One of the ways in which the government attracts our attention is by having a series of steps to move from “no reason to panic” to “run for your life!” The classic example of this is the Homeland Security’s “Advisory System”. This moves from a Low Green, through a Guarded Blue, an Elevated Yellow, a High Orange to a Severe Red. For those of you who have lost interest, we are currently at yellow when we walk around the streets of our cities, but orange the moment we take to the air. The same thing recently happened with swine flu that was rapidly renamed the H1N1 flu to avoid the sale of pork dropping through the floor. The World Health Organization ratchets up the warning through eight phases, taking us from, “It’s mainly just the birds and animals dying”, to “Now humans are dying too” through “It’s a pandemic” to two phases where we gradually get back to business as usual. In case you were sleeping, we are currently still at the pandemic level of alert even though not many are dying. Actually, when you think about it, this sounds a bit hard-hearted but, in a regular flue season, thousands die. We have apparently been lucky the H1N1 outbreak proved mild.
Putting this another way, it was the intention of the DHS to worry us. If we are vigilant, we may identify unusual behavior in those around us and help prevent a terrorist attack. Equally, the WHO wanted us to take the threat of the flu seriously and protect ourselves by wearing a mask, washing our hands frequently, and so on. People only modify their behavior if you give them a reason to change. To that extent, some worry or anxiety about terrorism or the flu is entirely rational. But it can become irrational where, if the news headline is that ten people have just died of flu in Indonesia, you break out in a sweat, your heart races, your stomach churns and your bowels threaten to open. This is not in any way to suggest we should not be sad if people die in foreign countries. But to showing an overreaction suggests generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The latest research estimate is that about 5% of the US population suffers GAD. Except there will be a range of behavior from background worry to disordered anxiety, and where people fit into the range is likely to change from day to day and their diagnosis will depend on when a doctor sees them. more…
There’s an old saying that, “You can’t have too much of a good thing”. Well, that rather depends on the thing. For children, this is free-flow ice cream. Yet, no matter how enjoyable something is once in a while, the idea of eating it all the time is enough to produce vomiting – those of you with children will have experienced projectile vomiting after they have ignored your advice and eaten too much ice cream. The reality is your enjoyment of something is greater when you have the chance to anticipate a pleasurable experience. The other saying at work here is that, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”. You appreciate something more when you do not have it.
The numbers are just in for the number of prescription written by US doctors in 2009. This gives us the chance to worry about how many pills we are popping and whether we are popping them for the right reasons. And, guess what! We have more or less the same result as 2008. The inconvenient evidence continues to flow in. We are popping too many drugs to control anxiety and depression. If you look at the banner on this site – last year, doctors wrote 44 million prescriptions for it. When you add up all the pills represented by these prescriptions, that’s more than enough pills to give several to every person in the US (both legal and illegal). Now take a moment to absorb the implications of this number. Let’s ignore the fact this is 17 million more prescriptions than the next most popular anti-anxiety drug. If you were to add in all the other millions of prescriptions written for anti-anxiety drugs, every household in the US would have a bathroom cabinet full of pills. But the chilling thought is the number of people who now buy their drugs online without a prescription. Being realistic, online pharmacies sell drugs more cheaply than you can ever buy in your neighborhood pharmacy and everyone with an overstressed household budget now looks to save money wherever possible. Once you add the guess to the actual numbers, the flow of drugs into US households is remarkably high. more…
Most of us have felt that the world is about to collapse and everything will end in just a few minutes. This is quite common in situations of stress, worry and uncertainty. The feeling of fear, dread and problems with concentration is what characterizes common anxiety. There’s nothing particularly special about it and usually it can be controlled. However, there are people who live with constant anxiety that cannot be controlled. And to make things even worse, the causes for such anxiety do not lie in the logical realm, being a subjective experience that is rarely linked to actual threat or stress. This is what anxiety disorders are all about and to say that they are unpleasant is like saying nothing at all.
There are different types of anxiety disorders, each of them characterized by different symptoms, intensity of anxiety and circumstances in which it occurs. One of the most common types is panic disorder that manifests through panic attacks that occur for no apparent reason. During such an attack a person feels dread, fear and experiences fast heartbeat and problems with concentration. This anxiety disorder is quite often connected with agoraphobia (fear of large open spaces and social settings) and social phobia, if untreated. However, in most cases this disorder is treatable with medications and psychotherapy.
