10 Simple Tools for Coping with Anxiety

Does it ever seem like your feelings and fears control you instead of feeling like YOU are in control of your FEELINGS? If you have out of control feelings, are constantly worrying and have excessive fears that control your life, it could mean you are suffering from anxiety attacks and you could have an anxiety disorder.

If your anxiety is affecting your quality of life you should seek professional assistance from a qualified therapist or psychiatrist. However here are some things you can do yourself anytime to try to take control of your moods and help cope with anxiety.

Top 10 Simple Tools to Reduce Anxiety

“Everyone has moments, which create anxiety. This particular feeling can be detrimental to your work, life and relationships because it may stop you from living normally. Here are my top ten tips to deal effectively with this uncomfortable emotion.

1. If you are prone to anxiety you have two choices. Give in to it or learn to live with it. Giving into it also means that your partner will suffer the burden of your fears so, to make your lives a better place to be, find ways to eliminate or at least limit this feeling by taking responsibility for your emotions and knowing you have a choice.”

Michael Jackson’s Life Could Have Been Saved with Harm Reduction

In the weeks prior to his death, Michael Jackson’s family tried to do an intervention and get him into rehab. But Michael’s resistance might have been circumvented, if he had been offered a “Harm Reduction Approach” according to Dr. Marc F. Kern, a Beverly Hills addictions specialist.

When many people think of the term “intervention” they think of the type of intervention done on the A&E show “Intervention”. This type of intervention requires that the person stop using all drugs immediately and enter rehab. What if Michael Jackson had been approached with the idea that he could continue to use his medications privately, at a lower level and safely?

The following press release snippet has information about a radical new approach to addiction.

Michael Jackson’s Life Could Have Been Saved, According to Beverly Hills Psychologist

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 12, 2009 — Beverly Hills clinical psychologist and addiction expert Marc F. Kern, Ph.D. states, “A powerful, successful and extremely private man like Jackson would appear to most people that he was in denial, but rather might have been exercising his right as an adult to just say ‘NO’ to Total Abstinence.”

“Harm Reduction” is a new science-based paradigm in the field of addiction treatment, and is the approach of choice in many countries such as Canada, England and the Netherlands. Harm Reduction therapists consider substance abuse as a very complex behavior, not only a medical disease, and assist people to find safer ways of using drugs. Total abstinence is not the main emphasis but rather a secondary goal among several alternatives including moderation.

“This is not just a situation unique to celebrities like Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Kurt Cobain, or other high profile people. Most average individuals who use drugs or alcohol won’t accept ‘Abstinence as the Only Solution’ for themselves so there is a great deal of shame and secrecy around their habit. In our contemporary society, it is time to offer harm reduction to help the millions of affected adults and teenagers who would benefit from the harm reduction approach.” More…

Dietary Sugar and Mental Illness: A Surprising Link

I’ve always known sugar does terrible things to my mind as well as body. I feel a sickly high after eating too much sugar, lose energy and get a depressed sort of brain fog. I thought it was just me!

I have wondered about the long term affects on mood and suspected sugar consumption could have an affect on depression. Recently a noted psychiatric researcher Malcolm Peet, conducted an analysis of the relationship between diet and mental illness. His primary findings agree with my suspicion. He found a strong link between high sugar consumption and the risk of both depression and schizophrenia.

Dietary Sugar and Mental Illness: A Surprising Link

First, sugar actually suppresses activity of a key growth hormone in the brain called BDNF. This hormone promotes the health and maintenance of neurons in the brain, and it plays a vital role in memory function by triggering the growth of new connections between neurons. BDNF levels are critically low in both depression and schizophrenia, which explains why both syndromes often lead to shrinkage of key brain regions over time (yes, chronic depression actually leads to brain damage). There’s also evidence from animal models that low BDNF can trigger depression…

As I’ve become increasingly convinced by these research data, I’ve begun gently encouraging my depressed patients to simply try cutting out sugars for a couple of weeks to see if they notice any effect… A few have had the courage and determination to given it a go: they’re reported remarkable improvements in mood, energy, and mental clarity.

Stop the Madness - 7 Quick Sanity Tips

Recently Therese Borchard over at the PsychCentral blog asked readers for their sanity tricks - techniques that help them fight the forces of the dark side. I’ll share mine and then quote and link to the best ones readers submitted.

My Sanity Tip #7 - In with the good/out with the bad breathing. When severe anxiety hits, something that helps me is good/bad breathing. As I inhale deeply I say inside my rattled mind “In with the good: calm, peace, prosperity.” On the long, slow, cleansing exhale I say “Out with the bad: fear, worry, stress and sadness.” Change the words to fit your situation, be sure to do deep breathing and do as long as necessary until you find yourself calming down.

6 Quick Sanity Tricks

1. Learn the alphabet.

Do you know why the vowel “I” comes well before the vowel “U”? Because a person must take care of herself before trying to help someone else or the world. It’s the same logic that flight attendants use when they swear to you that your plane isn’t going to crash, but in the event that it does, you’d be smart to fasten your own oxygen mask before helping the kiddies. Do it in reverse, and you’ll all run out of air.

Read the rest of the 6 Tricks here.

Couch Potato Brain? Debunking 10 Brain Training Myths

Do you have a sleepy couch potato brain? Want to whip it into shape but don’t know how. How can anyone work on increasing their brain power when there are so many articles and studies that have conflicting advice about cognitive training and brain health? Which brain training approach, if any, is worth your time and money?

