What's the secret recipe to curing abnormal anxiety?

Well. If you've spent anytime on this site than you probably already have a good idea. But given that its taken me almost three years to amass that information, it could take you awhile to dig into it all.

So today I got a time saver for you. On December, 7 2010 I gave my first interview and during the interview I detailed what I think are the most effective ways to overcome abnormal anxiety.

Read more...

Are you ready to win a prize?

Hope so, because between December 20th and December 28th I'll be hosting what I'm calling the Anti-Anxiety Competition Giveaway.

READ MORE...

Every time that you've had a panic attack you've probably felt like you were going to die.

Maybe you've thought that panic was going to cause you to go crazy. But, it hasn't happened.

Read more at anxietyguru.net

Some time ago, you set out on a journey to cure your abnormal anxiety. And up to this point that journey has been a miserable failure.

But that’s not your fault. It just takes time. It takes time to find the thing that’s keeping you anxious.

Today, I want to help you bring your long  journey to an end.

So to start, let’s go way back. Back to when this all got started. Do you remember your first panic attack? And what about those long days filled with nervousness? I know I do.

Read more

Find out if marijuana helps or hurts anxiety at Anxietyguru.net.

I’ve always believed that in order to win your fight against severe  anxiety you have to count on one person, and that person is you. You’ll simply be better served accepting the fact that you are your best hope for change.

This is because although you’ll need help along the way, ultimately you’re the gatekeeper to final success and freedom from anxious thoughts, anxiety symptoms, low self-esteem, and all the other baggage that’s been piling up on you. Only you can can make the necessary corrections to your thinking, so that you can finally escape morbid anxiety.

So, to help you do that, today I want to present to you two mini-shovels that you can use to dig inside yourself to solve one of your most puzzling problems, namely, how to focus your mind and direct it into a state of calmness.

Of course, these two methods aren’t curealls, but they will at least give you yet another set of tools to stuff into your anti-anxiety tool box for ready use.

The two methods are called  autosuggestion and  autogenic training. Both of these ideas have been around for some time, but you may have heard of them more recently because of books like The Secret. Although The Secret doesn’t mention autosuggestion or autogenic training by their names, it is very much based on these two ideas.

The Secret relies on something called the  Law of Attraction to get what you want out of life, whatever that might be. And despite the fact that the book and film are somewhat childish in sophistication, there’s been a long history of people using similar techniques to master their minds to heal disease or succeed in the business world.

The idea that you can get what you want out of life by simply thinking about it was first introduced by French psychologist and pharmacist  Emile Coue. He even developed a mantra (The Coue method) that called for people to repeat, everyday, the autosuggestion, “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”

“Our actions spring not from our will, but from our imagination. Whatever idea we put in our mind, never mind what idea maybe, becomes true for us, even if it be untrue. Further, every idea that we put into the mind becomes reality in so far as it is within the realms of possibility.” — Emile Coue 1923

Coue thought that if you repeated this mantra every morning and evening that you would literally heal yourself of all the physical or mental ailments you had. The hope is that when you tell yourself positive things on a daily basis, then those things will come true.

Let me briefly point-out some highlights of the autosuggestion method.

• Autosuggestion is thought to “reprogram” the subconscious mind, where the vast majority of our automatic thoughts originate.
• Any idea that occupies the mind can turn into reality, as long as the the goal is within reason. So, no instant billions here.
• In order for autosuggestion to work you have to withhold judgment and accept the idea completely.
• The ideas of self-talk, positive affirmation, and mantras, are all forms of autosuggestion.
• Doesn’t require visualization, but does require a vivid imagination.
• Autosuggestion is best done while you’re in a comfortable position, have your eyes closed, and have a clear mind.
• Coue thought that by talking to yourself in a low, confident voice, you could implant new ideas that would later become automatic and therefore be more likely to influence you in positive ways.

Is autosuggestion just trickery? I’m not so sure about that, although I do think it’s power can be exaggerated somewhat. That exaggeration comes from people thinking that they can trick themselves into becoming rich, or something along those lines, without doing the work.

