It made me more paranoid and anxious though I didnt realise it at the time. I do smoke, when I gave it up I got colds all the time.

But quite possibly they dont, quite possibly they have managed to cope with difficulties without developing Anxiety. For instance, someone who couldnt progress with their dental phobia because of the long gaps between appointments volunteered as a driver for elderly people - the regular visits to the surgery helped them to be much more relaxed there. OCD with compulsive thoughts Everyone knows you cant stop yourself thinking just like that. If you are a casual user and you have developed Anxiety, then its time to stop. You may recognise this mindset if you have ever been a parent, or worked with children. We had sessions twice a week for three weeks until I could tolerate the tape at full volume for 10 minutes. And the greatest fear of an Anxiety attack/disorder sufferer? A person having their first panic attack can think theyre having a heart attack. They feel the need to suck in great gulps of air, as if they cant get enough, and often feel unable to breathe out fully before taking the next breath in. Examine your behaviour while you are busy with your thoughts (this is known as ruminating). Youll then be able to create your own individual recovery programme. Hold a spider. And while were on the subject, lets answer those two questions. So, the greatest determiner of having an Anxiety attack is also your greatest treasure, your MIND. Arrange a time when you wont be disturbed - if there are other people around, explain that you need to be alone for a while. Simple emotions Research suggests that there are six simple emotions that are found in all cultures, all over the world: happiness, anger, grief, sadness, fear, and disgust. This is one of the things you may wish to discuss with them, and remind them that its not particularly helpful to keep giving this reassurance. I did some one-to-one work with a co-worker at first, then a couple of us would go out together and we would talk to take the focus away from feeling scared. Lets meet the group: I was on tranquillisers for 36 years and your body becomes tolerant and you start to feel anxiety symptoms which get worse when you stop taking them. I had an older brother who was cleverer than me, and I developed a stammer when I was 8 years old which made me very self-conscious. I was on the bus going to visit my mother and I started to feel floaty and scared and out-of-sorts. There is no real evidence that this person is an unsafe driver and there is no objective reason for them to give up driving. Take a moment to look through your notebook - it will remind you of how far youve come and how much more you now understand about Anxiety.

Instead of blaming yourself, tell yourself that there are probably good reasons why you have anxious thoughts.

It gives you the energy to manage the extra load caused by the crisis. Hold it, then relax and feel the difference. Some days just are very busy of course, but if the whole diary was like this, then this person would need to think things through and make changes. Of course it isnt essential and many people complete their recovery with very little help. Now I am off the medication that made me so tired but drinking too much coffee has become a habit. Do they invite you to social events? If you recognise yourself in this, youll need to take particular care with your cognitive work. Non sufferers would be highly amused.Helping Yourself to Overcome Anxiety Dealing with most health problems involves a degree of self-help. Start by choosing an overall goal and then see what smaller goals you could set to help you towards it. What if I have a heart attack? If there is a gain, there will always have been a loss. If a blood test is suggested and needles are a problem for you, then say so. We havent changed their words. I use positive self-talk and affirmations. I used to do most of the negative thought habits, such as catastrophising, generalising from one bad experience or using should statements, but now I try to stop myself. I do generalise from one bad experience but I think its very subliminal. I do generalise from one bad experience. Behaviour means just that - how you behave. You can use it entirely on your own, or in tandem with other help - but do please mention to your therapist that you are using it. Whether you wish to be better looking, cleverer, younger, fitter or thinner it all comes down to dissatisfaction with yourself. What is the evidence for this thought being true? The first step is to talk things over with your doctor. Someone with OCD with rituals, whether physical or mental, is doing that pretty well all the time.

At the top are the automatic thoughts that pop into your head when youre feeling anxious.

