Pam hurriedly finished up her work so she could take lunch early. She didn’t want to be late to her appointment. Seeing the doctor was too important. Seeing the doctor meant getting a refill on her pain mediation, which was absolutely essential. Before she left, she reminded her co-worker of the appointment and explained she’d be back as soon as she could.

Pam made sure to spread out her doctor’s appointments, choosing early morning, evening, and weekend appointments so no one got suspeicous of how many she had. Pam didn’t have one doctor; she had three. One of the doctors thought she was reducing her pain medication. Before long, she’d need to stop seeing him, allowing thim to think she didn’t need the medication anymore. Then she’d have to find someone new to replace him, but she was getting pretty good at that. The doctors she used were kept carefully segregated from one another so Pam could continue to get what she needed, in the quantities she needed, without having to explain or argue. She was, of course, willing to lie.

She rarely had to lie to this doctor anymore. Her visits were perfunctory, just so the doctor could show he’d seen her before givng her a refill. A box checked off, a requirement filled along with the prescription, and Pam was on her way. She’d come up with this system when she’d started to use her medication at a much faster rate than prescribed. Pam found that the time-release tablets she’d been given were much more effective if she crushed them up, disturbing the outer coating and allowing the drug to enter her system rapidly. It took effect more quickly, but that effect then wore off more quickly, requiring more drugs. Good thing there were more doctors willing to prescribe them.

There was a time when Pam had been a little in awe of doctors, adhering to their insutructiosn to the letter. But that was before the surgery and the pain that followed. Even after the pain was gone, the concern and worry remained. Pam was terrified of dealing with the aftermath of her health crisis unsupported by the medication she’d come to require. After all, it was her need, her body. Shouldn’t she be able to determine what she took and why? She needed the medicaton and was going to continue to make sure she got it, whatever it took. It wasn’t like she was doing anything wrong. These were her drugs, prescribed for her by licensed physicans. It was her name on the bottle.

Illicit drugs aren’t the only ones with the potential for abuse. In our society, with advanced medical technology and pharmaceutical breakthroughs, people have access to a dizzying array of prescription medications. When used properly, in conjunction with a reputable physician, these drugs  can be a true blessing. They should, however, be approached extremely carefully. It can be so easy to use daily instead of as needed. It can be so easy to look for another doctor to get another presciption. It can be so easy to neglect informing one doctor of what another has prescribed. This is the danger of using prescription drugs to self-medicate. When you become your own doctor, determining your own usage and your own combinations, you enter a highly dangerous arena.

Not every drug lends itself to self-medication. Certain categories have been shown to represent the greatest risk. These are pain relievers (such as Percoset, Demerol, Vicodin, or OxyContin), tranquilizers (such as benzodiazepines), stimulants (such as Ritalin) and sedatives (such as Seconal). If you want to know the latest drug that’s joined the abuse category, just ask a police officer what is found at the local high school.

While we’re still in the realm of prescription drugs, I’d also like you to consider the potential for self-medicating through over-the-counter medications. After all, these can be obtained in any grocery or drugstore. No need to answer to a physician. With self-checkout stations, there’s no longer any need to answer to a store clerk. Just scan your cough syrup or cold medicine or antihistamine and be on your way, with no one the wiser to what you’re really doing. Often, these products are used to self-medicate anxiety, especially at night. Taken in large enough doses they have the ability to produce an altered sleep state, a drugged sleep state, all perfectly legal. When anxiety attacks in the evening and robs you of sleep, sending you into hours of panic and fear, going beyond the recommended dose or purpose seems a small price to pay.

If you use prescription drugs to self-medicate your anxiety, explore your options for getting help today.

SOURCE: Chapter 4 in Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace

Reilly shut his eyes and desperately tried to tune out his mother’s rants. Why couldn’t she just shut up and leave him alone? He had enough to deal with without all her complaining. It seems complaining was all she did anymore – complain and nag – all in a strident, high-pitched voice that reverberated in the hallway outside his locked door. She wanted to know when he was coming out, when he was going to get serious about going back to school, when he was going to get a job and start contributing to the family. He had no answers to any of those questions. That was the problem; that was the reason he stayed locked in his room as much as he could, smoking pot and trying to forget his lack of answers.