Here is a good article that refutes some of the common myths about brain training and there is also information in the article about a good book on the subject.

Debunking 10 Brain Training/ Cognitive Health Myths

Myth 1. Genes determine the fate of our brains.
Facts: Lifelong neuroplasticity allows our lifestyles and actions to play a meaningful role in how our brains physically evolve, especially given longer life expectancy.

Myth 2. Aging means automatic decline.
Facts: There is nothing inherently fixed in the precise trajectory of how brain functions evolve as we age.

Myth 3. Medication is the main hope for cognitive enhancement.
Facts: Non-invasive interventions can have comparable and more durable effects, side effect-free.

Read the rest here.

High Blood Sugar Linked to Poor Brain Health and Cognitive Function

Maintaining healthy blood sugar (glucose) levels may be important and not just for people with diabetes. New research links good glucose levels with good brain health as we get older. Lapses in memory, brain fog and senior moments sometimes increase in people as they age. The study below suggests that as blood sugar levels rise when we age, it could lead to more memory lapses, compared to people who maintain healthy blood glucose levels.

The study also suggests that “exercising to improve blood sugar levels could be a way for some people to stave off the normal cognitive decline that comes with age.”

Blood Sugar Linked to Good Brain Health

“By improving glucose metabolism, physical exercise also reduces blood glucose. It is therefore possible that the cognitive enhancing effects of physical exercise are mediated, at least in part, by the beneficial effect of lower glucose on the dentate gyrus.”

Lipitor, Lyrica, Celebrex and Viagra Free for the Unemployed

Drug giant Pfizer said people who are unemployed and have been taking its products could in some cases receive them free for up to a year in a new program called MAINTAIN. The patient assistance program will provide free access to more than 70 Pfizer drugs including Lipitor, Lyrica, Celebrex and Viagra.

It’s a smart marketing move that keeps people taking the branded versions instead of stopping or going generic.

To be eligible, a person must have lost their job sometime this year and started taking the branded Pfizer medication at least three months before losing their job. They must also be without prescription drug benefits and must be able to attest to financial hardship.

News coverage and more information:

Drug Makers Try to Ease Recession’s Pain
Recession Giveaway! Pfizer Offers Free Drugs to the Jobless
FT.com / UK - Pfizer offers free drugs to jobless

The Link between Belly Fat and Depression

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have shown that depression is somehow linked to the accumulation of visceral fat, the belly fat that is packed around your internal organs at the waistline.

The study concluded that “Increased visceral fat may be one pathway by which depression contributes to excess risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Further research is needed to examine whether depressive symptoms influence accumulation of VAT over time.”

Douglas Robb over at the HealtHabits blog has some great additional insights.

The Link between Belly Fat, Depression, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease

In a previous article, I wrote about the link between belly fat (visceral fat) and depression…

Today’s post is based on the findings of this study, which suggest that belly fat (visceral fat) “is an important pathway by which depression adds to the risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”

Hydroxycut Recall

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers to immediately stop using Hydroxycut products by Iovate Health Sciences Inc., of Oakville, Ontario and distributed by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, N.Y

Hydroxycut, one of the most popular diet pills on the market is being recalled due to reports of liver damage and other health problems. Hydroxycut accounts for about 90 percent of the market for weight loss supplements, with about 1 million bottles a year being sold.

The FDA announced today that the manufacturer of Hydroxycut just launched a nationwide recall of the dietary supplement. Hydroxycut is advertised as made from natural ingredients, but dietary supplements are not tightly regulated by the government like medications are, so manufacturers don’t need FDA approval before marketing their products.

FDA Warns Consumers to Stop Using Hydroxycut Products

“The FDA has received 23 reports of serious health problems ranging from jaundice and elevated liver enzymes, an indicator of potential liver injury, to liver damage requiring liver transplant. One death due to liver failure has been reported to the FDA. Other health problems reported include seizures; cardiovascular disorders; and rhabdomyolysis, a type of muscle damage that can lead to other serious health problems such as kidney failure.”

Hydroxycut Cleanse and Hoodia products are not affected by the recall. Consumers who have any of the products involved in the recall are advised to stop using them and to return them to the place of purchase.

Recession Anxiety Escalates

Due to the recession, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and other stress related conditions are on the rise. A New York Times story has some stats and several good personal stories about how the recession is affecting people’s mental health as worry about the economy grows.

Recession Anxiety Seeps Into Everyday Lives

“It is early to measure the recession’s consequences, but surveys suggest a growing impact. In an American Psychological Association poll in September, 80 percent reported the economy’s causing significant stress, up from 66 percent last April. The National Sleep Foundation said 27 percent of people surveyed last fall had sleeplessness because of economic anxiety.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline calls jumped to 50,158 in January 2009 from 39,465 a month in January 2008, and economic stress more frequently “played a central role,” said Richard McKeon, the group’s federal project officer.”

I agree with an anonymous commenter at the Psychology Today blog.

“My prescription for these anxieties… Turn off the news, and go play with your kids, pets, friends, etc. Articles like this add to the chaos. There was very little on how to manage stress in this article. I felt like this article was extremely sensational as is the case with the majority of articles and media reports. The fact that many cases sited were people who were not directly related, they still had a job, they were living in an area that was still doing well, they still had their savings, they had family to rely on, etc., yet they were incapacitated at times due to anxiety, proves my point. The best thing for our mental health right now, would be to turn off the sensationalizing media!!!”

Next Page »