Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies - Australia / NZ

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part I: Understanding Anxiety 5 Chapter 1: Showing How Anxiety Affects Our Lives 7 Anxiety: Everybody’s Doing It 8 Calculating the Costs of Anxiety 9 What does anxiety cost you? 9 Adding up the cost to society 10 Recognising the Symptoms of Anxiety 11 Thinking anxiously 11 Behaving anxiously 12 Finding anxiety in your body 12 Seeking Help for Your Anxiety 13 Matching symptoms and therapies 14 Choosing where to start 16 Finding the right help 18 Chapter 2: Examining Anxiety: What’s Normal, What’s Not 19 Knowing When Anxiety Is a Help and When It’s a Hindrance 20 Presenting the Different Types of Anxiety 21 Generalised anxiety disorder: The common cold of anxiety 21 Social anxiety disorder: Avoiding people 23 Panic disorder: Way beyond everyday anxiety 24 Agoraphobia: Panic’s companion 27 Specific phobias: Spiders, snakes, airplanes and other scary things 28 Post-traumatic stress disorder: Feeling the effects of trauma and terror 30 Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Over and over and over again 32 Seeing How Anxiety Differs from Other Disorders 34 Chapter 3: Sorting Through the Brain and Biology 37 Examining the Anxious Brain 37 Seeing how the brain’s circuits are connected 38 Communicating chemicals 38 Preparing to Fight, Flee or Freeze 39 Mimicking Anxiety: Drugs, Diet and Diseases 42 Exploring anxiety-mimicking drugs 42 Ingesting anxiety from your diet 44 Investigating medical anxiety imposters 46 Chapter 4: Clearing the Roadblocks to Change 49 Looking for Where Your Anxiety Started 49 It’s in my genes! 51 It’s how I was raised! 51 It’s the world’s fault! 52 Finding Self-Acceptance 53 Having Second Thoughts about Change 55 Deciding to Get the Show on the Road 57 Arguing with your arguments 57 Taking things one step at a time 58 Watching Worries Come and Go 60 Following your fears 61 Writing about your worries 62 Reducing Your Sensitivity to Anxiety 64 Getting Help from Others 65 Seeking the right therapies 65 Seeking the right therapist 66 Part II: A Working Model for Your Anxiety 69 Chapter 5: Becoming a Thought Detective 71 Distinguishing Thoughts from Feelings 72 Blocking the blues 72 Getting in touch with your feelings 74 Getting in touch with your thoughts 76 Tracking How Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviour Interact 79 Tackling Your Thoughts: Thought Therapy 81 Weighing the evidence: Thought court 81 Rethinking risk 83 Deconstructing worrying scenarios 85 Cultivating Calm Thinking 90 Considering a ‘friend’s’ perspective 91 Creating calm 92 Stepping back from negative thinking 93 Chapter 6: Watching Out for Worry Words 95 Stacking Sticks into Bonfires of Anxiety 95 Encountering extremist words 96 Misrepresenting with all-or-none, black-or-white words 98 Running into judging words 99 Turning to victim words 100 Tracking Your Worry Words 101 Refuting and Replacing Your Worry Words 102 Exorcising your extremist words 103 Disputing all-or-none 103 Judging the judge 104 Vanquishing victim words 105 Chapter 7: Challenging Your Agitating Assumptions 107 Understanding Agitating Assumptions 108 Sizing Up Agitating Assumptions 109 Recognising schemas 109 Assessing your agitating assumptions 110 Coming Down with a Case of Anxious Schemas 112 Acquiring assumptions in childhood 112 Shattering your reasonable assumptions 113 Unravelling Those Nasty Assumptions: Running a Cost/Benefit Analysis 115 Analysing perfection 116 Rating approval-seeking 118 Reviewing vulnerability 119 Counting up control 120 Debating dependency 121 Unravelling your own agitating assumptions 122 Designing Calm, Balanced Assumptions 123 Tempering perfectionist tendencies 124 Balancing an approval addict 124 Balancing vulnerability 126 Relaxing control 126 Diminishing dependency 127 Above All: Be Kind to Yourself! 