Avoidance This usually follows on from escape. Your body is very keen to switch off the fight-or-flight and with a little help from you, it will manage it. These may be major such as the death of a close family member or severe financial problems. Instead of believing the thoughts you will come to understand that they are generated by your Anxiety. If I have a panic attack and the teacher sees me theyll think Im a bad parent and a stupid person. stopping yourself from doing the compulsive rituals (response prevention). Your high anxiety makes it more likely that you will find yourself unable to say or do the things that you feel you should be doing, and more likely that you will continue to worry after the event that you have done or said something wrong. Did I choose this belief as a way of surviving? Social contacts We are social creatures. If you can learn to release your feelings instead of suppressing them you will find it helps the recovery process, and also helps stop the Anxiety from coming back once you have recovered. They must give you their time and attention - its no use at all if the helper on the supermarket ladder thinks they are going to do their own shopping at the same time. Healing your inner child The idea that each one of us has an inner child has been the butt of jokes in recent years, and yet its a concept that is useful in understanding ourselves. Pretty urgent, since theyve left it late to sort this out. part of your Anxiety. Emotions Anger - surprisingly, anger is helpful for some people. If you still believe in it totally then you will need to work even harder. If you are satisfied with levels 1, 2 or 3 then thats fine. Once youve formed the habit of doing relaxation every day, keep it up throughout your recovery programme. Do say my goal is to stop counting my coat hangers or my goal is to post a letter. There is no difficulty in understanding the effects of negative core beliefs - they undermine your self-esteem and sense of self-worth.

People with other forms of Anxiety also have safety behaviours - always sitting by the door, always carrying your mobile phone, carrying spare tranquillisers just in case, are good examples.

No. I am a critic, I laugh at myself. For instance, do you find it hard to tell someone that youre upset or angry because of something theyve said or done? If your OCD includes strong mental images you can take control by pretending you are filming the image - you can reduce the size of the worrying part (dog faeces for instance) or you can zoom in on something harmless at the edge of the picture such as a patch of grass. Those people who are very sensitive to caffeine would be best to give it up permanently. So, if you are afraid of spiders and you need to check each room for them, then you have a phobia. Filtering I had a bad day yesterday, Ill never get better. Crossing bridges. And yet other Anxiety sufferers have never experienced a panic attack, and never will. Your normal anxiety has got out of control and turned into an Anxiety Disorder. Dont give it the pleasure! Breakdown of first goal Since this person is very unfit, there is no way they are going to run even a mile the first time they go training, so they have to work out a series of mini-goals. What alternative explanation might there be for me having this thought? This is why it can sometimes seem that an Anxiety sufferer gets some benefit from their illness. Achievement: I have to do everything perfectly or else Im a failure. Acceptability: everyone has to be pleased with me or else Im not good enough. Trust: if I trust, I will be hurt. Control: if I ask for help Im weak or if I feel anxious Im losing control. OCD and core beliefs People with OCD often have core beliefs around perfection, responsibility and punishment that are linked together. It was a terrible event that made my anxiety much worse. Like many OCD sufferers I have an overwhelming fear of losing control. The Bully was ever present, turning my legs into jelly, causing my heart to race . However, how will loved ones cope with this change when theyve developed the habit of constantly giving in to your demands for reassurance? Dont think too much about the higher rungs - eventually they will come into sight and you will be able to tackle them. If your anxiety is in anyway focused on animals, dont undertake this, although you might want to set goals around it during your recovery. Other applications of CBT may be found in anxiety management or stress management courses.

Its only embarrassment, and I can cope with that.

Invite someone into your home for a short visit. Filtering I had a bad day yesterday, Ill never get better. Current advice to doctors is to only prescribe these drugs for short periods (two to four weeks) and only for severe Anxiety. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) This is caused by exposure to danger or abuse. Yes to questions 1 and/or 2 are signs of Generalised Anxiety. You can expect the doctor to listen to what you have to say, and ask you a few questions. The counter statement needs to be repeated over and over again until you find yourself automatically thinking the new positive thought every time the old negative one comes into your mind. Sit quietly and feel how the hands move as you breathe. Breakdown of first goal Since this person is very unfit, there is no way they are going to run even a mile the first time they go training, so they have to work out a series of mini-goals. Negative thinking and the ability to keep generating what if thoughts in particular can lead to you feeling frozen and unable to move forward to a solution or a decision. Its not that scary to me now because I believe the doctors.I have often wondered if, because I am sensitised to anxiety, things somehow become harder than they need to be as some kind of test. We are not living in hell from choice but have an anxiety illness. If you consider that this kind of technique makes matters worse because it gives the thought too much importance, then try ways of reducing the importance: Expose yourself to the trigger for the thought until you are tired of it. The perfectionist The desire to improve is one of the bedrocks of human progress, and there are times when a perfectionist streak will lead us to achievements that we never thought were possible. Do this for several breaths. Social contacts We are social creatures. It may mean achieving peace of mind through a connection with a spiritual force, through a religious faith or philosophy, or working to make a difference in the world through political or social action. It worked beautifully provided my attention to what I was doing was absorbing. I do try to change my mind set by challenging my constant self-talk. To stop myself overestimating the chances of something bad haping I think positive. Walk a mile uphill, repeat until comfortable. If you feel yourself slipping back into Anxiety, then take action to stop the slide. In addition, you can keep a diary noting your emotional responses to events during the course of the day.

