Article by Gale Benz

Anxiety is defined as “a vague, unpleasant and sometimes debilitating emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some misfortune”. Although numerous people suffer from anxiety in certain circumstances, the causes for why they feel the way they do are usually difficult to identify. Most people understand when they feel anxious. What is hard to understand is why the anxiety stubbornly persistents in their regular life.

The cause of

Question by Karen B: Do you feel that a shrink does more harm than good for panic disorder?
Not all, but with my experience its very difficult to even find a good one. Be it a shrink or counselor. Many times I have been in the er sicker from side effects from all the pills. A bad experience for sure. I have had better results with chiropractic and acupuncture. Klonopin helps on bad days. Do you agree? I can get the same thing from my regular doc. To sum it all up, I don’t believe any of them have even had panic disorder or attacks in the first place and a lack of understanding. I have seen this many times, having this for over 20 years. They need to help us by asking US what helps. I am hopeful for safer treatments. And Please stop treating us like a mental case. Its a medical condition. No cure. And we may need benzos for life. Its not drug addiction its for our disorder.

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While some sufferers of social phobia manage to get by life without too much difficulty, some may struggle in controlling panic attacks and desperately need help. Apart from medication and therapy, there a various self help techniques that you can employ to reduce anxiety and stop a panic attack in its tracks. Meeting with the boss for a performance assessment, asking someone out on a date or introducing yourself to new people; we’ve all felt nervous social experience at some point in our lives. These experiences for social phobia sufferers are much more feared however.

Anxiety symptoms are likely to occur in such experiences and even trigger an episode. A person might show signs of anxiety including; jitteriness, perspiration, trembling and poor communication. Behaviors and habits that progress into social anxiety disorder are often developed from childhood experiences. Seemingly harmless to people who don’t suffer this disorder, for sufferers it can have huge negative effct on their lives.

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Acupuncture has been proven effective in treating a wide variety of ailments and recent studies have shown that post-traumatic stress disorder has now joined the long list of illnesses that acupuncture can actually treat.

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Can acupuncture actually relieve anxiety and/or its symptoms? I read somewhere that with a good and genuine acupuncturist..a person can feel relieved up to a year..comments?

I already know about St. John’s Wort, Kava Kava, Bach flowers and homeopathics. I am looking for something different, like acupuncture. My husband is seriously depressed and our philosophical beliefs don’t condone using prescription drugs. Has anyone had any success using Meridian stress tests, acupunture, raiki, massage, crystals, etc.? I want to know your personal experiences and what helped you.

I think i have social anxiety disorder. I am very shy and when I meet new people or am in a group, I am usually quiet. I want to talk and I want to be social but I just cant or dont know what to say. This has affected my career. I have actually been fired over this. Managers cant get to know me and think I dont care about my job when indeed I do very much. My social life is also affected. I want to be around people but I have a hard time keeping friends due to my “shyness.” I tried to get therapy. It took me a lot to build up the nerve to call a therapist and make an appt but the therapist told me she wasnt taking new patients. I was so embarassed. There has to be an easier way to get help. Its too hard for someone like me to call a therapist and tell them I want an appt and then explain why I want it. What can I do? Has anyone tried acupuncture for this? I want to be outgoing, have friends, a good job, and a happy life.

I suffer from debilitating anxiety attacks. I’ve had them all my life and the dabbling in “modern medicine” worked for a spell but plateaud, leaving me even worse and with withdrawal to boot. I’ve been to a handful of different professionals and they just guess, prescribe, guess, prescribe… very frustrating.

So the long and short of it is, I’m sick of taking medicines like effexor, paxil and zoloft… I just can’t stomach trying more. So I’ve turned my sites on natural therapy.

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Just as eating problems don’t stem from being a bad person, you don’t have an eating disorder because you eat too little or too much. An eating disorder is a sign that the spiritual and mental systems of your body are out of whack. You are hurting, and the disorder is manifesting itself through your pain. Healing yourself is not a question of will power. The healing process needs to repair the underlying problem, a hurt that won’t go away by itself, no matter how hard you try to “will” it away.

Eating disorders are often caused by serious traumatic experiences we have buried in our past. These could include sexual abuse, physical abuse, or a near death experience. The disorder cuts even deeper when consistently supported by cultural and environmental contributors such as growing up with families or friends who were overcritical about physical appearances. An eating disorder treatment center does more than help you change your diet or habits. It gets to the root of the problem-the underlying trauma as well as the unhealthy social images you’ve grown to contend with.

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General anxiety disorder is a condition where a person suffers chronic levels of anxiety over an extended period of at least 6 months. Millions of people around the world suffer from GAD with serious effects on their lives, so you aren’t alone if you’re a victim too. The good news is that your general anxiety disorder is treatable. Here, you’ll discover your treatment options.

First, though, you need to be aware of the following: you need to get a proper diagnosis from your doctor. If you’ve been suffering with the symptoms of anxiety for a short time, they could be the signs of some other condition. If you’ve been suffering alone for 6 months or more then it’s likely that you have general anxiety disorder. In either case you MUST seek professional advice.

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