I got a call from a woman the other day who wanted to talk about her panic attacks and general anxiety. She is in her early thirties and lives with her husband and kids in a small town. She told me how anxiety and panic attacks were destroying her quality of life and everyday was turning into a pitch battle. She used to travel all around the world for work, but today she finds it hard to step out the front door for fear of having a panic attack. She has two small kids and they have needs to be
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People who experience a high level of anxiety on a regular basis, and those who suffer from frequent panic attacks, often struggle with dealing with unwanted anxious thoughts. These thoughts are typically based on a particular place, situation or thing, and may include worrying about one’s health, fear that a loved one is in trouble, or other fears that limit the person’s ability to make rational decisions. Unwanted anxious thoughts, sometimes know as intrusive thoughts, can become intrusive to the point that they lead to obsessive compulsive disorder or other disturbances that take away from the person’s quality of life.
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One of the most effective ways to lower your anxiety is to increase your acceptance of it. Anxiety works like this. The more resistance you create towards it, the more anxious you feel. The friction of fighting against your anxious feelings fuels it on even further. Each time you think ‘I cant handle this anxiety! I can’t handle these bodily sensations’ the more fuel you toss on the fire. There is a way to reverse this and end the anxiety. You can do it by simply increasing your level of acceptance towards the anxiety you feel. Imagine for a moment
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For many people suffering from high levels of anxiety and frequent panic attacks, enjoying a peaceful state of mind seems like an impossible task. The constant mental activity can make it very hard to focus and concentrate. The constant mental activity can also be the root cause of an imbalance that leads to stress, frequent anxious thoughts and even compulsive behavior. I’ve found that one of the easiest ways to reduce anxiety is to deliberately shift your attention from your head, to your heart. You can do this simply by practicing the “art of gratitude” which I talk about in
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Alleviating mental anxiety you experience upon waking isn’t always easy. How often do you get up in an anxious state? Do you feel calm and well-rested when you first wake up, or is your mind just reeling with thoughts and ideas? If you suffer from frequent anxiety attacks and panic attacks, it’s likely that you experience a high level of stress and anxiety shortly after waking. The good news is, you can use this energy in a positive way and clear out those mental blocks before you tackle the day ahead. Julie Cameron talks about writing “Morning Pages” in her
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I think everyone that has experienced regular panic attacks has had this thought at one stage or another. It is directly connected to fear of losing control and freaking out. People’s imaginations run riot with ideas of losing mental control and doing something totally out of character and then as a result get locked up in a padded cell because of their strange behavior. When you experience high anxiety and panic your mind is not able to think rationally. The idea of being committed seems ridiculous to the non anxious mind but when your mind is operating from a high
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Seeing as it is Thanksgiving in the US, I think this post is appropriate: Gratitude Lifts The Weight of Anxiety Let me tell you why the art of gratitude is such a great tool for ending anxious thoughts. A lot of people write telling me how their anxiety makes them feel very cut off or removed from the world around them. This sensation can be distressing as people fear that they will never be able to feel normal again. This feeling is common and in my experience is mainly fueled by a cycle of anxious thinking. A person with a
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The holiday season can be one of the most stressful times of the year. Last minute shopping, in-laws, and everyone on their best behavior…or not. People with anxiety often count down the days to the merry season with mixed feelings. If you suffer from panic attacks regularly, you are probably well aware of the physical manifestations that you will probably experience as the holidays draw near. The body’s goal of the fight or flight response is to make you aware of danger, but if you’re having a panic attack, this response can be triggered by a variety of stimuli. Holiday
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When your anxiety level is high any anxious thought you might have takes on a different intensity. For example a bizarre thought that would normally never cause you any concern starts to feel uncomfortable and leads to further anxious thoughts. The reason this happens is because your anxiety score is high and you are not feeling at ease with yourself. Compare that to when you are feeling relaxed and happy. In that situation anxious thoughts hardly make an impression and if they do, you have enough inner calm to dismiss them and move on without reacting in fear. Have you
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Have you ever noticed that anxious thoughts are like a broken record? I know with Ipods etc. it’s a bit outdated to be using a record analogy here but it works well to illustrate a key point about anxious thoughts. Remember when a record got scratched it made a very unpleasant sound and caused the needle to get stuck on the same groove. The same one line would play over and over again ad nauseam until you picked up the needle and moved it past the scratch. Anxious thoughts are bit like this. You might be happily going about your
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Let me tell you why the art of gratitude is such a great tool for ending anxious thoughts. A lot of people write telling me how their anxiety makes them feel very cut off or removed from the world around them. This sensation can be distressing as people fear that they will never be able to feel normal again. This feeling is common and in my experience is mainly fueled by a cycle of anxious thinking. A person with a panic disorder or a generalized anxiety disorder will spend much of their day mentally “checking in”. Checking in is a
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After having visited my site I can almost imagine what your repetitive anxious thought might be. Maybe it’s a fear of: -a panic attack -never being free of general anxiety -a bodily sensation that worries you -a fear of losing control to anxiety My name is Barry Joe McDonagh and I have successfully taught thousands of people in over 30 different countries, how to end general anxiety and panic attacks. Whatever your particular fear is, I want to share some tips and techniques with you over the coming days that will not only help you end these fears but also
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