At the bottom of this page you
will find a list of Anxiety Disorder related articles, videos, audio files, tips and
tricks which will reassure and assist you during your recovery.
The anxiety response developed thousands of years ago to protect us when
exposed to threats; the 'flight or fight' response prepares the body to either
flee from or fight that threat. This response causes the body to react in a
number of ways that prepare the body for this extra exertion.
My anxiety caused a wide variety of anxiety symptoms and conditions such
as Agoraphobia, OCD and Panic Attacks but many experience just a handful of
symptoms that are disturbing and frustrating for the sufferer.
In these pages, I will explain how anxiety forms, and present
you with the program that I developed in order to overcome my own anxiety
that has now been successfully used by tens of thousands of people worldwide.
Anxiety Disorder – Is it a physical or mental illness?
In short, no, anxiety disorder is neither a physical nor mental illness.
The word disorder suggests illness, but I can assure you that you are
not ill. Anxiety is a behavioral condition regardless of how it makes you
feel. Anxiety is a natural response to fear and, like other bodily systems
that can falter, causing things like indigestion, palpitations or
sensitive eyes for example, the anxiety response can become disrupted
too. But, this isn't mental or physical illness... it's a temporary
disruption which can be 'reset' very quickly indeed.
Anxiety disorder is the condition caused when stress or constant
anxiety provoking situations cause the mind to become reset at a higher
than normal benchmark anxiety level. Anxiety disorder is most noticeable
by the vast range of unpleasant sensations and thoughts it creates...
unpleasant but harmless!
Creation of an anxiety disorder can happen quickly and is usually
the result of an event such as work stress, bereavement, divorce or
other anxiety-provoking situations. When anxiety levels become raised
due to such stressors, the mind can make a decision to re-set at this
new level of anxiety; when this happens an anxiety disorder is formed.
Anxiety causes a wide range of both physical and psychological symptoms,
all directly caused by the anxiety reaction, all harmless, BUT all also
feeling much worse than they actually are! They are the sensation of
FEAR... BUT, they are NOT true fear!
Anxiety Conditions – what are they?
There are five main 'anxiety disorders', these are:
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Phobia
- Post traumatic stress disorder
Just because conventional medicine has decided to apply these names
to specific features of anxiety conditions, doesn't mean that there
aren't some 'fuzzy edges' during diagnosis. If you suffer from any
of the above conditions, you have underlying high anxiety, without
which none of these anxiety conditions would exist.
Often, anxiety will create a mixture of obsessions, high anxiety
and panic, making it very difficult to categorize a sufferer's
condition. But, it isn't important to categorize because all of these
conditions are caused by elevated anxiety and require the exact same
solution to remove them.
Often, anxiety disorder sufferers can be diagnosed as having
'depression' which is a common mistake made by medical practitioners
world over; anxiety is a completely separate and very different
condition to depression and confusing the two is akin to telling an
Athlete's Foot sufferer that they have Eczema... they are both skin
conditions but completely unrelated!
Anxiety Attacks – The pinnacle of high anxiety – Can they be stopped?
Anxiety attacks or panic attacks are the most extreme experience
of anxiety. Anxiety attacks happen when the hormone adrenalin, which
prepares the body for fighting or fleeing from a threat, stays in
the blood stream long after it is required. Of course, if the anxiety
is inappropriate and has been caused by a disorder and not a true
threat, it isn't used up at all; this is when an anxiety attack
happens.
Anxiety attacks cause the heart to speed up and for digestion to
slow, breathing to speed up and many other changes, which all have
the unfortunate affect of causing some unpleasant sensations and
thoughts.
Can anxiety attacks be stopped – of course they can.
How?
By reversing the process that caused them in the first place!
Using a structured and simple technique, you can completely reset
your anxiety levels back down to normal – something that neither
drug therapy nor psychotherapy can do in isolation. Read on to
discover more.
Anxiety Symptoms
Anxiety symptoms are caused by the anxiety response; they are
either direct alterations of bodily systems in preparation for
anxiety or side effects of those changes. For example, during high
anxiety, the digestive system is slowed down to divert resources
to other parts of the body, the muscles for example.
The side effect of this can be stomach cramps or discomfort.
The cramps are caused by the anxiety reaction but because the
sufferer has high anxiety, they can be interpreted in other ways;
fears grow and the anxiety worsens. This then causes more symptoms
and so on. This cycle of high anxiety can produce many sensations
and thoughts that are mostly misinterpreted by the sufferer as
being sinister or threatening, but they are not.
Anxiety causes changes in the body that can cause symptoms just
about anywhere and some can be pretty extreme; this doesn't mean
they are threatening in any way and all of them will disappear
when you eliminate the underlying anxiety that causes them. FACT!