Quotes & Tips on Anxiety

[Daniel E.]

An Alternative Theory of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

People with GAD worry a lot. But what do they actually fear?

www.psychologytoday.com

According to their Contrast Avoidance Model (CAM), what worry prevents is not negative emotional arousal per se, but rather sharp negative emotional swings...

This notion is analogous to the idea that some people adopt consistent pessimism as a way to avoid crushing disappointments...

Moreover, despite the fact that chronic worry is stressful, emotionally noxious, and physically taxing, people with GAD tend to hold positive beliefs about worry, viewing it as a useful coping strategy, a means of preparing for trouble, and a motivational force toward self-protection. Commonly, worry thoughts become a protective superstition: Having worried much about catastrophes that failed to materialize, people with GAD come to believe that worrying in fact prevents catastrophes from happening. CAM theory suggests that worry's role in preventing sharp negative emotional turns may be another, central reason it is embraced and maintained...

If the new theory is supported further, it may have implications for therapy as well. GAD is difficult to treat successfully, and this may be due in part to our incomplete understanding of the nature of fear in GAD. CAM suggests that a principal fear underlying worry in GAD is of negative emotional contrast. If that's the case, then therapists may usefully look to target specifically clients’ contrast avoidance—for example, by repeatedly following relaxation with negative emotional stimuli or by exposing clients to contrasting pleasant and then unpleasant images in quick succession. Facing the fear of negative contrast experiences directly may help extinguish it, thus releasing clients from GAD's worry trap.

 

[Daniel E.]

Could You Be Doing Mindfulness Wrong?

Acceptance of yourself -- anxieties included -- can help you bounce back from anxious moments more gracefully, resulting in more confidence and less worry.

 

[Daniel E.]

To successfully treat depression, the focus must be on the root cause, which is the anxiety. Anxiety is not a diagnosis, but a term that describes a heightened neurochemical state. Since this unconscious survival response is hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than the conscious brain, it cannot be controlled by isolated rational interventions.

So, how do you decrease anxiety? You decrease the levels of the stress chemicals.

The two general ways of accomplishing this are direct methods that calm the nervous system. Some of the techniques include mindfulness, meditation, martial arts, exercise, and short-term medications. The other category is dampening the chemical reaction by stimulating neuroplastic changes in your brain. Instead of automatically reacting to stress, you create some “space” between the stimulus and response and then redirect your attention to a more functional choice...

By creating the separate diagnostic categories of anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, we are taking the focus off of the root cause being relentless anxiety. One alternative would be to say that remaining in a hyper-vigilant, neurochemical state results in a constellation of symptoms, one of which is depression. The manifestations of this heightened state also include chronic mental and physical pain.

The most effective way to treat depression is to utilize one of the many effective methods to calm down the nervous system.

~ David Hanscom, MD

 

[Daniel E.]

The Characteristics of High Functioning Anxiety




Some possible reasons you might not have sought help for high functioning anxiety include:

• You consider it a double-edged sword and don't want to lose the positive influence of anxiety on your achievements.
  
  
• You are worried that your work will suffer if you are not constantly driven to work hard out of fear.
  
  
• You might think that because you seem to be achieving (strictly from an objective standpoint) it means you do not "need help" for your anxiety—or perhaps that you don't deserve help.
  
  
• You might think that everyone struggles the way that you do and may think of it as normal. On the other hand, you might believe that you are just "bad" at dealing with life stress.
  
  
• You've never told anyone about your internal struggles and your silence has reinforced the feeling that you can't ask for help.
  
  
• You might believe that no one would support you in asking for or seeking help because they have not seen you struggle.

 

[Daniel E.]

Being too harsh on yourself could lead to OCD and anxiety

A new study has found that people who reported intense feelings of responsibility were susceptible to developing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

www.sciencedaily.com

When asked for any tips to reduce anxiety or obsessive behaviors he said:

"[A] very quick or easy way is to realize that responsibility is working behind your worry. I ask [patients] "Why are you worried so much?" so they will answer "I can't help but worry" but they will not spontaneously think "Because I feel responsibility" ... just realizing it will make some space between responsibility thinking and your behavior."

 

[Daniel E.]

Living with Anxiety? 3 Ways Pets Can Completely Change Your Life | bpHope.com

Pets of all shapes and sizes can provide invaluable support to help you cope with anxiety, from helping you to feel more secure to getting enough exercise.

www.bphope.com

“Lacing up your sneakers and getting out and moving may be the single best nonmedical solution we have for preventing and treating anxiety,” says John J. Ratey, MD. It decreases muscle tension, builds up resources that boost resilience, and activates the part of the brain that reacts to both real and imagined threats.

