Simon_01
04-25-2009, 05:13 AM
After suffering from severe anxiety for six years, I am cured. And I’m about to tell you how I did it. I have not had a panic attack in over a year. If someone had told me at the beginning that I would last six years, I probably wouldn’t have believed them. I didn’t want to leave the house, I skipped virtually all of my university classes, and I was in constant pain. I would have at least one panic attack every day; my heart would race, the adrenalin would pump, I’d find myself unable to speak coherently and I would shake uncontrollably. What followed would be a severe migraine and body aches for the rest of the day. With the migraine came an inability to concentrate and I found myself entirely losing my desire to live. But I can put that behind me now, because I am cured. I did it! And so can you! At the start I would trawl the internet looking for answers, but rarely finding something that I thought was truly useful. Therapy sessions were no better. It felt like an endless stream of: How are you feeling today? Ok, see you next week. I hope that this finds itself in the hands of those who will find it useful. I have studied and applied a vast set of resources in order to find a good system for becoming panic free. There is so much poor and potentially damaging information out there that I feel it is my duty to clear the slate to provide a useful and practical means of becoming panic free. I would never charge an anxiety sufferer for this information, so I’m giving it to you for free. If you are currently suffering from severe anxiety, panic attacks or OCD, then I’m confident that following this system will cure you.
I think that many therapists today do not give their patients practical, step-by-step exercises that can be used in overcoming panic disorder. All too often there is a search through the patients past in an attempt to find the root of their anxiety, rather than an emphasis being placed on a cure. Consider the following analogy: If I had travelled to a foreign country and contracted malaria, would my doctor call an all out search for the culprit mosquito, or would he rather spend his time making me healthy again. The answer is obvious. If you’re suffering from anxiety, then what you’re doing right now obviously isn’t working for you. If you continue to do the same thing, then you will continue to get the same result. You may feel these exercises are too time consuming or they seem a bit strange, to which I would reply: Do you want to be cured or not? I can only show you how, but I can’t walk through the door for you. The choice is yours.
I took a multi pronged approach, the nature of which is outlined below.
SECTIONS:
The subconscious mind and some visualisation exercises.
What to do when faced with an impending panic attack.
Social dynamics.
Mind distraction.
Progressive desensitisation.
Exercise and healthy eating.
Medication.
The subconscious mind and visualisation exercises: Attempting to face the things that make you anxious without proper mental preparation can be discouraging. You need to reprogram your mind, have a game plan should you become anxious, and then slowly expose yourself to those things that are making you anxious. For me, I had terrible social and performance anxiety to the point that I skipped classes and avoided doing presentations. I was convinced that everyone was looking at me and judging me. By the way, I now teach the same classes I avoided sitting in on, without the aid of medication, but we’ll get to that later. If the brain can be programmed to have such a distorted and unhealthy view, then the opposite must also be true. How about programming your brain to see yourself and a confident and able person?
In theory, there exists both your conscious and your subconscious mind. If you’re consciously aware of having a consistent and destructive thought pattern (e.g. aware that you’re talking down to yourself or saying to yourself that certain situations make you anxious), then these thoughts will eventually imprint themselves on your subconscious mind, and the result is that you become an unhappy, anxious person. You may have heard of affirmations and reprogramming your mind, but too often this is done incorrectly. Firstly, if you were just to state affirmations out aloud, for example: “Every day in every way I’m becoming happier and healthier”, then an anxious mind is likely to be consciously thinking ‘that’s a load of rubbish’ and actively attempting to contradict this affirmation. You need to quieten your conscious mind if you are to reprogram your mind effectively. In order to quieten your conscious mind you need to get into a sleepy and relaxed state. This is where deep breathing comes in. Also, say your affirmations in an authoritative, god like voice. I cannot stress these two points enough: a relaxed state and authoritative voice. Here’s the process for doing these visualisation exercises:
Lye on a bed or couch with your hands at your sides and start breathing in deeply. Four breaths in and five breaths out is the way I like to do it. Be aware of all the muscles in your body, starting from your head and moving down to your toes, and make an effort to completely relax all of them. Once you have been doing this deep breathing for 5 to 10 minutes you’ll begin to feel rather relaxed and sleepy. At this point you’ll want to combine visualisations with affirmations to reprogram your mind. Always frame your affirmations in the positive and remember to mutter them under your breath using a powerful and authoritative voice. Each affirmation and the accompanying visualisation will be said three times before moving on to the next one. Some examples of affirmations and visualisations I have used are as follows:
Affirmation: I am calm, confident and powerful with the crowd. The way I deliver my speech leaves the crowd in awe. Accompanying visualisation: See yourself directing a captivated audience with confident and emotional gestures. As you say the word ‘powerful’ see a sphere of light rip through the room.
