Tag: Losing Control

Anxiety And Nervouse Breakdown Tie In Together

How do anxiety and nervous breakdown tie in? The term anxiety is an umbrella term which encompasses panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder. The term nervous breakdown is no longer used by the medical profession. It is now referred to as situational depression or anxiety disorder.

While clinical depression and anxiety disorders can be triggered by something that happens in your life, their causes can often be linked to something biological, genetic, neurological, or that occured in your childhood. In contrast, a nervous breakdown could describe the sudden onset of a mental illness, or it may just be your way to process something that happened in your life. The term nervous breakdown conjures up terrible, scary images. But while it is upsetting, it’s important to keep in mind that this anxiety disorder is just your body’s way of saying “Hey, you’re ignoring some feelings here that need to be dealt with.” Panicing in the face of anxiety and nervous breakdown only makes matters worse.

One key to getting through a nervous breakdown (or preventing one) is to stop fighting it off. If you’re starting to feel that everything is just getting to be too much, just try to identify some areas in your life where you can reduce some of your stress and causes of anxiety. The typical reaction when you feel like your are losing control is to get it back again. But getting it back by ignoring what you are feeling is not the way to go about it. In the case of a nervous breakdown, taking back power means actively seeking out rest and peace. If you try to just push through and force yourself to continue beyond what you can mentally or physically take, you actually give your anxiety more power. If you can allow yourself a little patience and space to actually feel what you need to feel, you offset the reasons your mind and body brought you to the point of a nervous breakdown in the first place.

Seek help. Many people look at getting help as a sign that they have lost the battle with their anxiety and nervous breakdown. It is actually the opposite. The fact that you are seeking help means that you are taking a step to being able to take care of yourself and others if necessary. Look at it this way: if you were physically hurt one day and bleeding profusely, you would run stratight to the emergency room. It’s the same with whatever anxiety you’re going through. Professional help and therapy does not have to be a lifelong commitment. Once you have worked out the cause for your pain and suffering and have the tools to prevent it from happening again, you no longer need the help of professionals. But if you avoid seeking them out in the first place, the anxiety and nervous breakdown may have already caused permanent damage.

This information does not substitute medical advice given by a health professional.

Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety

The Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety is a trademark of one of the most effective stress management companies today. It can help individuals improve their lives and manage their assortment of fears. With a staff of excellent psychologists and other medical professionals and a website that allows you to purchase anything you need to help you get better and interact with other people having similar problems, the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety is no doubt a one-stop-place for all your stress and anxiety-related problems.

Get Better Now Assessment
You can begin your treatment by answering the online form for the Get Better Now Assessment. It will allow you to determine how you are faring at present and how youre managing stress and anxiety.

Do You Really Need Help
The Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety provides a list of traits most associated with stress burdened people and symptoms of anxiety and irrational fears to further help the individual become aware if he or she is truly in need of professional help.

Symptoms of Anxiety Nervousness, dizziness, diarrhea and other stomach problems
Irrational Fears Losing control, death, causing embarrassment to ones self, leaving the house (agoraphobia)

Personality Traits Emotionally sensitivity or tendency to overreact, obsessive thinking, having high expectations, low self-esteem and a tendency to over analyze things

The Lucinda Barrett Program
One of the stress management programs offered by the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety is the Lucinda Barrett Program. It was initially utilized to treat a woman who spent one whole decade finding an answer to her problems. She also spent a small fortune in order to find the best way to handle her burgeoning problems with stress and anxiety, not knowing that all it would take to solve her dilemma was talking with Dr. Fisher of the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety.

Now a full-fledged program thats open to anyone, it requires the patient to undergo 16 sessions that range from a complete discussion of the patients background, personal characteristics and fears to utilizing diet and exercise to get rid of negative emotions and the proper way to relax ones self.

Other Services Offered by the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety
Besides treating various types of anxiety disorders, the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety also offers its services to individuals suffering from obsessive-compulsive (OC) disorders, post-traumatic-stress disorders and provides cognitive behavior therapy.

Free Tips from the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety
Because the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety first and foremost is intent on helping people manage their stress and anxiety, they dedicated a portion of their website in providing free tips to manage negative emotions like anxiety and depression. Some of the tips are as follows:

Recognition and Acknowledgement of Negative Feelings The Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety emphasizes how essential it is for individuals to acknowledge to themselves that they are indeed suffering from stress, anxiety and depression. Then and only then can they be cured.

Identifying Causes Knowing what caused you to feel stressed or anxious will also help you solve your problems better. Knowing the cause will always lead to the solution.

Give Yourself a Pat on the Back Its also important to give yourself positive reinforcement even for the smallest of accomplishments. This will encourage you to continue on your attempts to manage your problems without resorting to depression or panic.

Drop a Line
If youre uncertain about needing professional help, visit the website of the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety and join the online forum or send the staff an email about your concerns.

Help Someone Having a Panic Attack

Panic attacks often occur to anyone without warning. So whenever someone had an attack, it is important that you know what to do.

