Alternative Coping Aids

Like the turtle, we can only move
when we stick our necks out.

TO RISK:
To laugh, is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep, is to appear sentimental
To reach out for another, is to risk involvement
To expose feelings, is to risk exposing our true self.
To place your ideas & dreams before the crowd is to risk loss
To love, is to risk not being loved in return.
To live, is to risk dying.
To hope, is to risk despair.
To try at all is to risk failure.
But to risk we must,
Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The man, the women, who risk nothing,
has nothing, is not living well.

-Anonymous

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HOMEOPATHY

Homeopathy offers ray of hope for sufferers of anxiety, nervous tension
By Victoria Dolby
You pace around the room with your thoughts Racing, drum your fingers on the table, or perhaps sit quietly while the pressure seems to be building to unbearable levels around you. Whether it is caused by an upcoming job interview, a public speaking engagement, or a looming work deadline, we have all experienced anxiety. Although jangled nerves can be unsettling,anxiety in these situations does serve the purpose of heightening the body's ability to focus, concentrate, and complete the task at hand.
For a large segment of the population some experts suggest up to 8 percent (15 million) - anxiety
and nervousness become an overriding factor in their daily lives that impairs their ability to function optimally at work and socially. These people may experience extended periods of worry and intense fear, which is out of proportion to the situation they are facing. In fact, in some cases, there is no base for worry, but feelings of anxiety are present nonetheless.
Anxiety is a common, but unwelcome, problem. Anxiety is "both an emotional and a physiological state, in which subjective feelings are apprehension and worry, and physical symptoms are increased pulse rate, clammy skin, and disturbed sleep and appetite. In some people, physical Symptoms can be severe enough to mimic a heart attack," explains Dr. Andrew Lockie in his book, The Family Guide to Homeopathy.- Symptoms and Natural Solution. Lockle goes on to point out that anxiety serves to prompt an action in a threatening situation, but anxiety becomes a health problem when it is a permanent state because, for various reasons, the body is perceiving almost everything as a threat.
There are several different type of anxiety disorders. Generalized anxiety disorder is diagnosed when a person has continual, but unfounded, vague feelings that something "bad" is going to happen. This feeling of impending doom often interferes with daily life. Generalized anxiety disorder most commonly develops during a person's 20s. It can be triggeredby either positive stress (e.g., a wedding or job promotion) or negative stress (e.g., divorce or death of a loved one). It is not unusual for individual s with this condition to be misdiagnosed and treated for several different symptoms, withoutthe underlying anxiety being addressed. As a result, they may suffer for years without dealing with the root of their anxiety.
Another common condition is panic disorder, in which a person experiences sudden overwhelming episodes of terror that occur for no apparent reason son. Symptoms characteristic of panic attacks Include a racing heart, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pain, sweating, and trembling.
You can win the worry war. While most Americans suffering from anxiety disorders are plied with tranquilizers or other addictive (and side effect-causing) drugs, there are natural alternatives. There are a variety of formulations now available In health food stores. Homeopathic remedies are designed to ease nervous tension, occasional stress, and minor anxieties, without being habit-forming or causing adverse effects.

Some active ingredients
Include: Cicuta virosa 4X; Ignatia 4X; Staphysagria 4X; Asfoetida 3X; Corydalis for-mosa 3X;
Sumbulus moschatus 3X; Olei gaultheria procubens 4X; Valeriana officinalis 3X, Hyoscyamus
3X; and Avena sativa 1X.

Putting the natural alternative to the test.
Who says 'natural" remedies can't reach the effectiveness of drug therapies? One anti-anxiety
homeopathic formulation was put to the test in a one-month long, randomized trial involving 30
women suffering from anxiety. Half of the women were given the anti-anxiety homeopathic remedy daily and the other half took a daily dose of 2 mg of the common pharmaceutical diazepam, Valium. The homeopathic treatment was found to be as effective as diazepam In relieving anxiety, phobia, and emotional instability. Other symptoms, such as hot flashes, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, intestinal problems, and dizziness, also
improved with the use of homeopathic remedies.

Hilly, B. 'Random Trial of [homeopathic remedy) with Diazepam In Cases of Nervous
Depression," Center for Therapeutic Research and Documentation, Paris, France, January, 1985.
Lock, Andrew, G.P. The Family Guide to Homeopathy.- Symptoms and Natural Solutions.
New York: ice Hall Press, 1989, p. I I 1.

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Listening to the Body:

Understanding the Language of Stress-Related Symptoms
By John Madden, Ph.D.

More than half of all visits to health care professionals are the consequence of stress-related disorders. This new 6-hour seminar for health professionals describes how stress translates into bodily symptoms and effective treatments. The topics include:

Listening to the Body:
The Stress Experience: understanding somatic symptoms: headaches, pain around neck, shoulders, lower back, chest, GI tract, immune suppression, insomnia and chronic fatigue. Identify your stress profile.
The Many Faces of Stress: consequences of acute versus chronic stress: the deadly tradeoff- introduction to the mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal, fight-or-flight and psycho immunological symptoms.
Managing Musculoskeletal Symptoms:
How muscles respond to stress: the "armoring effect in response to real and imagined threats.
Muscle Contraction Headaches, TMJ, Shoulder and Neck aches: key findings and therapies.
Lower Backaches: psycho biological therapies; exercise and endogenous opioids, distraction
and the pain clinic.
Chronic Muscle Fatigue: fibromyalgia and its relation to chronic fatigue syndrome.
Managing Fight-or Flight Symptoms:
Hypertension: role of suppressed anger and other mental states in hypertension; therapies.
Cardiac Symptoms: personality, type A behavior, and symptoms; test your hostility level; how stress can worsen coronary artery disease; responsivity of angina to placebo; programs that reverse CHD disease.
Migraine Headaches: etiology, pathophysiology; pharmacotherapy and psychological management. ,
GI Symptoms: abdominal pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and colitis; psychological factors and treatments.
Stress, Related Appetite: stress hormones, hunger, bulimia and obesity: psychobiological
therapies.
Managing Psychoimmunological Symptoms:
Acute Immune Suppression: stress exposure and susceptibility to the common cold and flu.
Stress-related Autoimmunicy: allergies (e.g., asthma); chronic disorders (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.)
Chronic Immune Suppression: chronic fatigue and cancer: psycho social factors enhancing immunity.
Managing Emotions that Produce Stress-Related Symptoms:
Anxiety and Panic: autonomic reactivity, palpitations, vascular symptoms, difficulty initiating sleep.
Post-traumatic Stress: life-long health risks following trauma; the healing power of confiding; desensitization.
Anger: hypertension, type- 1, behavior, jaw clenching, and selected headaches.
Depression: somatic symptoms as a form of masked depression; common physical and mental symptoms; cognitive distortions and pharmacotherapies.
Bio-behavioral Approaches for Managing Stress-Related Symptoms:
Increasing Predictability and Control: revealing hidden stressors; identifying one's core values, prioritizing activities, limiting exposure to stressful events while increasing exposure to healthy pleasures.
Focused Relaxation Training: gateways to muscle relaxation, paced breathing, focused visualization, meditation, suggestion and the placebo effect; learning to slow down, calm, relax and focus.
Somatic Therapies: aerobic and anaerobic approaches to mood elevation, massage, and
therapeutic touch.
Cognitive Restructuring: Entering thoughts that trigger stress (distorted beliefs self-talk, and
personal scripts): reframing, redefining, and revising;. beliefs; the healing power of optimism, laughter, and love.

 

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Control Your Breath, Control Your Life
by Howard Liebgold, M.D. "Dr. Fear"

During my first phobia class, that eventually led to my cure, I found myself lying on my back being taught deep abdominal breathing. I thought, "One thousand dollars and they're teaching me to breathe-give me my money back! " Little did I know that deep, slow, and controlled cahnative breathing was one of the most effective tools you could utilize to reduce the frightening anxious symptoms produced by fearful adrenaline secretion. Readily available, controlled breathing rapidly counteracts the stimulating effects of anxiety produced adrenaline.

Multiple disciplines, cultures and religions have recognized the importance of breath control. For thousands of years, disciples have embraced multiple empirical approaches to breathing. Nasal breathing through one or both nostrils, pausing at inhalation or exhalation, breath holding, focusing on the passage of air, adding audible sounds or manum to process have all been suggested. Meditation, a mainstay of many Eastern philosophies and religions, focuses on postures and breathing in its universal quest for a quiet mind, a profound state of relaxation and peaceful calm.

Patients with anxiety frequently embrace a destructive style of breathing that fosters and exaggerates their discomforting symptoms. Chronic shallow, rapid hyperventilation characterizes anxious breathing. This changes the chemistry of blood so that the brain, inner ear and distant body parts receive less oxygen resulting in symptoms of detachment, unreality, dizziness, numbness and tingling of body parts, a feeling of faintness and pain in the chest from over breathing. Acute fear situations produce a massive outpouring of adrenaline which stimulates heart and breathing rates.

It is imperative that you invoke calmative breathing to counteract the respiratory changes created by acute or chronic hyperventilation. But what style should you adopt? Is there a correct way to maximize the calming effect of breath control? Despite the thousands of years of breathing history, we must turn to modem pulmonologists and sophisticated electronic equipment to define a preferred technique.

Two basic components of all effective calming breathing are slow and deep. Slowness is attained through nasal inhalation which narrows the intake inlet. Pausing, after inhalation, creates a momentary breath holding with full lungs, which tends to correct the chronic over breathing blood changes. All agree that diaphragmatic abdominal breathing produces maximal lung vital capacity. Constant practice of abdominal protrusion at inhalation guarantees correct mechanics. Exhalation which is felt to be an important calmative action is best done through pursed lips. That gives the precise slowing control and maximal bronchial dissension not possible when one exhales nasally. Pausing after exhalation is less desirable since the empty lungs create a hypoxic stimulus that increases sympathetic and adrenaline stimulation. So at the first sign of anxious symptoms, say, "Stop, take a slow, deep diaphragmatic inhalation through your nose, pause, count to four, and exhale slowly through pursed lips." Repeat as necessary. Control your breathing and control your life.

This copyrighted article from "More" Phobease Revisited by Howard Liebgold, M.D. is reprinted by permission. Dr. Liebgold (affectionately referred to as "Dr. Fear") is a recovered phobic of thirty-one years duration and shares his expertise through classes, wtitings, and speaking engagements. (visit his web site on the order page of my web site)

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
Do you run through each day on the fly
When you ask "How are you?", do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
'Cause you never had time to call and say "Hi!"?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere,
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through you day,
It is like an unopened gift..thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower.
Hear the music
Before the song is over
(Author Unknown)
Share tips, and resources and I'll post it here. Do you have a favorite technique for coping with panic attacks, anxiety or stress while in a car? please contact Sy Cohn ,via email: resource@phobiafree.comPlease note: your first name will be posted and email be given out only with your permission. Thank You for contributing and helping others.
As you see, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!