Affirmation: I am completely relaxed and calm as I captivate the audience. Accompanying visualisation: See yourself in a state of supreme confidence as the crowd listens intently to what you say.
Affirmation: I am developing the confidence and abilities that are bringing me awesome success with the crowd. Accompanying visualisation: See yourself at the end of a crowded lecture as you raise your hand and the crowd gives you a standing ovation.
Now that the affirmations are completed I then want you to visualise yourself as a Massive giant standing in the middle of the town or city where you live. See what you would see and affirm that you are in complete control, relaxed and powerful over and over again. Whatever you want is within your power to obtain.
The set of affirmations and visualisations should be done in three separate sessions, each lasting about half an hour, during each day of the week. This is mental preparation for the challenges you’ll be setting yourself later.
What to do when faced with an impending panic attack: Should you find yourself in a situation that is about to induce a panic attack then accept it. DO NOT try to fight it. What you resist persists. Instead, be like a tree that bends in a storm. There is a way to short circuit an anxiety attack as it comes, and this is to want it. What do I do? I say to myself: “Come on dude, is this the best you can do mother******. Hahaha. Bring it on. Make my heart beat faster! I want to shake more! Come on!!!” This is powerful stuff. You are not resisting. You are instead willing for anxiety to do its worst. You may not believe me, but I challenge you to try it. It works.
Social dynamics: Humans are social creatures. We all need to be hugged, touched and feel that have a group of friends. I had severe social anxiety, so this was not an easy one for me. In fact, I went on my first date at the age of 23 after I had challenged my anxiety and won. If someone is cut off from other people they will eventually get sick. How close are you to your friends? Do you have many friends? I currently go out about five nights a week. Granted, it was something I had to build up to, but my solitary ‘stay at home’ attitude was very unhealthy. These are the clubs and social groups I ended up joining, both in an effort to challenge myself and to enlarge my social circle:
-Dance classes.
-I joined two bands that do gigs on a regular basis.
-Toastmasters.
-Pick up and seduction clubs. The Lair. If you want to meet women and get over your fear of what other people think of you, then cold approaching women will definitely give you a thick skin.
-Music clubs.
-I go to comedy gigs and music gigs on a regular basis. I also have a massive collection of stand up DVDs. Laughter makes for good healing.
-Teaching classes.
Mind distraction: Most anxiety sufferers have a horrible tendency to ruminate over their condition. It can sometimes be that all they think about is their poor situation, and the ‘why me’ questions just keep flowing. You need to distract your mind. Everyone is different, but I think it’s important to find something that completely occupies your mind so that you do not constantly think of your anxiety. Funnily enough, I found that the activities which occupied me most were also those that challenged me. For me this was playing music in front of a crowd, cold approaching groups of people out in town or going to dance class. For others it could be a hobby like racing or photography. The important thing is that it must occupy your attention. Even better if the activity involves other people. Another important thing I should mention is that constantly looking up your symptoms on the internet is doing yourself a great disservice, and it only serves to stress you out. Do something else instead.
Progressive desensitisation: You are going to have to face the situations that make you anxious at some stage. Take the lead. Once you have prepared yourself mentally through the visualisation exercises mentioned above, then it’s time to get out there and do it. You may want some medication to give you a helping hand, but only do so if you are willing to get off the medication later. Upon facing your feared situation there may be some anxiety, but this is just a sign to do more of the reprogramming exercises and try again later. If you have a full blown panic attack, then continue to do the reprogramming exercises three times a day for two weeks before trying again.
Exercise and healthy eating: These are helpful in maintaining a happy, positive state for obvious reasons.
Medication: I can only give you advice based on my own experience. I would strongly advise people not to take any benzodiazepines. I was on far too high a dosage and I would invariably fall asleep after taking them. They are also addictive. I did find much relief in beta blockers, which are not addictive. However, medication should only be a short term solution while you work on removing the anxiety.