You may start wonderfully, going off like a rocket, and then grind to a halt.

Breathe out in stages, with a short pause between each one - use two, three or four stages. YES/NO Is the danger really big enough to matter? Anger gives us energy, and you can use that energy to drive yourself through a difficult exposure session. I began walking round the car park, then gradually built up over 6 months until I could go into town. Athletes, singers and actors use breath control to improve their performance. If they are afraid of other people, they need to practise being with other people. I tried visualising myself playing the tape and being calm, but for once this didnt work for me. Is there really any risk of danger? Very often these beliefs are so deeply ingrained that were not aware of them, or if we are, they feel like universal truths. The final stage, where you push your stomach out as you breathe in, is actually using your diaphragm, a strong muscle that sits underneath your lungs. You may find that one person has a soothing presence and you enjoy their company, while another is helpful in a practical way. Over-generalising This means that you assume that one bad experience will always lead to others - this is how a phobia develops, when after one bad time in a certain situation you assume that the same thing will always hap every time in the future. Breathe quietly, and focus on the word relax. For each one, write a brief statement that will give you support. Avoidance This usually follows on from escape. The great original affirmation is every day in every way I am growing better and better. It can feel pretty silly to look in the mirror and repeat this sort of thing, but all we can say is, it does work, so do it. This builds up more Anxiety, making for another bad night, and so on. You may feel many of the symptoms of a panic attack but without the climactic rush of panic. If you persist, eventually they wont even start.

Lets take the example of someone who feels aggrieved at the way the whole family rely on them to act as an unpaid chauffeur.

Something unforeseen might hap that I cant cope with. Medication damed them down but did not cure the problem in any way, shape or form. The medication that my GP had initially prescribed were giving me horrible side effects, they were actually making my symptoms feel worse, not better. Spiritual: you may be dissatisfied with life, or feel that life has no meaning. Countering negative self-talk. Like all Anxiety sufferers, your first steps in exposure work will be mainly a test, to see if it is really true that these awful feelings are caused by Anxiety and that Anxiety can go down. I thought I was weird, not normal. My first experience of anxiety was when I was 13, in the 1950s. Start by doing this exercise when you are sitting comfortably and when you are not particularly anxious. If youve had a panic attack in a crowded bus, you will associate crowded buses with panic and start to dread getting on the bus if it looks full. Read cartoons, in a newspaper or book. Ways of countering distorted intuition and self-reproach Distorted intuition and self-reproach are all about how you see yourself in relation to the world, and other people. If your attempts to do more are constantly interrupted by worry, you can create an exposure ladder to help you reduce the time you sd worrying. It can seem impossibly hard to take exercise if your Anxiety has made you housebound, but in fact there are plenty of options. Yes to any of questions 3-7 indicates different types of phobia. ABOUT THE RECOVERY PROCESS Ive now come to realise that no magic wand or quick fix exists. Im very up and down, sometimes I feel Ill never get better. We dont mind if you get angry with us - anger gives you energy, just what you need right now. It seems likely that the agoraphobic will find the weekend away the hardest to do, and either the bus journey or the corner shop the easiest. When the crisis is over, we breathe a sigh of relief and assume that things will soon get back to normal. Hold it, then relax and feel the difference. Those people who are very sensitive to caffeine would be best to give it up permanently. You may not always achieve the outcome you would like in the short- term, but as you develop the habit of communicating assertively, other people will start to treat you with more respect.