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welcome! to anxieties 101!
after looking things over here at anxieties 101,
try out "the layer down under," (part of the emotional feelings network of sites) & read a special "i
just gotta say it" column concerning porn addiction by clicking here! Be sure to scroll down towards the bottom of the right hand column to find it!
 
Making the site work best for you!
You'll
notice that there are many underlined link words in each article below. The reason for this is that you've reached
not only, "anxieties 101," but the emotional feelings network
of sites. There are many sites included within the network that will be visited by clicking on these underlined link
words. They're all linked together thru the underlined link words to offer the opportunity for a more thorough understanding
of whatever problem you're investigating!
The reason for this opportunity
is very simple & yet you may be unnerved by all those underlined words! I've been in recovery from post traumatic stress disorder, depression & many other dysfunctional ventures & thru it all I've discovered that emotion & feeling
work may be the missing link that many people miss when trying to find solutions to their problems.
Developing a sense of curiosity about why you feel the way you do, is essential in finding the solution you so desperately are searching for. If you
can't find what you came here looking for, visit the homepage for the emotional feelings network of sites by clicking here & read the options on
the homepage for the networks index of sites. Try to be specific when looking for an emotion or feeling & click on the
site you need!
It's very simple & very
interesting to follow your way thru the layers of your buried or stuffed emotions & feelings that have accumulated throughout
the years!
Best of luck & if you're
still stuck, send me an e-mail anytime, by clicking here & I'll be glad to send you an immediate personal response!
Sincerely,
Kathleen
 My Panic Disorder
by Kathleen Howe
I was diagnosed six years
ago with Post traumatic stress disorder, depression and an unusual eating disorder. Experiencing panic disorder's symptoms
is part of having PTSD. Panic attacks are a symptom of Post traumatic stress disorder. It was through my panic attacks that
I learned the most about mental illness. Since I didn't know that the panic attacks were a sign of a mental illness, I looked
and looked for a physical cause of the attacks.
Many of the anxiety disorders
are experienced, or recognized for the first time when a person is going through a significant transition in their life. Sometimes
this transition is a normal life-changing transition, such as:
- high school
- college
- moving out of parents' home
- getting married
- having children
- bankruptcy
- auto accident
- a natural disaster
- death of a close friend or family member
In my personal situation, I had experienced many life
changing transitions, traumas, crises and other dysfunctional relationships without the benefit of understanding what was
happening to me.
Experiencing traumatic events throughout childhood without
having an understanding of what was happening around me caused me to stop growing emotionally at a very young age. I believe
that because as a child, I wasn't allowed to experience emotions and feelings as they came to me - I was told that I was okay
and that if I needed a reason to be unhappy, my father would supply that for me. This meant a spanking.
So, whenever we would move - which was often or whenever my
father would be absent for a long period of time, (he was in the military) it was never explained to me so that I could understand
what was happening. I was forced to simply accept whatever change occurred. Changes can be traumatic for small children and
can lead to extreme insecurities and fears. This was never considered in my case.
There were a few traumas from accidents that happened in my
early childhood, one being my mother being cut very badly and when I entered the doorway from school, I saw my mother bleeding
profusely and I thought she was going to die. I wasn't allowed to cry or show emotion so I had to run out of the house. I
was so frightened, I didn't know what to do.
A vietnam veteran in the mid-sixties was having a flashback
in my front yard with a machine gun. He was firing it and shooting out the windows of cars and houses down the street. He
ended up in my front yard. My parents never explained what had happened or why it had happened. For over 10 years I dreamt
that that vietnam vet crawled up the drainage pipe on the side of my house, entered into the bathroom window while my father
was bathing the three of us kids, and shot us all.
Another time some kids set fire to the huge piles of leaves that were under each maple tree that lined our
street. There were huge fires and panic everywhere. Cars caught on fire and exploded. It was chaos. Again, no explanation.
No compassion for my fear was even shown by my parents. I was expected to accept whatever happened at face value.
We had a secret problem in our family. Domestic Violence.
Although we lived an upper middle class existence, I had watched my uncle kicking and punching his kids, humiliating and intimidating
them and being abusive to my aunt. My own father had a very bad temper, but my parents never fought in front of us. Their
arguing or fighting occurred after we had gone to bed. I think my father was physically abusive to my mother behind those
closed doors.
