Posted by Pandora on March 7, 2001, at 22:16:52
In reply to Anxiety and Coping Mechanisms, posted by karenR on March 6, 2001, at 9:46:04
Karen,
First of all, I completely agree with Greg about accepting the idea that medication may be a lifelong necessity to feel "normal". However, there are things you can do to help "reprogram" your body's reaction to anxiety. I suffered from acute panic disorder as a teenager and if you are anything like me, you probably have developed patterns of thought and behavior that may worsen your anxiety. Talk with your therapist about seeing someone who specializes in Cognitive-behavioral therapy and/or anxiety disorders. I know this sounds strange, but therapists make referrals all the time, and I doubt your therapist would have a problem with it. If you chose to, you can continue with your current therapist to work on the underlying depression, etc. Just be sure the two counselors communicate with each other about your treatment.There are activities you can do on your own, but I have found it is much easier to have a therapist "teach" you the methods and then help you practice several times until you feel comfortable doing them at home. One of the best things I found to help retrain the mind and body's reaction to anxiety is progressive relaxation. Done correctly and consistantly, you can really change the way your body reacts to stress.
Anyway, this is getting long so I'll stop. Hope this was at least somewhat helpful!
poster:Pandora
thread:55703
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010302/msgs/55890.html