The Anxiety Report

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy comes up a lot in the research pages, so I decided to do a little Googling, and came up with some decent resources to help find a definition. At first I was inclined to poo-poo the idea altogether, because in the past while I was in the midst of a massive attack that had nothing to do with my state of mind, I was told, you can make it stop right now by changing the way you think.

You can imagine how unhelpful I found that answer. It turns out, that was the dark side, the bright side is that even for those of us who are attacked by GABA misfiring in our bodies, and have anxiety attacks or panic attacks, we have developed a whole system of messed up thinking as a result.

An example. Joe loves to go to the library. One day Joe walks in and an attack suddenly comes on him. First he is convinced that everyone in the library knows what it happening to him, and are sneering at him. He leaves the library in a panic, goes home, and decides Everyone in town knows I’m crazy.

The leaps in logic Joe took to come to that dramatic decision are mind boggling. First of all, chances are not one person noticed Joe, even during his anxiety attack. Second, he is the one that decided everyone knew and was laughing at him, no one said anything to him, at all. He based all of it on a thought he had while having an anxiety attack. Admittedly, that is not hard to imagine. But breaking that train of thought for Joe, later when he does seek help, is going to be difficult.

Once the doctors get Joe on a medication which helps the GABA part of Joe’s life, the therapist can begin to help Joe understand that most of what he thought was built upon 1 + 3 = 34687598. It didn’t make any sense. It was irrational thinking. For that I recommend David Burns excellent book The Feeling Good Handbook.

Tags: Anxiety, News, Self Help, Self Help Books, Uncategorized by Stephen
No Comments »

It is no great surprise to find in our first article, “Feeling Anxious? It Could Be That Those Anti-Anxiety Pills Don’t Work.” And that doesn’t do much for creating a sense of security when taking ones morning dosage. What makes it even worse is that “physicians have no way of knowing whether a patient will be in one of the non-responsive 50 percent when they prescribe the drug.” You have to read the small article if for no other reason than to giggle at how important marijuana, yes the dreaded Pot, has become in anxiety research. Makes one wonder.

Let’s not quibble with the good doctors whom I do believe to be doing their best, even if they are working in the dark sometimes, and move directly to famous poets with mental illness. We should always bear in mind that a sober Hemingway never wrote a word. His routine down in Cuba was to drink until rather late in the evening, then go back to his hotel and write until dawn.  Also, that Coleridge became a laudanum addict.

Alicia Sparks, whom is featured here regularly, wrote this informative piece “Meet Famous Poets Who Lived With Mental Illness.” It’s encouraging actually to those of us who write, and deal with our own mental problems. Perhaps if we were all cured, literature, dance, film, and all the rest would cease to be. We’d all wear burlap, listen to drones, and read non fiction for the rest of our lives.

Tags: Anxiety, News, articles by Stephen
No Comments »

In the past few days I’ve had people tell me, “there are more important things than anxiety.”  Pardon me while I vomit on your feet.

Let’s see. Paula Deen, whom we all love as everyone’s fav country cook on FoodTV was agoraphobic for several years of her life.  What would FoodTV be without Paula Deen?  Or for that matter, the world would be impoverished by not having her humor and delightful view of life.

That’s just one.  I think the people who say there are more important things than anxiety, have never been struck down by a four day, ass-ripping anxiety attack, or embarrassed beyond all comprehension by a panic attack in public!  Oh, those are important to those of us who have endured them, you can bet on that.

You see, the problem is that if it can’t be seen externally, you know, like a broken arm, then it simply can’t be real.  Cancer eats you alive, so it can be seen.  Anxiety, panic, social anxiety, those cannot be seen, so they must simply be something we’re just too weak to deal with.  Rather like the wilting violets of old.  Personally, I think that’s just wrong.

An example, I had to have two vertebrae in my neck fused.  My right arm had taken to jumping around on its own, and misbehaving in general, so they had to go in and fix my neck so it wouldn’t just sever the nerve.  Well, until the day of the surgery, everyone was giving me the “uh huh, sure” look when I said, I don’t dare lift that with my right arm.

After the surgery.  Oh my, then they couldn’t fall all over me fast enough.  Why?  because I had on a hard plastic neck brace and could barely walk.  It could be seen.  If seen, then it must be real.  Not seen, well, they’re making it up.