My mother now claims that he wasn't physically abusive until
my teen years. I know that there was verbal abuse and emotional abuse towards my grandmother. She took valium for years. She
was very timid and worked herself up into a social anxiety. There were very few places she could go out in public.
My father was abusive to us kids. Maybe it was mostly me, but he was abusive physically, emotionally and
verbally. In my teenage years he was borderline sexually abusive. This followed his rule that he continue to give me a bath
past the age of ten years old. I was furious with it. He was very touchy feely in an inappropriate way. Now in my father's
older years he has Altzheimer's and is again, inappropriately touchy-feely every time he is around young women.
Our family also experienced a few very traumatic car accidents. One included the whole family. Others were
mostly my mother who was having a large number of accidents during her drinking years. She had trigeminal neuralgia when I
was a teenager and she didn't want us to know about it. She was experiencing very traumatic pain in her face and there was
no known treatment for it back then.
So she began to drink alcohol to help with the pain. This caused her to have a large number of wrecks. Somehow
I ended up being the person who was notified by the police concerning her being in accidents. This was extremely traumatic.
These few instances that I have outlined in my past were only
the prime settings for my life as a teenager and young adult. I married abusive men, I experienced all types of abuse. There
were many horrible instances that all branched out from a dysfunctional childhood. When my brain had taken all it could take
without causing a drastic change in my behavior - which to that point had been a big smile and a shrug of the shoulder and
a reassuring, "I'm fine! Everything is fine!" - the panic attacks began.
I had a family history of mental illness, but had never known about it. I didn't know about the family abuse,
because I believed all of the behavior to that point was normal - until I was in my 30's. I was very naive. When my experiences
began to include losing my children to some very abusive husbands - it was then that my symptoms of mental illnesses began
to escalate. My eating disorder which I had lived with most of my life - thinking it was normal - escalated as well.
I didn't have a clue as to what had been happening to me. I tried to get help but was betrayed with every
effort. Each betrayal contributed to the intensity of my symptoms. Panic is the intensity that your life has escalated to.
Panic attacks are your mind's way of telling you - STOP! You need to make some changes. I can't survive like this!
I experienced a panic attack almost everyday for an entire year. I was hospitalized with each attack in
the emergency room. There were some attacks that I had to be admitted into the hospital for. I was tested for every physical
illness imaginable. No doctor ever suggested it could be a mental illness.
Get a clear picture of who you are and what you are experiencing. Panic disorder is your brain saying, "Hey
you! I'm on overload!" Stop the boat and get off to see what you need to change in your life.
 are you experiencing these emotions & feelings?
After searching the page over just one more time, i decided to record the number of times
emotions & feelings are talked about in reference to panic disorder & panic attacks.
this is what i found:
Are you feeling badly & can't quite put your finger on what it is?
How about these feelings (above) can you identify what you're feeling?
Are you resolving those emotions & feelings inside yourself or are you burying those unresolved feelings deep inside you?
does this sound like you?
- Those experiencing panic disorder believe that their own physical & emotional
well being is poor
- Studies have shown between 25% to 60% of those who see their doctor with concerns of having a heart attack are actually experiencing panic disorder
- Individuals with Panic Disorder may
begin to develop fears about having another
panic attack
- Avoidance behaviors begin to escalate as the severity & frequency of the attacks escalate
Agoraphobia literally means the fear & avoidance of outside places. The term describes the fear of going out, having an attack & feeling that escape or help wouldn't immediately be available.
Panic disorder is characterized
by periodic attacks of anxiety or terror, which usually last 15 to 30 mins., although residual effects can persist much longer. The frequency & severity of acute
states of anxiety determine the diagnosis. During a panic attack a
person feels intense fear or discomfort with at least 4 or more of the following symptoms:
Panic disorder is a real medical illness, even though the symptoms described above aren't caused by the frightening medical conditions they may seem to indicate. Sometimes it's hard for family members to understand that panic attacks are as real & debilitating as other medical illnesses.
How common is panic disorder?
Between 3 & 6 million American adults will
have panic disorder at some time in their lives. Panic disorder
usually begins in young adulthood, but can also begin earlier or later in life.
Frequently Asked Questions about Panic Disorder
by Jim Haggerty, M.D.