So, to summarise I would suggest the following:
-Do the reprogramming exercises three times a day for two weeks.
-Look into any hobbies that you’d like to do and incorporate it into one evening of your schedule. Remember to continue doing the reprogramming exercises every day. After you’ve got comfortable going to this new dance class or club over the next few weeks then add another activity outside of work. Keep yourself occupied.
-Challenge yourself just about every day. Push that comfort zone and face your fears when you are mentally prepared. There is no such thing as failure, only feedback. You win as long as you step out of the door and do it. Your anxiety will subside and you’ll find yourself being more happy and confident than you’ve ever been in your life.
Good luck and best wishes,
Simon.
I think that many therapists today do not give their patients practical, step-by-step exercises that can be used in overcoming panic disorder. All too often there is a search through the patients past in an attempt to find the root of their anxiety, rather than an emphasis being placed on a cure. Consider the following analogy: If I had travelled to a foreign country and contracted malaria, would my doctor call an all out search for the culprit mosquito, or would he rather spend his time making me healthy again. The answer is obvious. If you’re suffering from anxiety, then what you’re doing right now obviously isn’t working for you. If you continue to do the same thing, then you will continue to get the same result. You may feel these exercises are too time consuming or they seem a bit strange, to which I would reply: Do you want to be cured or not? I can only show you how, but I can’t walk through the door for you. The choice is yours.
I took a multi pronged approach, the nature of which is outlined below.
SECTIONS:
The subconscious mind and some visualisation exercises.
What to do when faced with an impending panic attack.
Social dynamics.
Mind distraction.
Progressive desensitisation.
Exercise and healthy eating.
Medication.
The subconscious mind and visualisation exercises: Attempting to face the things that make you anxious without proper mental preparation can be discouraging. You need to reprogram your mind, have a game plan should you become anxious, and then slowly expose yourself to those things that are making you anxious. For me, I had terrible social and performance anxiety to the point that I skipped classes and avoided doing presentations. I was convinced that everyone was looking at me and judging me. By the way, I now teach the same classes I avoided sitting in on, without the aid of medication, but we’ll get to that later. If the brain can be programmed to have such a distorted and unhealthy view, then the opposite must also be true. How about programming your brain to see yourself and a confident and able person?
In theory, there exists both your conscious and your subconscious mind. If you’re consciously aware of having a consistent and destructive thought pattern (e.g. aware that you’re talking down to yourself or saying to yourself that certain situations make you anxious), then these thoughts will eventually imprint themselves on your subconscious mind, and the result is that you become an unhappy, anxious person. You may have heard of affirmations and reprogramming your mind, but too often this is done incorrectly. Firstly, if you were just to state affirmations out aloud, for example: “Every day in every way I’m becoming happier and healthier”, then an anxious mind is likely to be consciously thinking ‘that’s a load of rubbish’ and actively attempting to contradict this affirmation. You need to quieten your conscious mind if you are to reprogram your mind effectively. In order to quieten your conscious mind you need to get into a sleepy and relaxed state. This is where deep breathing comes in. Also, say your affirmations in an authoritative, god like voice. I cannot stress these two points enough: a relaxed state and authoritative voice. Here’s the process for doing these visualisation exercises:
Lye on a bed or couch with your hands at your sides and start breathing in deeply. Four breaths in and five breaths out is the way I like to do it. Be aware of all the muscles in your body, starting from your head and moving down to your toes, and make an effort to completely relax all of them. Once you have been doing this deep breathing for 5 to 10 minutes you’ll begin to feel rather relaxed and sleepy. At this point you’ll want to combine visualisations with affirmations to reprogram your mind. Always frame your affirmations in the positive and remember to mutter them under your breath using a powerful and authoritative voice. Each affirmation and the accompanying visualisation will be said three times before moving on to the next one. Some examples of affirmations and visualisations I have used are as follows:
Affirmation: I am calm, confident and powerful with the crowd. The way I deliver my speech leaves the crowd in awe. Accompanying visualisation: See yourself directing a captivated audience with confident and emotional gestures. As you say the word ‘powerful’ see a sphere of light rip through the room.
Affirmation: I am completely relaxed and calm as I captivate the audience. Accompanying visualisation: See yourself in a state of supreme confidence as the crowd listens intently to what you say.