Understand what a panic attack is. A panic attack is a sudden surge of overwhelming fear or anxiety. It is manifested by several signs and symptoms. During an attack, a person experiences increased heartbeat or palpitation, chest pain, hyperventilation or shortness of breath, stomach churning, upset stomach, trembling and shaking, muscle tension, sweating, dizziness and light-headedness, hot or cold flashes, tingling sensation or numbness, fear of dying, going crazy or losing control and feeling detached from the surroundings.

Seek for emergency medical help. It is important to call for a health professional especially if a person experiences an attack for the first time.

Identify the cause of the symptoms. The signs and symptoms of panic attack are similar to medical conditions. Hyperventilation or shortness of breath can be a sign of asthma. Chest pain, increased heartbeat or palpitation and sweating can be a heart attack. Talk to the person and determine if the symptoms are caused by other medical conditions. When in doubt, a health professional will be a great help.

While waiting for help, find the cause of attack. Once it is established that the cause of the symptoms is really a panic attack, find the source of the panic and take the person away from it. Do not make an assumption about what the person needs. A person who is suffering from the attack may know exactly what to do or has medications which will get him through the attack, so it is best to ask.

Don’t surprise the patient. Be predictable with your movements. Do not grab, hold or restrain. Keep him calm and stay calm yourself. Reassure the person that everything is going to be fine but do not dismiss his fear by saying “it’s all in your mind” or “don’t worry about it” or “you are overreacting.” Take note that the fear is very real to the victim so it dismissing the fear has no effect or can even make the matter worse.

Help the patient to control his breathing. Many patients breathe heavily during an attack; others hold their breath. Using deep breathing technique is a very effective way to purge the symptoms of a panic attack as well as calm the patient down. Guide the person and tell him to breathe in for 3 slow counts. Then ask him to hold his breath for 3 slow counts and breathe out for another 3 slow counts. Do this several times until the person is calm. You can also advice him to breathe into a paper bag. This way, he will re-breathe his carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide helps correct the blood acid level that had been disturbed by excessive breathing. But be careful when using paper bags since they may trigger another fear.

Stay with the person throughout his ordeal. Never leave a person especially if he is having difficulty in breathing. Be patient. They may act rude or unfriendly but remember that it is temporary and will go back to normal as soon as the attack is over.

Do not forget that for the patient, the thoughts are real. Reassure him the help is on the way. Never allow the patient to do things that will put his life at risk.

Handling Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety attacks can be seen as an abnormal and irrational panic over trivial things or accidents or for no reason at all. Attacks usually occur without warning and a person can simply burst into fear. Triggers can cause anxiety attack like getting stuck in the elevator or being called to recite in the class but in other cases, attacks come out of the blue. An anxiety attack is disproportionate reaction to the situation or the problem at hand, leaving the person excessively fearful, or sometimes incapacitated, which affects life, relationships, happiness and peace of mind.

Symptoms of Anxiety Attack

A person undergoing an episode of anxiety attack shows the following symptoms:

Heart palpitation (increase in heartbeat)
Hot flashes or chills
Hyperventilation
Surge of overwhelming panic
Feeling detached or unreal
Trembling or shaking
Trouble breathing
Feeling of losing control, going crazy; or fear of dying
Choking sensation
Nausea or stomach crams
Sweating
Dizziness
Chest discomfort or pain

Handling anxiety attacks

Anxiety attacks usually peak within 10 minutes and rarely last for half an hour. But during this time, a person can totally lose control of himself and show symptoms mentioned above. To handle this attack, a person must:

Relax Although it is often impossible to relax during an attack, it is very crucial not to submit yourself to your emotion. Breathe. Deep breathing helps calms and relaxes your mind and body. During an anxiety attack, focus your breathing to slow down your heartbeat. This also diverts your attention from the attack which helps you recover faster. Take some time and practice deep breathing exercises even if you are not stressed or feel anxious.

Think positively Again, during an anxiety attack, it is often impossible to relax or even calm yourself, but you have to be in control. Push more positive thoughts to your head. Instead of thinking that others will humiliate you or you are going to faint because you cannot take the pressure, think of the good things. Do no anticipate that something bad will happen because in reality, there isn’t. Keep in mind that the more you think negatively, the more anxious and panicky it is going to be.

Think that it will be over soon and it will. Anxiety attacks do not last for more than an hour so there is no reason for you to think and feel that your world is over. You don’t have to be mindful of the time. You don’t even have to count every minute that passed. What you should be doing is be conscious that it will not going to last forever.

Start an exercise program We have heard that exercise has lots of benefits both to the body and the mind. It is also a great stress buster and anxiety reliever. Experts agree that as little as 30 minutes of exercise, 3 to 5 times a week is enough to lower the level of stress and reduce the chances of having episodes of anxiety attacks.

Talk to someone you trust It can be your friend, your wife (husband), a relative or a therapist. Often, having someone who listens and understands what a person is going through will make a lot of difference. This is because it allows you to bring out your emotion rather than keeping it to yourself.