Anxiety and You

Anxiety disorders are now the most common mental health problem in the US. They affect 18% of the population according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.  Any of us who know more than a half dozen people can attest to that.  18% of the population means roughly 1 out of every 5 people is an anxiety sufferer.

 

These disorders develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. Many people have never suffered from anxiety until they go through a severe loss, a traumatic event or something big that is out of their control.  In my opinion, anxiety comes from the conscious understanding that we are not as safe, in control or invincible as we thought we were.  These experiences are different for each person, but the idea of being unsafe for one reason or another is difficult for most people to live with.

 

Being very treatable, the difficulty is finding where the anxiety is coming from.  We often look for life events or individual circumstances to give us a clue.  However, understanding anxiety, it is hard to determine which comes first, the chicken or the egg; life events or brain chemistry. Life events can have a significant effect on emotions, which in turn can change brain chemistry after long periods of time. Chronic life events like abuse, thoughts of low self worth or low self esteem can also have an effect on how we think.   Emotions are constructed from brain chemistry and when certain brain chemicals show up in significant amounts in the system, the body will adapt by creating more receptor sites for that chemistry. It is the same adaptation that happens with substance addiction. When looking at it from that context, we can say that we become "addicted" to our brain chemistry; addicted to anger, anxiety, depression etc.

Our brain chemistry, or neurotransmitter function significantly affects us over all. For example, low levels of Dopamine can result in feeling more cravings. Low levels of Norepinephrine can result in a lack of energy, lack of focus and lack of motivation. Anxiety can be the result of high levels of the same neurotransmitter, or high levels of Glutamate, PEA, GABA, Glycine or Taurine. Severe anxiety can also be the result of low levels of Taurine so you can see how changes in our brain chemistry can affect us negatively. When our chemistry is out of balance, it will then be difficult to be positive or calm. It can also affect our sleep, which then can affect short term memory, concentration and even can be a factor in weight gain.

Some of our neuro-transmitters stimulate and some calm the brain and the body, so it is understandable that a good balance between them will be beneficial in maintaining stability in our emotional life.

Often, clients tell me that it is just easier to ignore the emotions that remind them of difficult times in their lives. These emotions are unpleasant and often disrupt the feeling of "normal" that is more desirable. Although this may be a good short term strategy, emotions don't go away. That chemistry remains in the body and can be a source of disease and discontent in our lives. Dr. A.F Beddoe states that 80% of all disease begins with unresolved emotion.

 

Scripture says quite a bit about how to deal with our bodies when it comes to anxiety and stress.  Just to mention a few verses:  Ephesians 4:26 says, "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,".  Could it be that in the context of health, this means in some form we are sinning against ourselves?  Anger let go without resolution can cause long term damage to our mental health and our physical bodies.   

 

Philippians 4:8 comes at it from the opposite perspective, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."  Developing these kinds of thoughts in our lives on a consistent basis has the effect of keeping us in good mental health.  If we cultivate thoughts that have peace and calm as a basis, we will also be peaceful and calm.  This attitude can help keep our neural net in good shape.  Gratefulness and thankfulness are also positive attitudes to cultivate in our lives.  They

Dealing with our emotional life daily is helpful as a wellness strategy. Getting enough rest, working through traumatic experiences, prac-ticing prayer or meditation, practicing forgiveness and developing an attitude of gratefulness all help stabilize our emotional life. Although medications have their place in treatment for anxiety, more natural approaches are recommended to start. Good emotional hygiene is something to practice daily.

 

 

 

 

Natural Remedies for Anxiety

One of the most effective treatments for anxiety is deep breathing or square breathing techniques. Although it sounds too simple to be true, breathing in a deep, slow measured way does affect our heart rhythm which then sends a message to the brain and the rest of the body to slow down; become more relaxed. Square breathing is accomplished by breathing in, holding, breathing out, and holding to a count of 3, 4 or 5 depending on how deeply you can breathe at the time. If that is too difficult, just breathing in slowly and deeply, then breathing out slowly over a period of 5+ minutes will help as well. Shallow and rapid breathing exaserbates the anxiety and will lead into a panic attack. Another technique is to think of something calming. As part of a prescribed treatment, counselors help their clients to develop a memory or a picture in their minds that is very calming and relaxing. When faced with anxiety, this "mini mental vacation" can distract enough to be able to help the person calm down and remain in a relaxed state. Meditation and/or prayer can also be a most effective way for the person to experience a sense of peace and calm. Practicing this for 15-20 minutes a day will help the mind and body to become more familiar with the state of calm that is desired. This practice can enhance the production of neuro-transmitters that are beneficial to the calm state and over time, bring us back into balance. EMDR therapy is a trauma therapy which can help a person process through the traumatic memory and resolve the brain chemistry which gets triggered and dumped into the system, causing an anxiety reaction. It works in conjunction with the body's own processing system, rapid eye movement. Simply put, REM sleep is when we process through our day. Our emotions and things that are disturbing to us are brought up and resolved during this stage of sleep. If traumatic events cannot be processed, the chemistry remains intact and becomes triggered through events, sensations, people, circumstances or any reminder of the event. EMDR allows that chemistry to process and thus takes the emotional charge off the memories that are disturbing to us.   EMDR also helps to change belief systems. Many of us have limiting beliefs that we just can't seem to get beyond. This therapy has proven beneficial when individuals are trying to improve their outlook on life or just change some long held beliefs that seem to hold them hostage. Milk peptides have been found to be a very effective deterent to anxiety conditions. The study was conducted for 30 consecutive days showing reduced stress reactivity. This was assessed by monitoring a subject's blood pressure response to a mental stress test. Results similar to the study have been seen at LWCC. Additionally, milk peptides do not compress the range of emotion as some drugs can.   Other articles of interest:

Making a Case for Peace Being Calm Has Its Advantages Emotions, DNA and Physical Well Being Related Websites Living Well Counseling and Consulting

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Are You Dealing With Grief?

