Practise it every day, say for two sessions of 15 minutes each.

ABOUT RELAXATION I do relaxation, I use a CD that the therapist gave me, it has a guided visualisation on it. He, or she, points a stern finger at Anxiety. 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. This may involve developing an unused talent or skill - boredom from unused potential can be a breeding ground for Anxiety. In this case the idea of camping on a site in Spain with plenty of activities suited everybody and from that point it was easy to Choose and Implement the best solution. By now you should have in place the following: relaxation every day exercise regularly, aiming for three times a week building to 20 minutes changes to diet where needed changes in caffeine consumption if needed changes to alcohol, nicotine and other drug consumption if needed a programme for better sleep if needed a programme to give more time for self if needed a programme for more challenges if needed. They said it was my fault. Typical thoughts are: Ill panic and make a fool of myself. Ill be the only one in the class to fail the exam. If I dont get this job I wont get another chance. Catastrophising As you would expect, this means seeing a catastrophe around every corner. You just have to get active. Perhaps when you are at work you are organised and efficient, while at home you are relaxed and caring. It was difficult to put my feelings into words and that sent my anxiety up. Focus on the word relax. The mints were the last to go as I used to get a very dry mouth (I had sugar-free mints so that I didnt get a sugar rush). My main coping skills are relaxation, and meditation, which stops the internal chatter. My coping skills are: controlling my breathing, regular exercise, music (I put on headphones and block out anxious thoughts), making myself socialize even when I feel I cant be bothered and asking for support from friends. My main coping skill was using my bike - you can always escape and come back quicker. After reading this section you should understand how to do exposure work to change your Anxiety driven behaviour in small, manageable steps. Instead you need to look for concrete, specific goals such as: I want to get back to work I want to have a relationship I want to travel abroad I want to go back to college. 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. It can make more sense to tell a few trusted people so that they can share the helping tasks. I am a critic, I laugh at myself. Look at a spider in a sealed jar. If you feel that youre only just coping with life as it is, youre bound to want things to stay the same, just in case you cant cope with anything new. It is much more realistic to expect setbacks and plan for them, rather than assume that your recovery is going to go without a hitch or two along the way.

If you find it hard to establish a rhythm with this new kind of breathing, try counting in your head.

doing something you have been avoiding (exposure); and Give or take. This O.C.D. has once again won. If you need to talk about one incident, then dont talk too much about the build-up to it. And you could say that behaviours such as constantly checking a room for spiders, or crossing the road to avoid a meeting, have an element of compulsion to them. As we go through this information, I want you to understand that this section is of importance to those trying to help another person who is experiencing, or dealing with, Anxiety on a daily basis. This is specially useful if panic makes your legs turn to jelly - if you are fit, you can be sure that they will carry you, however shaky they feel. The important thing is that you now understand what you need to do, and you have learnt not to be intimidated by the size of the task, because you know that small steps are best. Someone with OCD with rituals, whether physical or mental, is doing that pretty well all the time. This will probably seem quite tedious at first, but after a while it will become second nature to monitor your negative thoughts and put a stop to them as soon as they start. Examine your behaviour while you are busy with your thoughts (this is known as ruminating). Typical thoughts are: I cut down my checking yesterday morning, but I was as bad as ever in the afternoon. Lots of people recover from Anxiety, but Ill be the exception. Magnifying and minimising This kind of selective attention makes bad things big and good things small, so its really a combination of filtering and discounting the positive. Feel the tension in your fists. Really feel it. YES/NO Look at the questions you answered with a yes. Am I looking at the whole picture? Am I looking at the whole picture? For instance, to change all-or-nothing thinking, write down the two extremes and draw a line between them. What is the problem? Just let the attack happen naturally, and in most, if not all, cases, their bodies will help them come out of the 'hot' zone all on it's own.

Youre likely to get some good surprises when youre researching your negative core beliefs.

Changing your anxious thinking Its time to set up the next part of the recovery programme, which aims to change your anxious thinking. Something unforeseen might hap that I cant cope with. It is very successful in helping people with Anxiety and this book is based on its techniques, so you will learn more about it as you work through the book. So why let them do it, face up to the flack Its the same with this illness, it wants to control you. Even if its a tough journey, you can do it. You can expect the doctor to listen to what you have to say, and ask you a few questions. This needs to be done before embarking on Anxiety recovery, because, unfortunately, alcohol used like this covers up the anxious feelings, and you need to be able to experience them, in a controlled way, in order to deal with them. Take responsibility for your feelings. Where children are concerned, although they may be having problems which show many of the same features as adult Anxiety disorders, we do not recommend trying to adapt a self-help approach without getting advice. Relax your arms and let them fall back comfortably. And finally, dont feel guilty about asking for help. Do you break out in a sweat at the thought of coming in contact with a spider? Take the bus for five stops, sitting apart from helper. Except it was always going to stop whatever you did - fight-or-flight is a short term reaction remember. They must never belittle your difficulties. I phoned my partner and said I was feeling very strange but I didnt want to tell my mother I was ill. BRIDGET When my anxiety was very bad I didnt go outside my home at all, in fact I was confined to the bedroom, and to one side of the bed where I felt safe. developed acute bronchitis . Arrange things so that you wont be disturbed for the half hour or so that it takes. He or she will probably do a few simple checks to rule out a physical cause. The top layer is the thoughts that arise because of what is haping in the here and now.