Our world is in the midst of an emotional meltdown. As a psychiatrist, I've seen that many people are addicted to the adrenaline rush of anxiety, known as the "fight or flight" response, and they don't know how to defuse it. An example of this is obsessively watching the news about natural disasters, trauma, economic stress and violence, and then not being able to turn bad news off. Also, people are prone to "techno-despair" -- a term I coined in my book, "Emotional Freedom." This is a state of high anxiety that results from information overload and Internet addiction. It's also related to our super-dependence on smartphones and the panic of feeling disconnected if technology breaks down and we can't access emails or other communications -- a new version of what's psychiatrically known as an "attachment disorder." I've helped many patients address the adverse effects of techno-despair, such as insomnia, nightmares, restless sleep and ongoing angst. You, too, can break your addiction to anxiety and lead a more peaceful life.
Am I Addicted To Anxiety?
To determine your current level of anxiety, ask yourself:
If you answered "yes" to all six questions, worry plays a very large, addictive role in your life. Four to five "yes" answers indicate a large role. Two to three "yes" answers indicate a moderate role. One"yes" indicates a low level. Zero "yes" answers suggest that you're more warrior than worrier!
To quiet anxiety and turn off your flight-or-flight response, it's important to re-train your brain to send chemicals to counteract this powerful biological response. Otherwise, anxiety can become an addiction. In contrast, with a calm biology, you can generate endorphins -- the blissful natural painkillers in your body. To master your anxiety, practice the techniques below to quiet your system. They will help you achieve immediate and long-term results.
7 Strategies To Overcome Anxiety (From "Emotional Freedom")
Being aware of what triggers your anxiety and mindfully making choices to cope with them provides emotional freedom. Then you won't simply be reacting when your buttons get pushed. You will be better able to take charge of your emotions and your life.
Follow Judith Orloff MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JudithOrloffMD
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No health care? No worries. No housing? No worries. No abortion? No worries. No job? No worries. No justice? No worries. No hope for the future? No worries.
This is the Dominator Culture at work: Show up, put up and shut up while we use you, abuse you and lose you. Don't like it? Chill, matey...
Implied in this statement is the fact that life can be unfair. It's rather ironic that people concentrate on the idea that life can be unfair to one's detriment when it's just as true that life can be unfair to one's advantage as well. It's rather easy to take the unfairness of life to one's advantage as the way things "should be" when that's not the case at all.
Fully accepting the difficulty and unfairness of life gives a certainty serenity to life. One is no longer wasting one's energy fighting the fact that life doesn't promise us a "rose garden" and the energy previously wasted anxiously waiting for the next shoe to drop can then be used to deal with the consequences of that shoe hitting the ground with a thud if and when it does.
One of the ironies of HuffPost is that it seems on the one hand to be actively engaged in inducing anxiety and the other to paying various "experts" to tell us how to deal with the resulting anxiety. Some of what passes for "news" here is absurd. I don't know who first said "90% of everything is crap", but I think he woefully underestimated the situation, especially over at Faux where the percentage is so close to 100 that it might as well be considered 100.
I sleep better. I can't watch a film when it gets excited I have to get up and leave. And I know I can never fly again because hanging in the air I feel like I can't get my breath. I hear people who say they have these attacks all their life and I sure don't want to be in their shoes. Guess it is a mystery what the causes are and how to prevent these attacks.
Had a panic attack whilst driving. One of my delivery drivers had to pick me up from the side of the road & take me to the emergency room at the nearest hospital.
After an EKG & a test for deep vein thrombosis they determined it was a panic attack. Had several more after
At the time I thought my boundres were very restricted & I'd never get on a plane.
I now fly internationally regularly.
Panic Attacks are a result of anxiety. The root cause of the anxiety getting to the point of panic attacks is you body telling you that you need to re-think how you're doing things, in other words, the panic is a coping mechanism gone haywire.
Getting to the root cause of the anxiety is the only way to get a hold of the panic attacks & with that you will re-obtain the freedoms that the panic attack has taken away from you (just guessing that flying is not your only limitation).
I was lucky enough to find a therapist, that I saw weekly, who specialized in severe anxiety & was treated with EMDR therapy.
Avoid therapists that will not treat borderline personality disorder, because many people that have anxiety disorders have grown up with close family members that are borderline. If the therapist does not understand borderline, they will not be of lasting help to you.
Hmm...stay away from arguments, the Internet, and paying bills. Where is this magical land where this suggestion is possible?
I disagree about the bill paying, however. I find owing people money to be stress inducing. Paying bills is relaxing
As a proprietary point, I’d be inclined to flip flop four and six. I think boundary setting can be more effectual when relaxed and catching agitation before acting poorly is, perhaps, more easily recognized when contrasted against the feelings of the relaxation exercises.
Hey! You’re the Doctor. I’m just some guy who took a road less traveled to post this note.
Having said that, I have to agree. There's a lot of hype and hysteria going on.
Small example: The headline about Glenn Beck being dropped. Then I go and find that he's being dropped from four small radio stations in Connecticut. Be still my racing heart.
Sarah Palin farts and there's metaphorically reams of print announcing the fact and 50 "pundits" to tell us what it all means. It means nothing, but you wouldn't know it. After all, pundits don't get paid unless they make rhetorical mountains out of micro-molehills.
Last night on the news, I found out that the President got temporarily locked out of the White House. This is what passes for news these days.
God, how many words have been wasted on the non-existent threat to this country from the radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant? For crying out loud, when I was a kid, nuclear weapons were being tested in the atmosphere, thousands of them from 1945 until 1963. The Japanese legitimately have something to fear. We don't.
So called financial experts tell us we need to have enough saved so that, in concert with SS, we'll be able to have 100% of our pre-retirement income. Horse crap. I've been retired for 10 years. My wife and I live on half of pre-retirement income. No one should be allowed to be a retirement planner who hasn't been retired for at least 10 years.