Other common type of anxiety disorder is OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). This disorder is characterized by obsessive thoughts and ideas that are organized with a ritual-like structure that is believed by the patient to control anxiety itself. This usually manifests in repetitive activities such as washing hands, closing doors and windows, sacking things in a particular order, etc, and if something impedes this activity there’s a feeling of dread in the patient.
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is also a quite widespread kind of anxiety disorder, usually linked to tragic events or catastrophes that the patient was witness to. The condition is characterized by emotional numbness, irritability and negligence to social activities and relationships. The problem with PTSD is that quite often it sets after a period of time, not immediately after the tragic events. People who were at war usually experience this disorder when trying to live a normal life again.
Social anxiety or social phobia is quite characteristic for large population areas and is described by fear and anxiety of social activities and large groups of people in one place. This makes it quite hard for urban dwellers to perform such everyday activities such as going to work or college, meeting friends and even going to the supermarket. more…
For those of you who understand and support the idea of evolution, worry has probably been one of the key survival characteristics. Imagine what life must have been like as a hunter gatherer, living on the plains, surrounded by large animals that would prefer you not to eat them for lunch. In such circumstances, the fight or flight instinct is to the fore. More importantly, the early humans probably worried about where the next meal was coming from and all the different ways in which they might die. The ability to remember what has happened and use that as a basis for predicting the future is a key feature of genuine intelligence. The ability to plan for survival gives humans the edge over their environment. The other side of the coin is that the laid-back guys who found it difficult to get out of their caves in the morning had little to eat come the evening. Hunger sharpens the mind and encourages survival.
Translating this to the present, we have some new research out of the atmospherically named Black Dog Institute, one of Australia’s leading centers dealing with the spectrum of mental disorders. One of the persistent dilemmas for doctors is how to relate to patients who have had a heart attack. Obviously, any event affecting the heart comes as a severe shock to the individual. It shakes physical self-confidence. Not unnaturally, some people get depressed. Many worry about the risk of a second attack. Although there is a natural sympathy with heart attack survivors, most doctors want to encourage people to work their way back to a positive outlook. While avoiding the, “snap out of it” school of practical psychology, people have been encouraged not to worry. This latest study followed some five hundred patients, all of whom had a serious heart attack. Those who were diagnosed with general anxiety disorder (GAD) were monitored but given no specific therapy or counseling. These patients have had a better survival record than those who were naturally less worried. more…
We sometimes experience nervousness. It is a common feeling. Being human gives us a whole spectrum of emotions to keep up with. These feelings and emotions either are good for us or bad. We can pretend to not notice those but they become a part of your life if we try to leave them behind as they are. This is not a way to be. Panic attacks and sever anxiety can be treated. They are not to be ignored simply because you don’t think people would notice you having them. So the clear step for anyone that is suffering from any sorts of moral instability is the visit to a good specialist.
There won’t be anything new. The doctor will examine you; tell you what the best treatment for yourself is. According to his words you will go and get yourself some prescribed medication. Anxiety pills always come in certain dosages. 25 mg, 5 mg dosages are average for a grown person per day – all depends on your prescription and that in its turn depends on the seriousness of your situation.
You may wonder what types of drugs are going to help you get rid of your severe pains and anxiety. The Medicare specialists like to work with drugs that are tested by time and have lots of happy patients by their side.
Xanax is the name of the medication that is going to do you good. It is helpful against anxiety attacks and panic disorders. But you have to be careful with this medication – it creates habits. In other words you can become very addicted to it if you don’t hold yourself within the given limits. It is very effective and you can see the significant result as fast as a few weeks.
But just like any other drug in the world, of course, also being a strong drug, it can give you side-effects and you do not always want to experience those, trust our word.
Dizziness and weakness are among side-effects. It can also create some respiratory problems, headaches, lack of concentration and even anorexia. You do not only become addicted to the drug physically but also emotionally. Sometimes people have difficulties with night sleep after the withdrawal of anxiety drugs. more…
