The Anxiety Report

First, let us start with an almost uplifting bit on news. Brain boosters the drug of choice for the anxious intellectual. It’s back to those brain boosting, smart drugs. They are using Beta Blockers of course, for what strikes me as vanity reasons. However, I understand that before you give THE big speech, a little to calm you down might not be amiss.

Since the late 1990s golfers have been rumoured to use beta-blockers to steady nerves when they’re putting under pressure. Campaigning for drug testing in his sport, champion Australian golfer Craig Parry said he knew of three players who had won majors who had been on beta-blockers.

In a way I want to say, so what? But another part of me feels a little insulted by the occasional use people, such as those who wish to steady their nerves. I mean, I take what I take just to survive. For these people though, they do not need it to survive, but they do have to do something about stage fright, fear of public speaking, etc., I’m sure the list is nearly endless.

They should build their own drugs and not try to push in on the ones that keep us functioning, thereby raising problems for us because of their usage.

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It seems the Brain Blogger is someone I should visit more often. Check this out. It does my heart good when doctors ask,

While it has long been known that GAD can affect someone physically, new research is pointing to potential causes for GAD. Reported in Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers are studying the effects of some conditions such as thyroid disease, arthritis, migraine and respiratory disease and their connection to the onset of GAD. They approached this study knowing that physical illness often leads to depression. They wanted to find out if physical illness may cause GAD or other anxiety disorders.

That is a challenging stance, at least it seems so to me, because when GAD started with me, I was nine years old.

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As always the Archives of General Psychiatry  produce a beautifully designed sit and layout.  Bear in mind as you read it that escitalopram is really Lexapro.  Our old friend.  That is all that I have for you today.  Check tomorrow for more from the world of anxiety.

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It’s great! That’s what it is. Finding the right combination of drugs, which is no easy thing since most doctors only have a 50/50 guess on whether what they prescribe for you is going to work for you, or not. That’s because, you are unique. Every person has their own biochemistry, so when your doctor prescribes, he is hoping as much as prescribing.

Klonopin does it for me. I want all of you to know that. That is why I can be the Mad Anxiety Evangelist. I have the inner freedom for the first time in forty-one years to actually feel how much room anxiety took up inside of me, and with it gone, I am blessed by something even more rewarding. I can let God fill it up. Some of you may stop reading right here. I’m not going to say anything more about it if it bothers you, but if you know what I mean, then… yeah.

Action track to find your right medication.

I suggest that each one of you take a piece of paper and write down every medication that has been prescribed for their anxiety condition, be it OCD, GAD, whatever. Look through that list, and write down what effect each one had on you. For instance, Zoloft had me sitting on the toilet a lot more than was needed, in my humble opinion. Write them down, and how they worked, side effects, the whole shebang.

What you will have is a list of things that you can say to your doctor, and I beseech you, if you do not have a doctor, get one right now. If you cannot afford a doctor, there are clinics that will see you. But take your list to the doctor, you have or are going to get tomorrow, and then talk what other options are available. You want to find that one chemical preparation that is just the thing to stop your anxiety disorder.

You Must Have A Doctor

This can not be stressed enough. But some of these psychiatric drugs, well most of them, are dangerous if handled wrongly. The coming of of a drug, especially a benzodiazepine, you need to be monitored, because sometimes the sudden cut off can cause all manner of dangerous complications.

If money is a problem, and let’s face it, many Americans do not have enough health insurance, then there are places like Find a Health Center Feel no shame about using it. The drugs we take are serious.

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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.

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Imagine that, I have taken the Anti-Anxiety gospel even further afield than this meek little site. No more meek and little, I need to get the word out that you MAY have a full life, without anxiety, without obsessive Compulsive disorder, of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (which is hitting high levels amongst our men and women in the military), Panic Attacks, Generalized Anxiety, and Social Anxiety/Agoraphobia.

That getting help part is hard for people to grasp. It hasn’t always been easy for me to grasp either, but until you get a grip on it, you’re floating in the wind.  That is no way to live your life.  And you know it.

We are stopped because of what others think.  Get over to my Squidoo lens.

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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.

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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?

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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!

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Every time I try to do something today it goes wrong. I’m not going to complain about it, but most of the sources I use for Anxiety related articles are rehashing what’s already been up for two or three days now.

I did find this somewhat disturbing article about the flu “Seasonal Flu Starts in Asia and Migrates Throughout World”

The flu arrives in Europe and North America six to nine months after the viruses infect Asia, and finally ends its travels in South America after another six to nine months, the researchers reported in the April 18 issue of Science.

