6 Ways to Overcome Panic

Panic is an emotion that everyone has felt at one time or another. Feeling panic is normal, but if panic is taking over your daily life, it’s time to take action to reduce it. Understanding what it is and what you can do about it can help immensely.

Panic serves a clear purpose in life. It gets your adrenaline pumping and allows you to act quickly to save yourself when you’re faced with danger. Humans are complex creatures, however, and your mind may create panic in situations where it wouldn’t help you.

Also, if these situations continue to arise, you may be dealing with a serious panic disorder, so please consult with your physician.

Here are some strategies that can help you overcome panic:

1. Breathe deeply. Deep breathing techniques can bring you a certain level of calm during any situation. When you start to feel panicked, you tense up and your breathing becomes quick or heavy.

• Take a moment to find your breath and take deep breaths in and out. The deep breathing will relax you and help you focus on taking in oxygen, instead of the stressful situation.

2. Watch your health. Your mental and physical health are all part of the same system. When you take care of yourself, many of your problems tend to right themselves. If you have a poor diet, lack exercise, or don’t sleep well, take action to correct these core problems. Doing this will often address your panic directly or indirectly.

3. Seek professional help. Discuss treatment options with your physician and naturopath. There are natural treatments available as well as several well-studied prescription medications that can help with your anxiety and panic concerns. Your doctor will know best if you’re a good candidate for these medications.

• Remember that you must always take a holistic approach that addresses the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of your health.

4. Address the problem. Try to locate the source of your panic. Are you only panicking in certain situations, or do you feel anxious at all times? If you can figure out the source of your panic, you can address the problem by facing your fear directly.

• Exercises to reduce your fears enable you to become more comfortable in situations that could set off a panic attack.

5. Deal with your stress. Panic is more likely to arise in a stressed mind. If you study certain relaxation methods, you can keep your stress level down and make it less likely for you to experience a panic attack.

• There are many relaxation methods for you to choose from that can keep you healthy and happy. Practicing yoga, daily meditation, prayer, and listening to soothing music are just a few ideas.

• One of the best stress relievers is to make time for yourself each and every day. This time gives you a chance to relax, rejuvenate, and continue your day with renewed positive energy.

6. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Alcohol and caffeine can increase the frequency of panic attacks. To be on the safe side, avoid or limit their use. While this tip may not cure your symptoms, it can be an important factor for getting you back into a healthy mental state.

Getting Help

Panic and anxiety fears are quite common and there is no shame in getting help. Recognize the triggers and early signs of panic and start fighting it. When you do, you’ll feel free once again!

Declutter Your Life

Clutter is the curse of the disorganized. You can recognize disorganized people (or perhaps yourself) by the sea of papers and reports that flood their desks and the piles of “stuff” stacked in their offices. If you are drowning in a sea of clutter, there’s a good chance you need help getting organized.

At the root of a cluttered life is failure to create a system for decision making and task completion. The organizationally challenged tend to defer decisions which interferes with task completion. Disposing of an object, whether a report, correspondence, mail or bill, requires making decisions about what action to take and how to dispose of the item — whether to store, not store or pass it along. Without systems for automating and handling these tasks, decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis. Sheer volume eventually overwhelms a person’s ability to keep up and clutter starts to pile up.

As clutter builds, it serves as a constant reminder of uncompleted tasks which increases anxiety which makes decision making more difficult which leads to more clutter which … You get the idea. Disorganization feeds on itself in a vicious circle!

Have you ever noticed that when events in your life become overwhelming, clutter seems to pile up, even in the lives of generally organized people? A cluttered office or home can be the sign of a cluttered mind. When your mind becomes overwhelmed by extraordinary or unexpected events or simply from trying to juggle too many activities or responsibilities, you feel overwhelmed. You may lose focus or have trouble concentrating. Your mind is filled with “clutter.” All the “to dos” and “what ifs” are interfering with your ability to deal with life and take action.

Efficient decision making and task completion require systems that allow us to follow pre-determined patterns when dealing with similar items. You can learn to organize the “things” in your life; but if your efforts at organization always seem to fail, it can be a sign of a disorganized mental state. You may need the help of an experienced psychiatrist to unravel the cause and develop useful systems for handling stressful problems.

If clutter is burying you, Dr. Marks’ podcast How to Get Organized can show you how to sweep away the clutter and get organized. And if you need more, Dr. Marks can help.

Regaining Control of Our Anger

Has anger run amuck in America? We have always been a nation of strong opinions and diverse views, but it seems that the added stress of the economy is causing us to crack (read our Sept. 25 post). The problem with the nation’s rising anger is bedded more in emotion than reality.

