Saturday, September 21, 2013

Apps That Help With Anxiety

Anxiety, there's an app for that.


Monday, July 22, 2013

Sleeping Better Without Panic and Anxiety

"Soothing sleep in seven steps"
By Ken Freedman D.C.
A re you getting the sleep you need? When a person’s ability to sleep is restricted, they are at increased risk of having significant adverse changes to their mood, physical and mental performance, and general wellbeing. The more chronic sleep restriction becomes, the more severe the consequences. Many common conditions, such as pain, anxiety, obesity, sleep apnea, diabetes, or thyroid dysfunction can change a person’s sleep requirement and impact daytime alertness. Traditional approaches vary. Some may involve treatment using medication, therapy, surgery, or in severe cases, a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine.
For those who would like some additional options, here are seven steps to get you snoozing:
 Lose excessive body fat. When you are sleeping, excessive body fat around your throat can restrict your airway. Excessive belly, chest and back fat can restrict your breathing. If you would like to lose about 20-35 pounds in about six weeks with no exercise, drugs, prepackaged foods, shakes or bars, and still be able to dine out, we can help you with the doctor-supervised ChiroThin Weight Loss Program. In addition to looking and feeling great, many ChiroThin clients report sleeping better — with no more snoring.This allows for their significant others to also get a better night’s rest.
Eat right. Avoid inflammatory foods or stimulants that may trigger a sensitivity reaction, such as dairy, sugar, wheat and caffeine. Have a cup of hot chamomile tea; eat turkey for dinner. Do you know which foods may be stressors to your system? Certified holistic nutritional therapist Anabela Bacchione can scan your body using computerized technology to identify them.The scan is comfortable, takes about 35 minutes, and involves no needles.
 Ease your anxiety. Slow, deep abdominal breathing may help reduce anxiety and help you decompress for bed. With your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth just behind your upper teeth, exhale completely. Close your mouth, and inhale through your nose for four counts. Hold your breath for seven counts.Then exhale while mentally counting to eight. Repeat this cycle three more times.A warm bath before bedtime can be very relaxing. If your anxiety persists and you want a drugless approach, you may benefit from Reiki. Reiki has been helping people ease anxiety and depression for thousands of years. Heidi Scanlon is a certified Reiki master/instructor. She has more than 13 years of experience caring for people with a variety of issues, including anxiety. Scanlon is currently the only practitioner in New Jersey who has incorporated specialized technology into her practice. This allows for better analysis and care of your body’s needs. She also complements her Reiki care with essential oils to assist in melting your stress away.
 Relieve your achy neck and back. Back pain is the No. 1 cause of lost time from work. It can also cause you to lose quality sleep. Stretch your back and neck to relax muscles and joints. If stretching doesn’t help ease your back or neck discomfort, call and schedule a chiropractic checkup. It can reveal if your pain is due to spinal misalignments that are causing nerve irritation. According to Consumers Reports, chiropractic care is the most clinically and cost effective method of reducing back pain, and is also the highest in patient satisfaction. In my office I offer a variety of chiropractic techniques, including those that involve absolutely no twisting, popping or cracking of the spinal joints.
 Pick the perfect pillow. Look for a pillow that molds around your head and neck while providing the support needed to keep your neck aligned with your spine — the optimal position for comfortable sleep. I offer a therapeutic water pillow for my patients; they love it.
 Select the right bed. Many of my patients ask me which mattress is best. I recommend a level of firmness that allows you to sleep on your side and permits your shoulder and hip to depress into the mattress to the point where your spine is level (parallel to the floor). A mattress that is too hard or soft will cause your spine to sag, or create pressure points. Just like Goldilocks, try out mattresses and pick the one that is “just right” for you.
 Make your bedroom environment conducive for sleep. Walls painted in soft pastels are more soothing than bold, vibrant colors. Dim your bedroom lights about an hour before bedtime, to help trigger your natural sleep rhythm. Move your alarm clock out of your line of sight, and turn off your computer and TV, so the glare or the time won’t be distractions. Use window coverings that effectively block out moonlight. Mute your phone. Set the room temperature to a comfortable level.
Following any of the seven steps will improve your ability to sleep better, recharge and rejuvenate. Just imagine the impact incorporating all of them into your lifestyle would have.You would enjoy more meaningful relationships from having a better mood, improved physical and mental performance at work and at play, and a stronger resistance to disease and disability — rest assured.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Parents, Kids Need Your Help With Anxiety


IS your child behaving badly at home or school?
Is he/she waking up through the night?
Have you noticed new unusual habits like nail biting or bed wetting?
Has he/she become withdrawn or melancholy for no apparent reason?
The above symptoms point to anxiety, more commonly known as stress or worry.
Children, like adults, may develop anxiety for many reasons.
It may be a change in their environment or it could be a learned trait copied from a nervous parent.
Either way a child cannot be productive when they live with fear, and fear is the basis of anxiety.
A child may not be able to understand, or explain what it is that they are feeling.
Adults can generally pin point the reason for their anxiety but often knowing the reason is not enough to rid them self of the unpleasant feeling.
When an adult cannot rationalise a difficult issue enough to overcome their worry, how then can a child?
The fear behind anxiety is extremely debilitating and is based on a central underlying self-belief that one is inadequate; perhaps a feeling of helplessness or hopelessness around the worrying issue because of an inability to solve the problem, or deal with it effectively.
This type of fear, when left untreated, can manifest into a deep-seated distress.
The more one thinks about a problem but cannot solve it, the more one stresses, and so on.
The situation can often be made worse by imagining that every aspect of one's life is so problematic that it cannot be fixed.
This is how life can appear to someone whose anxiety has become an illness.
As an adult we might know intrinsically that we feel better when we exercise, or talk to someone, or diarise the problem, or meditate or play a musical instrument.
If you are the parent of a child showing symptoms of anxiety it is imperative that you find a way to help your child.
If you cannot achieve this alone, and the child's uncharacteristic behaviour continues, you owe it to them to seek professional help.
The longer you leave it the tougher it will be for your child to cope.


source: http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/anxious-kids-need-help-from-adults/1803820/

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Do I Have Panic Attacks?