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Caffeine Has Its Perks
Use moderate amounts of java and smooth the bumps in life.

Without doubt this is my favorite article of the day. Coffee, since it’s appearance in the 17th century, no one can get enough of it. The stock market had it’s start in London coffee houses. They were considered quite sinful, in fact, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote “The Coffee Cantata,” about a girl trying to express to her father how much her daily coffee meant to her.

After several hours of hard work, a busy brain has its own mechanism for recharging; it seeks a rest. It triggers a release of adenosine, a neurotransmitter that, like a key opening a lock, attaches to special receptors on the surface of nerve cells throughout brain and body. Once the chemical has opened the lock and delivered its payload to the brain cell, the connection causes drowsiness, promoting sleep.

Now you see! It’s more than a caffeine addiction (who said that) it’s the best way to combat the evil adenosine.

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Treatment Effects of Narrative Exposure Therapy is a study begin conducted by University of Bergen
Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies. You might wonder what Narrative Exposure Therapy is so here’s a page that can explain it far better than I. It’s a long article but there are two drawings by children, one from Kosovo, and the other from Africa. Both are blood curdling.

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Click here to read article.

Since this article appears in MedScape Today, I am encouraged by the attention scientist are now giving to the alternative forms of healing. Yoga is not just good for the body, it is good for mental health as well.

Not everyone is going to rush out and sign up for Yoga classes, but it might not hurt for a few of us to do just that.

Anything we can do to make life easier with, or without medications, we should do. Don’t just close your mind to the possibility of Yoga, or Tai Chi, helping with our mental health.

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I have learned so far that the truthfulness of every website has to be checked, and double checked.  Even though I have been on the Internet since the 1990s, I still can be coerced into believing that what I am seeing is a site with legitimate information.  That is not always the case.  Some of the sites I’ve seen lately have huge grudges to grind against various drug companies or doctors, or both in some cases.

While I would love to make declarations of how this site will never do such a thing; how we would never grind an ax on a company.  Well, one can never know what the future might bring.  I currently have no ax to grind, and honestly, I’m not much of an ax grinder anymore, anyway.  That does not mean, however, that if some horrible information comes out that I will not jump on it like fly on … rotted meat.

Also, there are a large number of sites out there in cyberworld where the writers should be the patients’.   I am probably one of them, but I will try to isolate my personal situation from this site, because the success of The Anxiety Report.Com is not up to me.  This site is a call to community for all of us who have one of the five annoyingly classified ‘Anxiety-Disorders.’

Let’s list them, shall we?

1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder(GAD)
2. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
3. Panic Disorder
4. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD)
5. Social Phobia (or Social Anxiety Disorder.)

Here is the complexity of the issue, we have five disorders that crisscross one another, and these are all due to something chemical in our brains.  No one, psychiatrist or neurologist, knows exactly how, what, or why, this happens.  It just does  They are looking, and working for us, and so this site wants to make these people familiar faces to us, the patients, and not just a faceless Clinic or just a name from Pharmaceuticus Optimus-Maximus .  (Bit of a pun on the temple of Jumpiter Optimus Maximus)

The issues of our disorders are too complex for us to not be involved in some way with those people who work for us in the scientific fields.  So there will be some interviews on here.

Why don’t you leave a comment?  I love comments.  I’m a nice guy, and I even like dogs.  I am working night and day posting stories to Topix, where you will notice I am the editor of Anxiety.  I go through hundreds of news stories a day, and slog my way through research trying to render it into plain English.  O, Muse, send me help!  Make someone comment upon my weary efforts.  Alas and Alack.

Other than that, have a great day.  Peace

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First thing you should do is read this story. It seems to me that three or four suicides does not an epidemic make. When you think of the sheer numbers of people who take Singulair, three or four suicides seems statistically low. I am no scientist, so what do I know, but a lot of people I know take Singulair and it keeps them breathing with much less trouble than before they were prescribed the pill.

The report says they are probing the links between Singulair and suicide, but I think it’s a little early in the game to be publishing their probe. What will result? Oh, some will panic and stop taking it. Doctors will have a tough time getting people who need it to take it. In a way it’s like saying, people who eat Ham are more prone to suicide. Well for heaven sake, how many millions of people eat ham? Out of that number someone is going to commit suicide because suicide is one of the things we as humans do. It’s not a pretty fact, but it remains a fact.

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