It seemed like the weight of the world was unceremoniously dropped on his shoulders as soon as the high school graduation ceremony ended. He was required to live up to everyone’s expectations of what he should do and who he should be. But Reilly had no answers. He didn’t really know what he wanted to do – let alone what he should do – or even who he was. High school had given him the identity of student. That identity was no longer attractive. He had put up with twelve years of school, and thinking about going to a college environment gave him the sweats.

High school was free; college cost money. His parents would expect a return on that investment. His parents would expect him to help pay. That meant a job. That meant working for other people. That meant doing what other people told him to do. That meant other people telling his he wasn’t good enough. The thought of it sent his stomach into a tailspin. Wiping the sweat off his face, he took in a deep drag, willing the weed to block out this latest round of maternal venting, which appeared to be winding down. Reilly recognized the tone of futility replacing rage in his mother’s voice.

Go away, he said to himself. Why can’t you just leave me alone? With a sense of despair, he realized he wasn’t saying that only to his mother; he was saying it to himself. He was just so tired of living like this, afraid to move in any direction for fear it would turn out badly. Pot was the only thing that kept the shakes at bay. He couldn’t come up with any other way. Reilly’s locked door was turning into less an act of defiance and more a signal of surrender.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. It’s relatively easy to obtain, relatively cheap to purchase, and has a certain social cachet. Its reputation as harmful is hotly debated, usually by those who use it consistently.

The active chemical in marijuana is abbreviated THC. When smoked, THC travels from the lungs into the bloodstream and from there to all the body’s major organs. When THC hits the brain, it produces a high, affecting the pleasure centers. The other brain functions influenced by the THC are memory, thought processes, concentration, sensory perceptions, time sense, and bodily coordination. For something called relatively harmless, it has an extremely powerful effect.

It is possible to become physically dependent on THC just like alcohol. And just like alcohol, when you begin to wean yourself off pot, the withdrawal symptoms can include heightened anxiety, along with irritability, decreased appetite, sleep pattern disturbances, and depression. A little pot has a way of metastasizing into more, sometimes much  more.

Marijuana, of course, isn’t the only illicit drug available; new varieties find their way to market on a regular basis. There is, however, a common thread throughout the currently available crop of illicit drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, heroin, ecstasy, crack, and crank. The common thread is increased anxiety associated with using the drug.

These drugs do not decrease activity; they increase it. Using drugs can produce physical symptoms that mimic a panic attack, such as rapid heart rate, insomnia, increased blood pressure, and feelings of paranoia. This is a drug-induced panic attack that sends your body into overdrive. A body in drug-induced overdrive does not have the ability to slow down on its own.

If you use illicit drugs to self-medicate your anxiety, explore your options for getting help today.

SOURCE: Chapter 4 in Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace

You’re familiar with the voice of your fear. It’s been loud; it’s been constant; it’s been overwhelming. It’s time to start cultivating and listening to a softer voice; the voice of hope. The voice of fear appears to be the voice of power, but that is a sham. Over time, fear does not produce power; it only drains it. Hope is the true voice of power. Hope enables you to see beyond your perceptions to the horizon of a new dawn. Fear says everything will end; hope says life will go on.

I firmly believe in the power of optimism, hope, and joy. Optimism is the default setting that looks for the good. Hope is the firm belief that good does exist. And joy celebrates that existence. There is great good all around you, and it’s time you started looking for it.

Begin the process by listing 5 answers to the following:

• The good about me and who I am
• The good in my life right now
• The good in my life in the past
• The good in my life in the future
• Why I choose hope over fear
• Why I choose to live in the moment today

The world is quite effective at recording the negative sound track for your life. There is a seemingly endless supply of problems, troubles, fears, worries, concerns, and anxieties. If that is all you listen to, it will be difficult for you to switch to a good channel. I can think of no better source for material for your good channel than something called the Good Book. I’m speaking, of course, about the Bible.

In Luke 18:19, Jesus says that God is good, and I believe it. I have experienced it in my own life and in the lives of so many others, whether believers in God or not. God is good and wants good for you. He plans for good while knowing that your life will not always be smooth and that, sometimes, you’ll simply be overwhelmed.