Panic attacks are felt by several people and it can be a scary experience to go through. You may be asking yourself the question, “Do I have panic attacks?” when you feel constantly anxious and afraid. This feeling can make you become confused as well as those people around you. Because they are confused, they do not know how to help you. In order to know if you are experiencing panic attacks, you will need to know what the signs are.

Do I Have Panic Attacks? – Feelings
One of the signs of a panic attack is feeling an impending doom about to come. You feel that something dreadful is about to happen to you. You will also feel terribly anxious for no reason at all. This is due to an adrenaline rush you experience accompanied by a great fear that you will die even if there is no reason to think so.

Do I Have Panic Attacks? – Symptoms
One of the symptoms of a panic attack is feeling that you will have a heart attack. You feel you are short of breath, you have pain in your arm, and you have a chest pain. These symptoms are due to the body chemical adrenaline as it makes your heart rate fast and you feel shaky and sweaty. You will also hyperventilate because you will start with shallow and then fast breathing.

Calcium will then tie up into your blood stream thus your muscles will cramp, and nerves will tingle in your face, hands and fingers.

Do I Have Panic Attacks? – Recognize Occurring Symptoms
You should learn how to recognize a panic attack arriving. These symptoms include numbing, shaking, fear, anxiety and muscle cramps. You will also experience blurred vision, disorientation, dizziness, shortness of breath and chest pain. The sad thing is there are no tests that would confirm you are undergoing such an attack. If you are suffering from this, you would be creating a dangerous situation for yourself. 

You do not believe that everything is all right because in your mind, you think you are ill. Doctors would perform every test there is to come up with a diagnosis and in the end, they will only say you are suffering from a panic attack. It is necessary to still evaluate such a condition not only to rule out other reasons for these attacks but also to come up with treatments for them. It is still best to have a medical checkup even if you are sure that you are merely experiencing such attacks.

Do I Have Panic Attacks? – How to Overcome Them
To overcome panic attacks, you need to know what triggers them. Such attacks can be caused by arguments, fights, stressful events and large crowds. Know when they occur, where they happen and what actually triggers them. In knowing such information, you will know what to avoid so as not to feel them.

Having panic attacks can make you have an unpeaceful life thus you become unproductive. It is important to know the answer to the question, “Do I have panic attacks?” so that you will find ways to avoid them forever.  

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Best Treatments for Panic Attack: Tried and Tested Ways



If you are one of those millions of people around the world who suffer from panic attack, worry no more as there are now best treatments for panic attacks that you can find. Panic attack may not be as serious as a heart attack though with very similar symptoms, but should still be treated immediately. 

Episodes of panic attacks should not be disregarded and ignored as it could impose serious health sufferings in the long run. If you are thinking what are the options you have on how to treat and cure your condition, here are some that are highly recommended and most often done to treat panic attacks
  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy – studies have proven this therapy as one of the best treatments for panic attacks. Patients who underwent such treatment have significantly showed progress and positive responses to such treatment. This treatment reflects how important it is to combine your behavior and thought process in managing and treating anxiety and episodes of panic attack. 

    The treatment is centered on the process of letting the patient understand how irrational, inadequate and destructive behavior as well as distracting thought process can contribute to the severity of the symptoms of panic attacks. Patients were then helped on how they can change such behavior and enable them to think more positive and helpful thoughts to decrease severity and episodes and symptoms of panic attacks

    Panic-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy – this is another best treatments for panic attacks as it helps patients recognize the underlying thoughts and ill-feelings that contribute to the panic attacks. This form of treatment is rooted in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. This greatly helps patients recognize and realize the unconscious conflicts and fantasies that they have and to help them identify defense mechanisms that stimulate the continuation and severity of the symptoms of panic attacks that they have. 

    Once the patient has realized these unconscious feelings, he will then be able to face these issues to help put a halt to the symptoms of panic attacks.

  • Medications – for further treatment and management of panic attacks, some doctors and experts have used medications as best treatments for panic attacks. Using some medications can help patients manage their symptoms even without the supervision of a doctor. Once you feel a panic attack occurring you can easily take some medications that will easily control and suppress any symptoms that you are experiencing. 

    Antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs are the usual ones that physicians prescribe to their patients. But caution to the patient is always advised as some people tend to overuse and abuse the products. Supervision of a loved one is always advised by the doctor just to ensure that the patient doesn’t abuse the product.

  • Breathing Exercises – used people who meditate and do yoga, as breathing exercises help calm and relax the body and soul. There are times when the body just fails to surrender to a state of relaxation that causes the panic attacks. Thus, breathing exercises greatly helps you to relax and be able to surrender to that stage and lessen risks of panic attacks. Indeed, one of the best treatments for panic attack – natural and effective.
These are just some of the best treatments for panic attack. But if you suffer from this illness, it is better that you consult with your doctor first for the best treatment for you case.