If you have read The Anxiety Report, then you are by now detecting a distinct change in tone.  I am not here to fight for cancer patients, or for manic-depressive patients, or for the paralyzed, or any other medical condition known to humanity.  I am here to put the reality of anxiety and its cost to society right in the spot light.

Tags: Anxiety, Uncategorized by Stephen
No Comments »

I am continuously amazed by the statements made by those who work for Captain Obvious. First, let’s begin with this little tidbit. It seems that

New Orleans residents who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina were over five times more likely to experience serious psychological distress a year after the disaster than those who did not.

I’m sorry, did I forget to mention that’s just one of the findings presented at the annual meeting of Population Association of America in New Orleans. The article really is worth reading, in case you didn’t click the link before, do it now. Now one last block quote, I can’t resist it.

Blacks reported substantially higher rates of serious psychological distress than whites, Sastry and Van Landingham reported. Almost one-third of blacks were found to have a high degree of distress, compared to just six percent of whites. Those with higher incomes and more education were much less likely to experience serious psychological distress.

Really?  I do wonder why that might be the case?  Could it be the the “blacks” feel fairly certain that no one really gives a flying flip about what happens to them?  And chances are, they aren’t in that lucky group of higher incomes and more education.

How about this?  Stop with the number counting and pointing out the obvious and do something substantial to help these people?

=====================================================================

Warning: Author Approaches

Since The Anxiety Report has come online I have made every effort to remain detached from what I read and write on this site.  I find that is seriously against my grain.  I don’t care about something enough to detach from it, I shouldn’t be writing about it at all.  I am no crusader, but I am tired of the general pablum that gets fed to us, the public and the patient’s of anxiety disorders, that we’re supposed to take seriously.

Sometimes I feel like all I’m reading is advertisements for Pharmaceutical companies.  Anxiety is big business and never think otherwise.  From therapists to drug companies, money is made off the anxiety disorder business.

In every post up until today I have felt like I was doing nothing more than being an obedient servant of Sicko Inc., an advertising firm.  The deeper I dig the more this all looks like the same material rehashed again and again.

Now here’s the kicker.  It’s not the doctors fault.  They do the work and write up their papers in language it is taking me a long time to decipher, but they are honestly trying to get to the bottom of these disorders.  And, in some instances it isn’t the pharmaceutical company either, because some really do want to make a drug that truly helps.

So now you want me to tell you where the fault lies, and that is something I can’t do.  Why?  Because I’m not the one paying for various studies, such as are people who lost their houses more depressed than those who did not.  I am disgusted in a way by this study.  It is insulting to the people who were studied, and to the intelligence of everyone who stops to think about it.  Are there not better uses for resources at the University of Michigan where the study was conducted?  I praise the people who did the study, because at least they were doing something.  I blame those who couldn’t imagine whether or not the loss of your property, your whole life accumulation of things, and maybe grandma drowning in her attack, might make you depressed!

Tags: Anxiety, News, Uncategorized, articles by Stephen
No Comments »

While researching the research out there so I can digest, process, and post here, I have come again and again up against the phrase cognitive behavioral Therapy. So what is it? A little Googling brought a ton of answers, some of which are better than others, but that’s usual, so no whining on that score. Here are a list of links. Check em out then see what I say below.

The Widipedia

The National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMId

Now let’s have a little story about a guy named Joe. Joe is plagued by anxiety attacks which come from nowhere, last for days, and make his life a living hell. Joe loves going to the library, and one day in the library he has an anxiety attack. I’m breaking in green type to now say that Joe is in a social situation, but his thinking capacity is impaired. Joe immediately is certain that everyone around him knows that he is crazy, and are probably sneering at his weakness. That’s not true at all, no one probably even notices Joe unless he does something stupid. Joe puts his book down, doesn’t even check one out, goes straight home to his room and sits on his bed thinking “Now everyone in town knows I’m crazy.”

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the way one finds their way out of such thinking patterns. David Burns wrote a magnificent book on the subject called The Feeling Good Handbook. (see link at bottom of post)

Joe’s original anxiety was all based in his hardwiring. It is a physical phenomenon that occurs and has something to do with our GABA receptors.