Economic and government experts tell us that we will survive, that times will get better; and history tells us this is true. But so many of us have been struggling without jobs, without enough to pay our mortgages or support our families for so long, that, internally, emotionally, many of us have lost hope. We simply don’t believe that things will get better for “me.” And we’re angry about that. When events affect us personally, we’re unable to take the wider view. Constant stress turns our psyche brittle causing minor problems and small slights to elicit angry outbursts out of proportion to reality.

Poorly controlled anger fueled by anxiety and stress seems to be at the root of the pervasive rudeness that is sweeping across America. When fear and anxiety about the economy and its impact on our own lives becomes too great to handle, it either explodes outward as physical or verbal anger or is internalized as anxiety and depression. Anger needs an outlet, but unhealthy expressions of anger do not solve problems, they simply create additional problems.

There are always solutions to our problems, but there are many times, like today, when many of us may feel so overwhelmed by our problems that we cannot see those solutions. It is at times like this when many people need professional help and support from a board certified psychiatrist to cope with and find solutions to their problems. Under the direction of an experienced psychotherapist, psychodynamic therapy can help us uncover and understand the true sources of our anger and anxieties, the first step in changing destructive behavior patterns. Psychodynamic therapy is often used in concert with cognitive-behavioral therapy which can help individuals identify non-productive ways of coping with stress and anger and replace them with positive behaviors.

Are Americans Raging Out of Control?

“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore,” rants mad anchorman Howard Beale in the 1970′s movie satire Network. Beale’s nightly television rants inflame a nation of angry, frustrated citizens who have reached maximum overload and are fed up — with everything. Sound familiar? According to an article in the September 28, 2009 issue of Time magazine, pollster Frank Luntz surveyed 6,400 Americans earlier this year asking whether they agreed with Beale’s sentiment. A resounding 72% — 3 out of 4 — said yes.

The rude, angry tone in America today is the new hot media topic. Fanned 24/7 by the flames of ranting TV and radio hosts like Glenn Beck  and Bill O’Reilly, Americans are spewing anger and distrust.

• U.S. Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina shocked his colleagues and the nation when he yelled, “You Lie!” during President Obama’s nationally televised speech to Congress.
• Tennis diva Serena Williams unleashed a profanity-laced threat at a line judge during a U.S. Open semifinals match.
• Rapper Kanye West grabbed the microphone away from a startled Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for best female video at the Video Music Awards to declare that the winner should have been Beyonce.

Rudeness is a daily occurrence in any social community. The examples of bad behavior cited above received so much press because these people are supposed to be among our nation’s role models. Those who monitor the nation’s psychological temperature are concerned about the pervading lack of respect being expressed today. A 2002 Public Agenda survey found that 79% of Americans consider lack of respect a “serious national problem.” 

Anger-fueled rudeness seems to be increasing along with a sense of personal entitlement. Fanned by the ravings of national pundits and the selfish examples set by national celebrities, frustrated by the slow economic recovery, angered by the excesses of Wall Street, worried about the growing national debt, and concerned about providing for themselves and their families, usually well-mannered people are starting to crack under the strain. Rabid behavior during Congressional town-hall meetings over health care reform is just one example of anger run amuck in America.

To be continued on Monday: Regaining Control of Our Anger

Anxiety Nearly Ends News Anchor’s Career

Looks can be deceiving. Tune in perky Robin Meade on Headline News’ Morning Express With Robin Meade and you see a dynamic woman who appears supremely confident in her skills and abilities and definitely comfortable with herself. When someone achieves the level of national exposure Meade has earned, viewers expect nothing less. However, as Meade chronicles in her new book Morning Sunshine! How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It Too, the road to achievement is often fraught with disconcerting bumps that have the potential to derail our lives.

The cable television star nearly lost her career just as her star was rising. Having worked her way up through Ohio’s television markets, Meade earned at shot at the big time at a major Chicago station. It was there that the little butterflies in her stomach before a newscast blossomed into full-fledged panic attacks.

“I knew it wasn’t stage fright,” she said in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch. “I grew up singing in church — basically, I grew up on stage.” Yet, like many of us, Meade was reluctant to admit she was having trouble. “I just wasn’t very honest with myself,” she said. “I called it ‘the breathing problem.’ I was too embarrassed to face it.”