Affirmation: I am developing the confidence and abilities that are bringing me awesome success with the crowd. Accompanying visualisation: See yourself at the end of a crowded lecture as you raise your hand and the crowd gives you a standing ovation.
Now that the affirmations are completed I then want you to visualise yourself as a Massive giant standing in the middle of the town or city where you live. See what you would see and affirm that you are in complete control, relaxed and powerful over and over again. Whatever you want is within your power to obtain.
The set of affirmations and visualisations should be done in three separate sessions, each lasting about half an hour, during each day of the week. This is mental preparation for the challenges you’ll be setting yourself later.
What to do when faced with an impending panic attack: Should you find yourself in a situation that is about to induce a panic attack then accept it. DO NOT try to fight it. What you resist persists. Instead, be like a tree that bends in a storm. There is a way to short circuit an anxiety attack as it comes, and this is to want it. What do I do? I say to myself: “Come on dude, is this the best you can do mother******. Hahaha. Bring it on. Make my heart beat faster! I want to shake more! Come on!!!” This is powerful stuff. You are not resisting. You are instead willing for anxiety to do its worst. You may not believe me, but I challenge you to try it. It works.
Social dynamics: Humans are social creatures. We all need to be hugged, touched and feel that have a group of friends. I had severe social anxiety, so this was not an easy one for me. In fact, I went on my first date at the age of 23 after I had challenged my anxiety and won. If someone is cut off from other people they will eventually get sick. How close are you to your friends? Do you have many friends? I currently go out about five nights a week. Granted, it was something I had to build up to, but my solitary ‘stay at home’ attitude was very unhealthy. These are the clubs and social groups I ended up joining, both in an effort to challenge myself and to enlarge my social circle:
-Dance classes.
-I joined two bands that do gigs on a regular basis.
-Toastmasters.
-Pick up and seduction clubs. The Lair. If you want to meet women and get over your fear of what other people think of you, then cold approaching women will definitely give you a thick skin.
-Music clubs.
-I go to comedy gigs and music gigs on a regular basis. I also have a massive collection of stand up DVDs. Laughter makes for good healing.
-Teaching classes.
Mind distraction: Most anxiety sufferers have a horrible tendency to ruminate over their condition. It can sometimes be that all they think about is their poor situation, and the ‘why me’ questions just keep flowing. You need to distract your mind. Everyone is different, but I think it’s important to find something that completely occupies your mind so that you do not constantly think of your anxiety. Funnily enough, I found that the activities which occupied me most were also those that challenged me. For me this was playing music in front of a crowd, cold approaching groups of people out in town or going to dance class. For others it could be a hobby like racing or photography. The important thing is that it must occupy your attention. Even better if the activity involves other people. Another important thing I should mention is that constantly looking up your symptoms on the internet is doing yourself a great disservice, and it only serves to stress you out. Do something else instead.
Progressive desensitisation: You are going to have to face the situations that make you anxious at some stage. Take the lead. Once you have prepared yourself mentally through the visualisation exercises mentioned above, then it’s time to get out there and do it. You may want some medication to give you a helping hand, but only do so if you are willing to get off the medication later. Upon facing your feared situation there may be some anxiety, but this is just a sign to do more of the reprogramming exercises and try again later. If you have a full blown panic attack, then continue to do the reprogramming exercises three times a day for two weeks before trying again.
Exercise and healthy eating: These are helpful in maintaining a happy, positive state for obvious reasons.
Medication: I can only give you advice based on my own experience. I would strongly advise people not to take any benzodiazepines. I was on far too high a dosage and I would invariably fall asleep after taking them. They are also addictive. I did find much relief in beta blockers, which are not addictive. However, medication should only be a short term solution while you work on removing the anxiety.
So, to summarise I would suggest the following:
-Do the reprogramming exercises three times a day for two weeks.
-Look into any hobbies that you’d like to do and incorporate it into one evening of your schedule. Remember to continue doing the reprogramming exercises every day. After you’ve got comfortable going to this new dance class or club over the next few weeks then add another activity outside of work. Keep yourself occupied.
-Challenge yourself just about every day. Push that comfort zone and face your fears when you are mentally prepared. There is no such thing as failure, only feedback. You win as long as you step out of the door and do it. Your anxiety will subside and you’ll find yourself being more happy and confident than you’ve ever been in your life.
Good luck and best wishes,
Simon.