February 17, 2006
Panic Attacks have criteria
to follow in determining the attack is a true panic attack instead of
a physical symptom of an illness.
At least 4 of
the symptoms must match w/the symptom description list, to be designated as a "Panic Attack."
Some people experience panic attacks w/out having Panic Disorder.
The number of attacks
that take place w/Panic Disorder & the severity of the attacks are marked on an individual
basis being different w/each case.
As the number
of attacks experienced increases, the more likely it is that the individual experiencing the panic
attacks will begin to develop worry &
avoidance behavior regarding future attacks.
Is panic disorder serious?
Panic disorder
is real & potentially disabling. The distress of the panic attack itself can rob a person of his quality of life. The anticipation of the next panic attack can be just as powerful, keeping people from driving their cars
or even leaving their homes.
Frequently Asked Questions about Panic Disorder
by Jim Haggerty, M.D.
February 17, 2006
what does it feel like to have
panic disorder?
This is
often how people first coming to therapy describe their bewilderment at what's happening to them.......
- "It feels like I am losing my mind...."
- "I'm totally losing touch w/reality...."
- "Can you please tell me why I am getting
these attacks, & please do something to make them go away......"
This is often complicated by their contact w/the
medical establishment.
- "I'm sorry..... you may be suffering from indigestion....
take some antacids & call your primary care physician if it continues...."
- "How many times have we seen you for these attacks? Here....
drink this cocktail......."
- "What's wrong with the woman in curtain one?...... it
sounds like she really needs to "get a grip" with her life.........."
does anyone know what the hospital
does with all the information that they chart on you when you visit the emergency room for a panic attack?
What causes panic disorder?
Some researchers feel that the mechanism in the
brain that alerts people to potential danger in the environment misfires during a panic attack.
A person having a panic attack experiences this “false alarm” & feels as
if his life is truly in jeopardy.
Frequently Asked Questions about Panic Disorder
by Jim Haggerty, M.D.
February 17, 2006
Initial panic attacks may occur when people are under considerable stress, from an overload of work, for example, or from the loss of a family member or close friend. The attacks may also follow
surgery, a serious accident, illness, or childbirth. Excessive consumption of caffeine or use of cocaine or other stimulant
drugs or medicines, such as the stimulants used in treating asthma, can also trigger panic attacks.
What Is Panic Disorder? by Steve Bressert, Ph.D.
February 17, 2006
More than 3 million Americans will
experience panic disorder during their lifetime & there's no typical victim. According
to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, panic disorder can begin during
childhood or before age 25.
While it isn't clear what causes
the disorder, there is a strong suggestion that the tendency is inherited & runs in families. At one time, researchers
believed panic disorder was due primarily to psychological problems.
Experts now believe that genetic factors or changes in body chemistry, in combination with stressful circumstances or events, play a pivotal role.
According to the American Psychological
Association, each panic attack peaks within about 10 minutes. Sometimes attacks repeat
in clusters for up to an hour after the initial attack, with associated fear over the possibility of another attack. Subsequent attacks may occur days & even weeks later.
This element of fearfulness is called anticipatory anxiety. People fear having another attack while performing the same activity or being in the same situation as when a previous attack
occurred. Anticipatory anxiety can be so extreme that people turn away from the outside world for fear that another attack will be set off.
For example, if an attack occurred
while driving on the freeway, a person may fear that repeating this type of driving will cause panic
again. He will, then, limit himself to driving only on secondary roads. If panic was experienced while sleeping in
bed in the dark, a person might sleep on the couch with the light on to try to prevent another attack.
If an attack was experienced outside
while walking through a park or shopping at a mall, a fear of having a future attack in public can occur. This can lead to
complete avoidance of any outside activity, which can result in a condition called agoraphobia - the inability
to go beyond known & safe surroundings because of intense fear & anxiety.
While a great deal of research
has been conducted on panic disorder, the exact cause is unclear. Research does suggest
that panic disorder is more prevalent in women than in men.
According to the National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH), panic disorder can also happen with other disorders. Depression & substance abuse commonly occur simultaneously with panic disorder.
About 30% of
people with panic disorder abuse alcohol & 17% abuse drugs, such as cocaine & marijuana. This drug abuse can be attributed to unsuccessful attempts by a person with panic disorder to alleviate the anguish & distress caused by his condition.