When I am overwhelmed by life, I take heart in the story of Jeremiah.

The theme verse for the Center comes from Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Here is another passage that reminds me, even in the pits I find myself in, I am not alone: “The waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to be cut off. I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.’ You came near when I called you, and you said, ‘Do not fear.’ O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life” (Lam. 3:54-58).

When you feel like you’re in over y0ur head and you’re about to be cut off, God says, “Do not fear.” Concentrate on the good; listen to God. Allow his words to fill your soul and give you hope.

Dear Father, may your voice of hope be stronger than the voices of despair. Give me the strength to wait and listen for you to speak and not give the world the last word on my life. Teach me your words and your ways; make my thoughts your thoughts. Help me to have faith. Give me stamina to practice these things and your voice is all I hear.

SOURCE: Chapter 8 in Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace

Patty felt keyed up, tense. Today, the plastic bus seat seemed harder than usual, and Patty shifted uncomfortably every few minutes. She felt like she was coming out of her skin and couldn’t wait to get off the bus and get home. It wasn’t that someone waited just beyond the front door but something. With the kids out and one their own – and her ex just plain out – there hadn’t been much at home to look forward to. Over the past year, though, Patty had come to rely more and more on her evening buffer at the end of a long and frustrating day.

It had started out as just a glass of wine with dinner; after all, who was there to see or care? That single glass, however, had worked its way up to several refills. Patty stopped counting; she really didn’t want to know.

Cocooned in a merlot fog, Patty could feel the stress and worry that relentlessly stalked her during the day slip away. Nothing really mattered; nothing could get to her. The free-floating sense of impending disaster dissipated, merging with the fog. Fear, stress, and anxiety couldn’t break through; she made sure of that as she topped off her glass.

Of course, joy, peace, and satisfaction had no chance of scaling the alcohol wall either but Patty didn’t care, or at least she told herself she didn’t. Everything in life came with a payoff and a payment. The payoff was numbness and relief. The payment was peace. For now, it was an acceptable trade.

“Relax; have a drink.” We’ve all probably heard this more than once. We’ve heard it and seen the relaxation benefits of alcohol. Alcohol, it’s true, is a depressant that works on the brain to produce a sense of relaxation.

The line for relaxation with alcohol, though is a fine one. The more alcohol consumed, the less benign the effects. With the initial wave of relaxation can come disruption of sleep patterns, loss of physical coordination, loss of inhibition, slurred speech, nausea, thirst, fatigue, and dizziness. What starts out as  a way to relax leads to a risk of developing alcohol dependence. What starts out as something you want turns into something you need.

Alcohol dependence is defined by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, as, “a disease in which a person craves alcohol, is unable to limit his or her drinking, needs to drink greater amounts to get the same effect, and has withdrawal symptoms after stopping alcohol use. Alcohol dependence affects physical and mental health, and causes problems with family, friends, and work. Also called alcoholism.”

Anxiety can produce a need for relief. When alcohol is chosen as that relief agent, it can be effective in the short term. But the short-term nature of that relief means you must continually use alcohol to maintain the effect. The more alcohol you use, the greater tolerance you develop for its effects . The greater the tolerance, the more alcohol you have to use to achieve the same effect. This is the vicious cycle of alcohol dependence.

What started out as a way for you to self-medicate your anxiety can quickly come back to haunt you. Your head choice for anxiety relief can become a physical necessity for anxiety relief. In the terrible paradoxes of addiction, withdrawal from alcohol dependence produces increased levels of anxiety. You started out drinking to help with the anxiety, and you end up drinking more and more because of the anxiety produced if you don’t. You started out using alcohol to alleviate life’s anxieties, and you end up adding alcohol-induced anxieties if you stop. Not much of a bargain really.

If you use alcohol to self-medicate your anxiety, explore your options for getting help today.

SOURCE: Chapter 4 in Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace

It is amazingly easy and convenient to feed yourself all the wrong things. You can cheaply fill yourself with highly processed, fatty foods full of refined sugar. It is possible to go days, weeks, months, or longer without eating a green, leafy vegetable or an omega-rich piece of fish. You can sustain yourself with a steady diet of fast-food combos and convenience store options. The question, of course, is for how long and at what price.