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

"Your anxiety and uncertainty can ultimately be overcome, but only by confronting them and building up your tolerance to them."

~ Fred Penzel, PhD

 

[Daniel E.]

Selective Attention and Anxiety: A Perspective on Developmental Issues and the Causal Status - Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment

A plethora of studies on selective information processing in anxiety have been carried out over the past two decades. One of the most robust findings is that anxiety is associated with selective attention (SA) for threatening information. The rationale of research into SA is that it is assumed...

link.springer.com

"One of the most robust findings is that anxiety is associated with selective attention (SA) for threatening information."

 

[Daniel E.]

“Liminality is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation where people can begin to think and act in genuinely new ways. It is when we are betwixt and between, have left one room but not yet entered the next room, any hiatus between stages of life, jobs, loves, or relationships. It is that graced time when we are not certain or in control, when something genuinely new can happen.”

“… It is when you have left the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer. If you are not trained in how to hold anxiety, how to live with ambiguity, how to entrust and wait, you will run . . . anything to flee this terrible cloud of unknowing.”

~ Richard Rohr

 

[Daniel E.]

Wise Mind and Therapeutic Surrender

Here's a better alternative to "thinking positive."

www.psychologytoday.com

When Therapeutic Surrender is well learned and has become your automatic response, here is what happens: the anxious thoughts no longer matter. They can’t derail you. They come and go. They happen less often. They fade away. It is an indirect path to reducing distress, not a direct one.

 

[Daniel E.]

Releasing the Grip of Fear

Most of us are aware of how fear holds us back in our lives. With Releasing the Grip of Fear, renowned meditation teacher and psychologist Tara Brach offers an in-depth video training course to help you change the way you deal with fear—so you lower your defenses and can be open and caring in...

www.soundstrue.com

Stepping out of the “virtual reality” of our fearful stories and into the safety of the present moment.

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

Stress | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA

Everyone experiences stress and anxiety at one time or another. The difference between them is that stress is a response to a threat in a situation. Anxiety is a reaction to the stress.

adaa.org

Everyone experiences stress and anxiety at one time or another. The difference between them is that stress is a response to a threat in a situation. Anxiety is a reaction to the stress. Whether in good times or bad, most people say that stress interferes at least moderately with their lives.

 

[Daniel E.]

“Compare and despair.”

~ unknown

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

Selective Attention and Anxiety: A Perspective on Developmental Issues and the Causal Status - Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment

A plethora of studies on selective information processing in anxiety have been carried out over the past two decades. One of the most robust findings is that anxiety is associated with selective attention (SA) for threatening information. The rationale of research into SA is that it is assumed...

link.springer.com

"One of the most robust findings is that anxiety is associated with selective attention (SA) for threatening information."

How anxiety warps your perception

An anxious mindset can change the way you view the world in profound ways. But could a simple new treatment offer a way out of the perpetual fear?

www.bbc.com

Anxiety can be a debilitating condition, but new research is showing that we can reverse these biases directly using various types of attention training. Furthermore, this training is now offered through easy-to-use software and even smartphone apps.

The most popular type of training is known as Attention Bias Modification Training (ABMT), also known more generally as Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM). Although the type of specific task used varies, the general idea is roughly the same. In a typical training session, every few seconds a display featuring both positive and negative images appears on the screen — usually happy and angry faces — which is repeated hundreds of times. Since anxiety is associated with a tendency to focus on negative stimuli, the goal of the task is to locate or respond to the positive images with a button response or a tap on the screen. By doing this over and over, and ideally, over the course of days or weeks, the brain is trained to habitually focus attention away from threat and negative information towards positive information.

 

[Daniel E.]

Perfectionism: Are You Sure It Pays Off?

Perfectionism: Are You Sure It Pays Off? By Jeff Szymanski, Ph.D. OCD Chicago The “Real” Problem With Perfectionism If you ask someone with OCD about the payoffs for engaging in compulsive behavior (what desired outcomes do you get), he or she will typically respond by saying: “It is the only...

forum.psychlinks.ca

If anxiety is your decision maker (“I have to do well at everything or it is catastrophic”), then you waste enormous amounts of time on less important, valuable tasks.

 

[Daniel E.]

"We’re in a freefall into future. We don’t know where we’re going. Things are changing so fast, and always when you’re going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. And all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It’s a very interesting shift of perspective and that’s all it is… joyful participation in the sorrows and everything changes."

~ Joseph Campbell