Major advances have been made
thru research funded by the NIMH to produce effective treatments to help people with panic disorder.
Treatment includes medication & a type of psychotherapy known as cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Appropriate treatment by an experienced
professional can reduce or prevent attacks in 70 to 90% of people with panic disorder. Most
people show significant progress after a few weeks of treatment. Relapses can occur, but they can often be treated effectively.
Panic Attacks: This Truth Will Set You Free - By Dr Jeannette Kavanagh
Unlike far too many people on the Internet, I don’t
claim to have discovered THE CURE for panic attacks & other anxiety states. I do offer
you a beautifully simple insight into panic which will change your reaction to it. Immediately you’ll start you on the path to calm. The insight?
“Accept your panic symptoms & ….they’ll go. Fight them & they’ll intensify.”
Look at that word ‘INTENSify’. It’s
about TENSing up. Becoming worried & even more panicky about….what?
Your feelings of panic. Once you really genuinely realize that they’re only feelings, you’ll also come to accept that feeling alone can’t harm you.
Yes, I know you don’t want them.
Yes, I know that they're frightening & uncomfortable.
But tell me this, my sweet one, “in the past, has tensing up &
worrying even more about feeling panicky helped those feelings to dissipate?” Your answer? I know it’s NO.
Just so you’re very
clear: tensing up & fighting your symptoms of panic help didn't help in the past. It
will NOT HELP YOU today. Tensing up & worrying will not help you in the future.
One
person selling his e-book on the Internet claims that that 'float with your panic' insight is his unique discovery to send panic away. The truth?
The truth is that we’ve known for decades that instead of fighting panic & tensing
up, you must do the opposite. More than 3 decades ago, the Australian General Practitioner the late Dr Claire Weekes advised
people that instead of fighting panic & tensing up, they should float into their panic & welcome it like an old friend.
From my counselling
practice, I know that you know there’s nothing to fear. At a rational level. At an emotional level, you still feel overwhelmed. For many of you, the fact that you can’t explain why you feel so terrified is often the most upsetting.
fear OF fear ITSELF
Once you accept that there's no real danger, you’ll see that your real & lingering fear is the fear of the panicky feelings. If you let those inappropriate messages of fear come & do their worst, you’d learn how to send those fears packing.
So to summarize: When your pulse races, your heart pounds, do the opposite
of what you normally do. Do this:
STOP !
SMILE…
even though you mightn’t want to
B R E A T H E… D E E P L Y…
O B S E R V E…
OBSERVE YOUR fear…. FLOATING AWAY…
MIMIC MOTHER NATURE - FLOW WITH THE HURRICANE
Just
as the grass & the trees sway with the wind, rather than rigidly resist it, let your fear feelings come. Then, just observe what happens as if watching a science experiment.
You might want
to practice that simple approach at home a few times. You’ll soon see how well it works. I know you can make
yourself feel great fear. Bring back those memories of your last panic episode. Right now. Recall every detail. Feel those fear symptoms & now…. just accept them.
That’s right. I’m not saying TRY to do anything. I’m not
saying try to relax. I’m not saying try to divert yourself from your fear-filled thoughts.
I am saying – do absolutely nothing. Accept your feelings.
USE OF DIVERSION
If you normally use various
tricks to divert you from the intense feelings of fear, please reconsider that tactic. It may help in the short term, but all those tactics (counting
backwards, counting bricks, etc), keep you imprisoned in what Dr R Reid Wilson calls ‘the
panic cycle’. They can become habits & as difficult to break as the panic cycle itself. Please visit Dr Wilson’s
wonderful website for more information: anxieties.com
When you recognize your role
in your own panic episodes, you’re 90% closer to the solution, to a life without panic attacks.
Next time you feel the first fluttering of fear & panic follow the simple steps above.
If you’ve
been experiencing anxiety & panic for a while, I have to let you know that it’s your fear of the fear-filled symptoms that feed your panic. You're a major
part of your problem. But you’re also the total solution.
IT'S ALL IN THE MIND -
YOUR MIND
As I point out in my self help e-kit Calming Words, if you feel terrified standing in that queue at the
supermarket, or sitting in the middle of the row at the cinema, the feelings you feel are fine. They’re a perfect reaction to…danger. Where none exists.