At The Center for Counseling and Health Resources, we treat the whole person, which means the emotional, relational, physical, and spiritual components of each individual. Over the years, we’ve learned how important the physical component is to treating issues like anxiety.

Think about examining what you’re eating and drinking. For you to get a balanced picture of your habits, I want you to do this for an entire month. What I’ve found is that people tend to be “good” when tracking for the first week or so but then revert back to reality. You can’t change what you’re doing if you’re not dealing with reality. So go for 30 days. Guidelines for doing this include the following:

Use a separate piece of paper for each day. Keep it with you during the day so you don’t forget to write something down.

• Track what you eat every day, both weekdays and weekends. Many people have different rules for weekends, and I want you to have the full picture. You need to see the pattern of your eating across a broad span of time.

• Continue to eat the way you always do. You may be tempted to modify your eating habits because you’re keeping track, but that will defeat the purpose. You need to be aware of what you’re doing, not what you wish you were doing.

• Write down everything you eat and drink. That means everything that goes into your mouth. Everything counts, including water. You need to know how much you’re eating and drinking and what. Track amounts. Whenever possible, write down the caloric values for each.

For tracking your food, I’d like you to use the categories of the food pyramid: grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and beans, oils, and discretionary calories. For tracking your fluids, I’d like you to use four categories: water, caffeinated, alcohol, and other.

If you’re being especially brave, write down what you’re doing each day in the way of exercise or moving your body. If you’re able, purchase a small pedometer and wear it. This will allow you to see how much you’re really moving your body each day. A healthy body and a balanced system contribute to your overall health and ability to stabilize and maintain your moods. You feel better and sleep better.

Do you have a physician? If so, call now and make an appointment, setting the date to correspond with the end of your tracking so you can bring in the results. If you don’t have a primary care physician, consider finding one and going in for a physical. Bring along your tracking. If you persist in doing this without a physician, be honest about what you’re doing and the changes you know you need to make.

There is an absolute connection between mind and body. They affect each other, for good or for ill. Proverbs 15:3 says, “A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.” What you feel emotinoally affects how you feel physically. As you seek to live a more positive life, looking for the good, don’t neglect the health of your bones.

SOURCE: Chapter 13 in Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace

I’ve said it before in several ways, but I want to say it again plainly: you have grown comfortable in your fears and anxieties. In a perverse way, they have become the known, the predictable, your comfort zone of behavior and expectation. To use a phrase from the book of Job, your anxieties and fears are “miserable comforts” but comforts still. You are more comfortable giving them control over your life than you are giving your life over to God. You’ve allowed your anxieties to provide you with meager, miserable comforts instead of claiming the true comfort promised by your loving Father. Listen to him argue passionately in his own defense in Isaiah 51:

I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction?

For where is the wrath for the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread.

For I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar – the Lord Almighty is his name.

I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand -

I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, “You are my people.”

Do not take meager, miserable comfort any longer in your anxieties; choose to believe God when he says, “I, even I, am he who comforts you.” He is stronger, more powerful, and mightier than the fears and anxieties that oppress you, no matter what lies those fears and anxieties tell you.

There is, of course, another part of this: you must allow yourself to be comforted by God; you must accept his comfort. To do this, you need to reject the tie – the relationship – you have with your anxieties. They’ve become so much a part of you that to reject them can seem tantamount to rejecting who you are. Again, in a perverse and paradoxical way, you’ve developed a relationship, a friendship, with your anxieties that must be broken. This friendship is not grounded in the spiritual realm, in God-reality, as it says in the Message; it is grounded firmly in the perceptions and deceptions, in the lies, of this world. Tying yourself to your anxieties ties you to this world.

To go with God, you have to give up these ties to the world, this relationship you have with your anxieties. James 4:4-10 clearly shows you can’t have it both ways. The world and God are in direct competition with each other for your heart and mind. You already know what happens to your heart and mind when the world – when your anxieties and fears – are ascendant. Day by day, step by step, choice by choice, begin to shift your allegiance from the world of your anxieties, worries and fears to God.