However, I think you can use this method for much more modest things, like giving yourself more self-confidence and, to some extent, tricking your own brain into thinking positively. I mean, I think it is possible to tell yourself something so much that it becomes true, whether it’s actually true or not.

Autosuggestion is also a subtle way of changing thoughts because it doesn’t depend on sheer willpower.  In fact, autosuggestion is not about shoving new ideas into your mind with brute force, it relies instead on a form of passive self-hypnosis that day by day slowly but surely allows you to replace fearful thoughts with positive ones.

On the other side of the fence is autogenic training. This technique came about around the 1930’s and was developed first by German psychiatrist  Johannes Heinrich Schultz.

Autogenic traning is also supposed to be done daily, but instead of mantras and self-talk, it relies on visualization and relaxation to meet it’s goals. Autogenic training is very similar to a more recent form of therapy called progressive relaxation in that it focuses on relaxing not just your mind, but your entire body.

Here is what an autogenic session would be like.

First, you’d sit or lye down somewhere comfortable and proceed down the following list of self guided relaxation techniques.

• “my arms are heavy”
• “my arms and legs are heavy and warm” (repeat 3 times)
• “my stomach is warm” (repeat 3 times)
• “my neck and shoulders are heavy (repeat three times)
• “my heart beat is calm and normal”
• “my forehead is cool and relaxed”
• “I am at peace” (repeat 3 times)

This is all meant to get you in a deep state of conscious relaxation, that doesn’t just feel good, but is also meant to affect your autonomic nervous system – that’s the thing that controls your anxiety symptom’s, like palpitations – and causes it to be calm and “reset” itself.

These autogenic sessions should last anywhere from 10-15 minutes and can be done with a therapist or alone.

I decided to introduce both of these methods because I think that together they offer a lot of benefits. They do this by addressing both your mind and body.

 Autosuggestion has the power to focus your mind and keep you locked in on your goal of reaching peace of mind, while  autogenic training has the very real (clinically proven) ability to relax your body, thereby reducing your physical symptoms over time.

These two methods are also great because they allow you to harness something that you may have felt you lost, and that’s your inner strength, or strength of any kind for that matter. You might feel weak in your legs and your mind because of everything you’re going through but, I have to tell you, you have what it takes to get better.

I know this because I’ve been where you are now, in that place where everything seems dark and where hope is in short supply. But if you decide, with conviction, that you want to reclaim your life, then you can do just that.

Typically when people think of  anxiety or  anxiety disorder they don’t think about paranoia at the same time. But if your anxiety has been severe enough for a prolonged period of time you can certainly develop mild to moderate forms of paranoid thinking. Today’s podcast is about telling you what that means and how to stop it.

First though, I want to point out that just because you have paranoid thoughts this does not in any way make you crazy. Instead, being paranoid is more a symptom of being wrapped up in your thoughts and concerns. It’s you being way too concerned with what might happen.

Secondly, the reason you need to stop being paranoid is because paranoid thoughts feed your anxiety, which make your fears seem entrenched and more dangerous. This in turn will only make things worse.

I had a great time producing this edition of the Anxiety Guru Show and hope that you benefit from it.

Side-note:

There is a great book by  Dr. George Weinberg entitled Self Creation. This book is a must have for any anxiety sufferer but especially for those that suffer from paranoid thoughts. Inside this book there is even a chapter entitled How to Stop Being a Paranoid that deals exclusively with this issue.

On today’s podcast I explore whether or not  herbs can make you better and how anxiety is always mind screwing you.

In this podcast I survey herbs like  Valerian,  St. John’s Wort,  Lavender tea, and  Marijuana. There are of course tons more herbs we could talk about, but I picked these because they are easy to find and easy to find information on. The whole idea behind this podcast was to give you a cursory introduction to these herbs – including their benefits and drawbacks.

On a side note, somebody recently asked me why I don’t make more podcast and the answer should be of some interest to you. The reason why I don’t produce more podcast is because if I don’t receive emailed topics and questions or if I have nothing new to say, nothing gets produced.