GABA acts at inhibitory synapses in the brain by binding to specific transmembrane receptors in the plasma membrane of both pre- and postsynaptic neurons. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GABA

When Joe finally gets medication for his anxiety disorder, to life the burden of the physical symptoms, then his therapist can begin to help him unbind all those irrational assumptions he had made while in the grip of anxiety. When Joe had anxiety attacks in the past, his mind would seize upon what ever was at hand as the cause of the attack, because we are human, we need a cause. It is very hard to admit that the cause might be your own body, because everyone has taught you all your life that “it’s all in your head.”

Once the physical symptoms have stopped, then you may begin Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. To start out with CBT, instead of taking a serious medical assessment first, is lunacy. Physicians today are more alert to the reality of the anxiety disorders. There is enough research out there to show them that this can and does originate within the physical system itself, our bodies.

The Great Task

With the flow of research going all the time, what is the most important for us, the patient, to know? Another disquieting problem I have is how too get what I find to you in plain enough English that you will bother to read more than two words. That is turning out to be no easy task, but I am up for it. There was never a time that research and it’s tortures could stop me from finding out every bit, every detail about what I was looking for.

If you could give me a push by suggesting a topic, any topic, it would help. Until you do, I shall muddle my way through as much as seems relevant and then post it.Email Me

Tags: Anxiety, News, articles by Stephen
No Comments »

We’ll start today with a Video that I think explains depression, and the types of depression, very well. I wanted to start with the video because I’m excited to find a video, that’s not just on subject, but is also well done.

Today I have a Smörgåsbord of News

Seeking out the positive things in life might turn out to be the best thing to do for yourself, according to this article fro Oh yeah, go see a comedy and laugh. The title of the article says it all really. “By Seeking Out Positive Experiences That Make Us Laugh We Can Do A Lot On Our Own To Stay Well.”

---

As all of us know there is an amount of stigma with which we are branded, when it comes to all mental health issues. In her article “Health system keeps stigma on mental care,” Margaret Krome addresses the issue with some interesting observations along the way.

It’s perfectly common to hear about a political or corporate leader’s heart bypass operation, their pulmonary therapy program, diabetes or cancer treatment, or even the details of their colonoscopy. But treatment for depression? For anxiety disorders and phobias? Post-traumatic stress disorder? Obsessions?

How true that is. We’ll beat the drum for any of those serious conditions. Not for mental health. So what lies at the root of this stigma? Is there something that can be done about it?

The health care system is a principal driver behind mental health stigmas. Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady, worked as a mental health advocate for the Carter Center in Atlanta and earlier while her husband served as governor and president. She maintains that “if insurance covered mental illness, the stigma would go away almost immediately. It would legitimize mental illnesses.”

---

Along the same vein of stigma and all the fun it entails, this shows up today. “Herd QB leaves program.” by Jacob Messer, of Charleston Daily Mail. For me that’s the kind of step in the right direction that’s needed to keep these problems in the eyes of the public. I’m not going to quote from the article, it’s too personally expressive for me to mangle it.

---

“Be Careful What You Think.” This little piece is worth a read. Especially when “It would appear from results that vividness and control associated with negative images act as mechanisms through which images of poor performances significantly disrupt consequent performances.” From MedLine News Today

---

We will close today’s festival of linked articles with this book review by Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, PhD, NCC, LMHC. An impressive array of acronyms, but don’t let that stop you, it’s an interesting review of a book called Bipolar Kids, by Rosalie Greenberg.

Tags: Anxiety, News, Review by Stephen
No Comments »

You have to understand that about 350 newstories, researchpapaers, and clinical trials, starting up and results, all arrive in my Google Reader. Ok, no problem I go through it, select what’s important to anxiety issues in general and then write some commentary.

Lately, I’ve found it’s easier to do that by sending you for the time being to my Topix page. Now, when I learn to pump the feed directly into my sidebar, and I become a more accomplished webmaster, then things will get better.

What is important is that I am already at work on what has got to be done, every day, to get this site going. It’s for all of us whether you have the GAD, OCD, or PTSD, we are all in the same boat. This site is here to help us stay up with the science and the research, and root out the charlatans and shysters. Please keep visiting the site, and keep commenting. I am dying for comments.

Tags: Anxiety by Stephen
No Comments »