SOURCE: Chapter 14 in Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace.

Big fears are a complex connection of smaller components. Fears generally have a time line – a when. They have a reason – a why. They have a pattern – a what. They have an outlet, a venue for expression – a how. The type of counseling I use is called cognitive-behavioral. It’s a method that addresses each of these components – the when, the why, the what, and the how.

By understanding when things started and why, you gain context. When you develop a strategy for changing your behavior, you change what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, allowing you to replace those old, negative patterns with new, healthier ones.

PROGRESSIVE EXPOSURE

The way to combat the progressive nature of fear is to combat it with another form of progression – a technique called progressive exposure or systematic desensitization. The escalation of fear makes it seem impossibly big; to tackle it, you’ve got to cut it down to size. Then, starting small, you progressively work your way up the ladder of your fear, becoming if not comfortable at least tolerant of each progressive rung.

Here are some steps I recommend for progressive exposure:

1) First, this has to be something you’re willing to do, but it doesn’t have to be done alone. Systematic desensitization works very well in conjunction with regular counseling. Your therapist acts as a coach and encourager, helping you prepare for, execute, and debrief after each step or rung of the process. If you’re not able to work with a professional, sometimes you can call on a trusted friend to partner with you.

2) Before you start, practice relaxation techniques and identify those that work best for you. Be comfortable with them in lower-stress situations, integrating them into your routine so they will be available to you when the stress stakes are higher.

3) If you experience several specific fears or concerns, start with the one you feel most able to tackle first, generally the one that causes you the fewest physical reactions. Then map out the course of your fear. Start at the bottom run and chronicle each aspect until you reach the top:

• thing or activity you fear
• where the fear starts
• what happens and what you’re feeling
• where it leads, as in what you’re worried will happen
• what actually happened

4) Keep a journal. There is so much to be gained by taking on the challenge, and, realistically, unless you take the time to write something down, you’re likely to forget it.

5) Give yourself the gift of time. It’s the progress that matters, not the pace.

6) No cheating. You will experience discomfort as you work through the process. In the past, you may have developed coping strategies that involve masking or numbing the discomfort. These are cheats and will negate your effort and work.

7) Don’t be a hero. You don’t need to do this alone. The more debilitating the anxiety, the more you may need to work with a trained professional or, at the very least, a trusted friend or relative.

SOURCE: Chapter 11 in Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace.

One of the main strategies to reduce your anxiety level is to de-clutter your life. The first step to doing so is to examine what you’re doing and start doing less.

How do you feel about that last sentence? Does it make you anxious just thinking about doing less? Are you worried that you’ll choose the wrong thing, that you’ll make a mistake and drop something urgent? Are you arguing with me, even now, countering that you’d love to give something up but you just can’t, that everything you’re doing is important?

If so, take a deep breath and calm down. Those are your anxieties talking. They’ve hijacked your brain and are in full defense mode. They’re not speaking from the truth; they’re speaking from their false perceptions.

DE-CLUTTER YOUR THOUGHTS

Before you are ready to get rid of the clutter in your life, you need to get rid of the clutter in your thoughts. This isn’t something that will come naturally to you; quite the opposite, you’re going to need to wrest control of your mind back from your anxieties. You’re going to need to value your peace of mind, your sense of self, and truth more than you value your anxieties.

You may think you don’t value your anxieties, that all you want to do is get rid of them, but consider something for a moment. We tend to hold on to the things we value.  If you didn’t really value your anxieties on some level, you wouldn’t have held on to them this long.

TRACK YOUR TIME

How you spend your time tells a great deal about what you value. Try keeping track.

First, think about your typical monthly activities. For a 30-day month, write down how many hours you spend sleeping, working, getting to work, taking care of household chores, fulfilling family obligations, etc.

Next, think about what you do with your “discretionary” time and just how much time that actually is. For example, during a 24-hour day, most people spend a third of the time sleeping, a third of the time working (for most days), leaving a third of the time. I’d like you to monitor what you do with that other third – that discretionary time.

Ask yourself some questions:

• How much time do I really have for myself?

• Which activities are ones that I have deemed important?

• Which activities are those other people have required me to do?

