know is that I am feeling absolute terror and that terrifies me. If you can shed any light on this I would be so grateful.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your reply.

Sounds terrifying does it not. It is a very physical set of symptoms, and this surprises some folk who don't understand the ailment. Anxiety is not simply "a state of worrying"; it is a state of what I would term unbalance in both mind and body. For those souls afflicted, it is a 24 hour a day ghost which haunts their every waking minute, and to a degree their sleep time also.

Their is a physicality to these symptoms, and the process begins within the brain itself. Two of the main brain structures involved with this problem are the amygdala and the hippocampus. There is still controversy within certain circles as to the exact process which leads to "high anxiety" or panic, but these two organs and other parts of the endocrine system interact to cause the symptoms so well known to sufferers. Here is a partial list of the main sensations:

• raging heartbeat
• difficulty breathing, feeling as though you 'can't get enough air
• terror that is almost paralyzing
• nervous, shaking, stress
• heart palpitation, feeling of dread
• dizziness, lightheadedness or nausea
• trembling, sweating, shaking
• choking, chest pains, distress
• fear, fright, afraid, anxious
• hot flashes, or sudden chills
• tingling in fingers or toes ('pins and needles')
• fearful that you're going to go crazy or are about to die

The programs within the mind which cause this have been learned by the individual. Sometimes it was learned quickly, sometimes over a lengthy period of time. There is now sound empirical evidence that this learned behaviour can be relearned, in a way that does not create the previous anxious response. Joseph LeDoux of New York University and his team have studied these processes in great detail, particularly since the events of September 11th 2001.

One of the fastest and least invasive ways of retraining thought processes is by the use of Hypnotherapy. You can learn about my particular approach via my website, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at your pleasure.