Your
mind sent the wrong message “danger, danger” to your body. Your body has then had the right reaction to
that danger message – it’s sent the adrenaline surging to get you out of danger. To end with the good news: those
messages can be rewritten, re-learned. That’s why I wrote Calming Words (www.calmingwords.com)!
Panic Attacks & Anxiety
By Ronald L. Hoffman, MD, CNS
Marjorie, 42, suddenly felt
"spacy," with tingling in her fingers, a crushing chest pain & a sense of imminent death. She cried out to her husband,
"Will, I can't breathe - I'm dying."
Seeing that in fact she was
unable to take in a full breath, Will rushed her to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. It certainly looked like a heart attack,
but after examining Marjorie & performing an electrocardiogram, the physician told Will, "Nothing is wrong.
The electrocardiogram is normal.
This is an anxiety attack." Will & Marjorie couldn't quite accept this. She hadn't been feeling particularly anxious about anything & the physiological symptoms had been overwhelming & terrifying. Yet, the doctor was trying to tell them that Marjorie's nervous system was out of kilter.
For some reason, she had experienced
a sudden neurological meltdown.
The kind of panic attack that Marjorie experienced seems to be fairly epidemic. Anxiety disorder
is a modern phenomenon & it may be related to the tremendous jarring stress of modern life & perhaps to some of our common but powerful dietary stresses, such as excess sugar & excess caffeine, which are often combined, as in cola beverages.
Sugar & caffeine can't,
by themselves, set off a panic attack, but what they may do is de-stabilize brain activity
so that anxiety ultimately reaches meltdown proportions. I also suspect that the epidemic of panic attacks has a lot to do with our upbringing.
Some people feel themselves
under enormous pressures to achieve & some parents load their children with heavy conditioning thru punishments & negative incentives, over-programming the control functions so that these people ultimately break down.
Marjorie's case was typical
of panic attack in that she didn't perceive her experience as panic
or anxiety. No one goes to the doctor or the hospital & says, "I suddenly felt very scared." People do feel scared, but they experience this is a result of the symptoms, not the cause.
A typical panic attack often involves strong sensations of chest pain & pressure or heart palpitations, which lead
people to think they're having a heart attack.
Panic
attack can take other forms:
- inability to concentrate
- spaciness
- a feeling of levitating
- tingling in the hands
- shortness of breath
A lot of patients come in
& tell me, "Doctor, I can't catch my breath; I just can't take in a complete breath." I have to ask myself, is there a
respiratory disease, is it asthma?
Often I do a pulmonary function
test, or use a peak flow meter & find out that the person is actually breathing normally. Other patients tell me, "Doctor,
I can't concentrate, I feel spacy all the time. Am I sick with something? Do I have mono?"
They may complain of gastrointestinal
symptoms, such as stomach pains, cramps or diarrhea. I look for viruses, parasites, food allergies or intolerances, Candida
infection, or peptic ulcers.
If someone has chest pains
or palpitations, I of course do an electrocardiogram. But the tests often come up negative, without a clear cause in the affected
organ, so I have to rule out these physical causes.
This leaves a diagnosis of
acute anxiety.
Personal Note: I suffered from Panic Disorder or panic attacks as a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder. I believe, unlike many doctors, that the panic attack is an individual disorder as well as being symptomatic with
common symptoms. My panic attacks were extremely painful, more so than what I believe is described by "pressure in the chest."
I had extremely sharp pain in the solar
plexus that began as a nagging throbbing sensation, but would escalate quickly into the severe extreme stabbing sharp
pain that I could only describe on the pain tolerance level as "10" on the scale of 1 to 10.
This pain caused me to feel as though the
wind was knocked out of me initially. While I was able to cry, I was also thrown into habitual sobs that I could not stop.
It was almost like a hiccup.
There was no doubt that I was totally out
of control during a panic attack. Another individual difference was the length of the attack. My attacks generally lasted
hours, not minutes.
I do believe that the triggers for the attacks
were painful thoughts of experiences I had recently been through.
I wasn't able to control the panic attacks
once I was in a full blown attack. If I could catch it upon the initial triggering period, I could attempt to practice relaxation
breathing to keep the intensity from escalating to being out of control. I was forced to go to the hospital during over 300
attacks in one year for a shot of either demerol or some other drug that would relax me.
Another trigger I found myself being held hostage to was
Irritab
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