I hate when I read or listen to something that is complete crap, so I try to avoid producing garbage content that doesn’t help anyone. If on the other hand, I get contacted with an interesting question or topic, bam! Instant podcast. See these things take time to put together and I refuse to waste your time or my own time with nonsensical drivel.

Note: Do you have a question you want explored on my next podcast? Email me at info@anxietyguru.net.

Today’s podcast is strictly meant to provide you with a bit of a motivational kick in the pants. See,  anxiety and  depression can so easily – and understandably – bring you down and cause hopelessness and despair. But, despite this, you can certainly counter all the negative feelings and thoughts that anxiety conjures up, as long as your head is in the right place.  I hope this podcast will help you get in the right frame of mind, so that you can begin the process of freeing yourself from all of your anxiety issues.

An  assumption is a mental leap you take without looking around first.  They’re also taken for granted, and it’s this easy-going acceptance of them that contributes to much of your anxiety.

I would never trash assumption itself because it serves a critical role.  It can help you make decisions when you don’t have all the facts and also helps to remove mental hurdles that could otherwise complicate decision making.  For example, when you’re driving down the highway you have to assume, to some extent, that other drivers aren’t going to run you off the road.  By assuming this you can clear your mind a bit and not drive like a nervous wreck.

This doesn’t mean that you’re not cautious or keeping an eye out but that you’re a lot more relaxed because of the assumption you’ve made.  Assumptions aren’t always made blindly, either.  Past experience informs many of the assumptions you make on a daily basis.  But using the past to evaluate the present makes things tricky.

The problem for the anxious person is that the act of assuming in connection with things that make us nervous is filled with psychological peril.  This is because many of those assumptions are just plain wrong, based on exaggeration, and parade around in our minds dressed as facts.

In the “real world”, as we just discovered, assumption is a useful tool.  But in “anxiety world” assumption is the gateway to panic.  Let’s take a look at some example assumptions that can lead to anxiety and panic.

1. Trigger: Chest pain –> Assumption: Heart attack –> Result: Panic.

2. Trigger: Crowds –> Assumption: Enclosure, suffocation –> Result: Panic.

3. Trigger: Headache –> Assumption: Brain Tumor –> Result: Panic.

These are just a few examples but there are many many more.  And they are almost all related to the fear of death, insanity, or loss of control.

A few weeks ago I spoke about the “mind shift” that occurs just seconds before you slip into anxiety or panic.  Well, anxiety-driven assumptions act like a bridge between a state of normalcy and pure anxiety, much like phrases that signal a potential disaster like, “Oh no!”

But why must we make assumptions that bring us to this point?  Honestly it’s not something we enjoy, but to some degree it is a decision we make.  An assumption of impending disaster is our best guess about what might happen based on how we feel.

Because of past experience we tend to make sweeping generalizations and just figure that if it happened once a certain way, it will happen exactly the same way again in the future.  But of course this is a thinking error that turns into a self fulfilling prophecy from hell.

To stop assuming that you’re going to die every time you feel a twitch or bump you have to take two steps.

1. Awareness – You have to slow down and be aware that when you’re making the switch from “regular you” to “panicked you” that you’re engaged in assumption.  Question the plausibility of the assumption and stop it cold.

2. Patience – Whatever is scaring the daylights out of you isn’t going to leave you immediately.  As you question the assumption, you also need to wait patiently.  It may take several minutes, but if you know you’re jumping to conclusions AND you give your rational mind a chance to catch up to your fear, you will experience a reduction in anxiety.

Let’s not forget that fear and anxiety travel at the speed of light (at least it seems like it) and it sometimes takes a minute for you to realize that you’re not really in any danger.  Once your rational mind is aware of what’s going on you’ll be able to talk yourself down and eventually relax.  So suspend conclusions about what might happen, even as you experience an uncomfortable symptom, to buy yourself the time you need.

The processes behind all this can be somewhat confusing, but the reaction to an assumption is not.  You won’t always be able to stop anxiety and panic from taking hold, but I can guarantee that you will reduce their frequency if you just pay attention to what you’re thinking.  Be a little more mindful and patient and you’ll see what I mean.