At the root of Meade’s severe anxiety were her efforts to constantly change to meet the demands of news directors and producers at the Chicago station. “I started filling the prescription of what many people thought was the perfect anchor. And I started to lose the real me,” she confided. Self doubt destroyed Meade’s self-confidence and nearly ended her television career.

At the insistence of her husband, Meade finally saw a doctor about her anxiety attacks. “I don’t think I’d ever have gotten help without him,” she confessed. “The same fears that led to my anxiety attacks were the same fears that kept me from asking for help.”

With therapy and a lot of hard work, Meade was able to restore her self confidence and develop new ways of processing and reacting to the demands of  her job. Learning to be more assertive was crucial to managing her anxiety at work. (See Dr. Marks’ How to Be More Assertive podcast.) Meade hopes her book will help others conquer anxiety. She now greets viewers with renewed confidence when she smiles and says, “Good morning, sunshine.”

Fighting the Out-of-Work Blues

The starting bell in the employment race has always rung in the fall. September has traditionally been the best time to look for a new job. Children start a new school year, freeing parents from daytime childcare duties. Collegiates return to college campuses, leaving stores hunting for replacements. Corporations assess staffing needs as they ramp up new marketing programs. Whether looking for full- or part-time work, most job seekers found success during fall recruitment drives. But that was before the recession and double-digit unemployment.

Today, job searches are taking months instead of weeks. Layoffs have made competition fierce, forcing more and better qualified applicants into the job pool. As job searches lengthen and savings dwindle, anxiety and feelings of desperation set in. Some people frustrated with their inability to find a job that will support them or their family give up and sink into depression.

But the burden is felt not just by job seekers. When layoffs occur, those left on the job often suffer survivor guilt. Those still employed are forced to take on greater work loads, work longer hours and assume greater responsibility, further increasing stress and anxiety. For some, the stress becomes too great. According to the U.S. Labor Department, 251 people committed suicide on the job last year, an increase of 28% over the previous year and the highest number since reporting began.

Losing your job doesn’t have to be a career death knell or plunge you into a pit of despair. Traumatic experiences can be a catalyst for positive change. Psychiatric counseling that focuses on cognitive-behavioral therapy can help you find the silver lining in a layoff or difficult job search. Losing a job can be the impetus you need to abandon a career you don’t enjoy, start a business or go back to school. It can be an opportunity to explore new interests, discover what is most important to you and reinvent yourself in a new career. If you are struggling with a job layoff or searching for a new direction in your life, or if you are feeling depressed and anxious about your job, cognitive-behavioral therapy under the direction of an experienced psychiatrist like Dr. Tracey Marks can provide the support and skills you need to meet life’s challenges successfully.

What Parents Need to Know About Bullying

Bullies. Every classroom seems to have one. In another age, bullying was considered a rite of passage; but that was before the massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech. We now know that bullying can have long-lasting effects, both for bullies and their victims. Since April, at least three children have committed suicide as the result of bullying, according to news reports.

“Children who are bullied have higher rates of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and other mental health conditions. Children who are bullied are more likely to think about suicide, and some of these wounds may linger into adulthood,” warns the Mayo Clinic in a recent online report.

Almost half of all schoolchildren are bullied at some point, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Bullying can happen to any child, but young children and those with few friends are the most at risk. Bullying need not be physical (punching, hitting, kicking or destruction of property); teasing, name-calling, racial slurs, gossip, malicious rumors, and other verbal abuse can be even more damaging. Internet and cell phone access has moved bullying out of the school yard and onto the Internet. Called cyberbullying, electronic harassment makes it easy for children to malign, embarrass or threaten their peers anonymously.

As the school year starts, it’s important for parents to tune in to their children and watch for the warning signs of bullying:

• Bruises, scrapes or other injuries
• Ripped or missing clothing or personal possessions
• Few friends or statements such as “nobody likes me”
• Headaches, stomachaches or other physical complaints
• Trouble eating
• Trouble sleeping or nightmares
• Anxiety when preparing for school or talking about school
• Fear of going to school or playing hooky
• Trouble concentrating on schoolwork; declining or failing grades
• Fighting or behavioral problems
• Depression, listlessness
• Suicidal statements such as “you’d be better off without me”

With the advent of cyberbullying through emails, instant messaging, Facebook and blogs, bullying has become so prevalent that the American Academy of Pediatrics is urging pediatricians to include signs of bullying in patient assessments. Referral to a board-certified psychiatrist with an expertise in cognitive-behavioral therapy may be required to prevent the harmful effects of bullying or treat anxiety/depression caused by bullying.

Next time: What parents can do about bullying

The Stress Reaction

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