What is grief?  Most of us don't understand what it is until we experience a significant loss or lose someone close to us.  Until going through these types of circumstances, we may not realize that it isn't just intense saddness.  Grief is known as an adaptive emotion.  With losses of significant impact, a person has to adapt to someone or some thing in their lives not being there.  Grief has a significant amount of change built into it.  You not only feel the loss but you have to change the way you live and think in connection with the loss.  Additionally, there is a component to it where everything feels empty....like the world and your presence in it has no purpose.  Often, when you enter into the process, you begin talking about it and may find many people who feel or have felt that way.

Some of the circumstances we face throughout our lives with regard to grief can range from the loss of a career, the loss of a limb, the loss of a child or a parent.  Other things that can produce grief are losses that don't seem as important.  These might include the loss of a dream.  Connected with divorce it can not only come with the loss of the marriage, but also the loss of what the relationship with that person means to the future; who you are with or without that person in your life.  People grieve the loss of the person as they believed them to be as well as the life they could have had.  This can also be inclusive of what happens when a person loses a child, miscarries a pregnancy and/or loses an adult child in an accident or combat.  To a great extent, human beings aren't built to assimilate the loss of their children.  We all understand that we will eventually lose our parents and those older members of our family, but it's harder to compute the loss of a younger person.

With regard to parents, as adults, I don't think we fully comprehend the position parents play in our lives.  They are a support.....just like bearing walls are to a house.  When you walk in a house you aren't really aware of how supportive these walls are and what their function is in making the house what it is, but take them away and the house will weaken and crack, maybe fall.  As they leave us, we must find different supports to put in place....whether they are internal or external.  The internal ones are preferred of course, but external supports are helpful too. 

In some cases, we may not realize how much parents can be a safety net in our families.  Even though we may be self supporting, capable adults.....when we lose one or both of our parents, we may discover they have held that place even though we may not have seen it.  Our parents are the ones we could always go to with questions, we could talk things over with them, brainstorm if you will.  They can be the thing in your life that has never changed....a constant that you can count on.  Parents tend to hold that place in their kids lives if they are anything close to good parents.  When they aren't, often the grief can go on and on, simply because for the child, the relationship remains in sight but is unattainable.  When our parents haven't been the stability in our lives, when we lose them we also lose the hope that one day the relationship could be better, could be restored.  That can be very difficult to move through and for some is a significant loss.

When we grow up and move out of their homes, we tend to believe that we separate from them...and we do.  However that tie is usually never severed if the parents have been nuturing and supportive.  In some cases, we don't become aware of what that tie becomes....it just changes and we tend to interpret that as independence....becoming separate yet equal.  Perhaps the emptiness one feels when there are no parents left is the awareness of that next phase of life.  Could it be that what we feel at this age is similar to what a toddler feels the first time they realize mom isn't in the room with them, or that they have wandered into a different part of the house and are alone?  We think at this age that we're all grown up, but perhaps that isn't the case.  At this point, mom and dad have done their job and its over....death is the final step to independence.  Yes, we miss them but grief is more than missing them.  It says to us that now its up to us, we are truly on our own.  There is a maturing in that.  That is the adaptive process.  We not only feel that huge loss, but we are adapting to being the older generation.  We now have to be for our kids what our parents were for us and that can be a big step......the protective covering is gone.  We must now provide that.  It's a spiritual growth as well as a developmental maturing.

Missing the person can be difficult, but over time that tends to resolve. The adaptive process becomes how you live without the person. You may not doing anything really different than you have done in the past....its just that you are doing it without that person or that job or whatever the loss has been. Part of the grief process causes us to mature in ways that we didn't know were still left to develop.

According to Erik Erickson, there are stages of development throughout our lifetime.  We learn, mature, change and grow up to the end of our lives.  Kohlberg identified moral stages of development that aren't quite as clear cut time wise over our lives, but they are there just the same.  If we have lived our lives well, we reach the end with few or no regrets.  If we have not, there may be a difficult process to go through at that stage.  Even as adults, we continue to mature and I sometimes believe that the hardest things are left to the end of our lives because we need that maturity and the moral integrity to go through them.  Could it be that when relationship with a parent is interrupted to soon, either by death or dysfunction, the impact to the human being is greater than we have anticipated.  Yes....we cope, but it can be much harder and there can be significant changes to the person and how they relate to others and the world around them.

Grief does have a process - Shock, Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Sadness and Acceptance.  We move in and out of the stages, back and forth sometimes but do tend to move forward over time.  Sometimes it doesn't feel very good.  It can take us by surprise, jarring our lives out of sync.  That can be part of the shock.  We can feel unmotivated, empty, depressed, insecure, lost, incapable and the list goes on and on. 

If you have experienced these things after a loss, just know the process takes as long as it takes to move through.  If you need help, be sure to ask for it.  Take care of yourself.  If you need medication or supplementation, be sure to visit your doctor.  You may need a counselor, there are good grief counselors available.  Avail yourself of Hospice services if you have those available to you.  This is a time to take care of yourself.  Just remember, you will get through it....it is a process that you mature, adapt and move through.  The emotion is just part of it.