• For each of the activities listed, decide whether you like doing it. Is it an activity that brings you pleasure? Why? What do you value about the activity?

• For each activity listed, think about stopping it tomorrow. What is your immediate reaction? Can you see yourself in the future not doing this activity? Does the thought of stopping this activity make you anxious? If so, why?

• Are there any activities you would like to give up but don’t feel you can? Which ones? Why do you feel obligated or compelled to continue doing them? What do you think would happen if you stopped?

• As you looked over your list, were you surprised at how much or how little time you’re actually spending in a given area? If so, which ones and why?

It can be startling to see how you really spend your time. Think about what this says about your anxieties and your priorities.

SOURCE: Chapter 9 in Dr. Jantz’s Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace.

What if your thoughts aren’t correct? What if they aren’t really even the truth? Thoughts are not events. They are not objective; they are subjective.

OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE THOUGHT

In the world of anxiety, there is a vast difference between the objective and the subjective.

Objective means something most people would agree upon. The dictionary definition of objective is “in the realm of sensible experience independent of individual thought and perceptible by all observers: having reality independent of the mind.” Objective things have a reality independent of the mind because the mind can, sometimes, really mess things up.

Subjective is the opposite of objective. The word subjective means “characteristic of or belonging to reality as perceived rather than as independent mind.”

So there is a reality to what happens that is independent of what you think about it. For many people, this is a foreign concept. Truth, to them, consists of their impressions, thoughts, opinions, biases, feelings, and assumptions.  I think, therefore it is. Subjective thoughts are perfectly suited to feed the monster. The thoughts are yours; the monster is yours. The subjective thoughts you feed your monster are tailor-made to strengthen it.

This is not easy for some people to accept. Their subjective perceptions are so strong that they drown out objective reality. These people live within a world of delusion where what they think will happen will, even if all evidence points to the contrary. It is a world where the subjective crowds out the objective. It is a world of monsters and terrors and things that go bump in the night.

Now, granted, not everyone with anxiety goes to this extreme. There are some people who actually believe false things are true; we call them delusional and obsessive thinkers. There are other people who merely fear that false things are true; we call them anxious, worried, concerned, overwrought, and stressed.

When anxiety and panic set in, it’s helpful to stop and intentionally calculate the odds of what you fear. Fear lends certainty to even the most far-fetched possibility. How many people die every year of snake or spider bites? The number is astronomically small, yet people live daily with a fear of both. Of the many people who fly every year, how many actually die in plane crashes? Again, the number is extremely small, yet a fear of flying affects a large number of people.

In the midst of feeling anxious, it can be difficult to think objectively, but it is extremely important.

HOW TO BE OBJECTIVE ABOUT YOUR FEARS

If you’re fearful of flying or snakes or spiders, you can always look up the statistical odds of injury or death. Depending on what you fear, however, there may not be any statistics. I

If you’re worried about something like losing your job, you’re going to need to think back over the course of your own life to find the data. For example, how many jobs have you had and how many jobs have you lost? If you have lost jobs in the past, are conditions now the same as they were then?

If you’re worried about something like being humiliated in public, consider how many times you’ve been in a public situation versus how many times you’ve actually been humiliated.

Fear establishes a toehold in your mind, then infiltrates your thoughts, establishing a stronghold in your mind, leading to a stranglehold over your life.

ASKING FOR HELP

Depending on your level of anxiety, you may not be able to work through these calculations on your own. You may need to discuss these issues with a professional counselor, someone trained to walk you through the process and help you separate objective knowledge from your subjective perceptions. If that’s the case, don’t feel bad about it. All of us have issues we have difficulty seeing in our lives because we’re so close to them. It’s why talking things over with trusted family members or friends is invaluable.

The important thing, if you aren’t able to work through this on your own, is to ask for help.

Anxieties breed in secret. Hidden fears intensify. Place your fears outside yourself and you’ll be amazed at how quickly they are reduced to actual size.

Share some of your thoughts and/or experience on anxiety and receive a FREE copy of my new book, Overcoming Anxiety, Worry and Fear: Practical Ways to Find Peace (from which the information above is excerpted). Comment here, or via the Twitter and Facebook pages linked to below.

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