128 Chapter 8: Facing Fear One Step at a Time 129 Exposure: Going Head-to-Head With Your Fears 129 Getting ready by relaxing 130 Understanding your fears 133 Constructing a staircase of fear135 Imagining the worst 137 Facing your fears138 Tackling All Types of Fears 140 Waging war on worry: GAD 141 Fighting specific and social phobias 142 Pushing through panic and agoraphobia 144 Processing post-traumatic stress disorder 146 Reversing obsessive-compulsive disorder 148 Chapter 9: Considering Medications and Other Physical Treatment Options 153 Taking Advice About Medications 154 The downside of medications 155 The upside of medications155 Understanding Medication Options 156 Antidepressants 157 Benzodiazepines 161 Miscellaneous tranquillisers 163 Beta-blockers 164 Atypical antipsychotics 164 Mood stabilisers 166 A few intriguing medication options 166 Searching for Supplements 167 Viva vitamins! 169 Sifting through the slew of supplements 169 Stimulating the Brain 172 Deep brain stimulation 172 Transcranial magnetic stimulation 172 Part III: Seeing Anxiety as a Part of Life 173 Chapter 10: Looking at Lifestyle 175 Friends and Family — Can’t Live with ’em, Can’t Live without ’em 175 Staying connected with others 176 Delegating creates extra time 177 Just saying ‘no’ 178 Ready … Exorcise! 179 Don’t wait for willpower — just do it! 180 Working in your workout 181 The ABCs of Getting Good Sleep 182 Creating a sleep haven 183 Following a few relaxing routines 184 What to do when sleep just won’t come 186 Designing Calm Diets 187 Enjoying small, frequent portions 187 Following nutritional common sense 188 Chapter 11: Relaxation: The Five-Minute Solution 189 Breathing Anxiety Away 190 Discovering your natural breathing pattern 191 Breathing like a baby 192 Using panic breathing in high-stress situations 194 Relaxing Your Whole Body 194 Knowing what to expect 195 Discovering the progressive muscle technique 196 Applying Relaxation in Tense Situations 198 Relaxing through Your Senses 199 Sounds to soothe the savage beast 199 Only the nose knows for sure 200 Massaging away stress 201 Chapter 12: Calming the Mind 203 Letting Your Imagination Roam 204 Imagining touch 205 Recalling sounds 206 Remembering tastes 207 Conjuring up smells 207 Painting pictures in your mind 208 Full Sensory Imaging 210 Relaxing at the beach 210 A rainforest fantasy 211 Customising Your Own Images 212 Chapter 13: Mindful Acceptance 213 Accepting Anxiety? Hey, That’s a Switch! 214 Taking a calm, dispassionate view 214 Tolerating uncertainty 216 Being patient with yourself 217 Letting Go of Ego 218 Inflating and deflating the self-esteem balloon 219 Appreciating your imperfections 220 Connecting with the Here and Now 222 Making contact with the present 224 Putting worries about the future to rest 226 Mindfully meditating 226 Accepting Mindfulness into Your Life 229 Building on Your Values 229 Part IV: Zeroing In on Specific Worries 231 Chapter 14: Facing a Career Crisis and Financial Woes 233 Meeting Job Worries Head-On 234 Updating your resume 234 Finding flexibility in your career view 235 Considering careers with stability 237 Keeping the right focus 238 Taking Stock of Your Resources 239 Tallying up your financial balance sheet 239 Knowing your personal assets and liabilities 240 Committing to a New Game Plan 241 Setting short-term goals 241 Planning for the long haul 242 Chapter 15: Keeping Steady When the World Is Shaking 245 Assessing Your Risks 246 Looking at the likelihood of dying from a natural disaster 246 Thinking sensibly about your personal risks 248 Preparing a Plan for Risk Management 248 Imagining and Dealing with the Worst 251 Rethinking uncertainty and anxiety 252 Rethinking your ability to cope 252 Facing, not avoiding, your worries 254 Doing Your Part to Improve the World 256 Helping the environment 256 Volunteering in disasters 257 Chapter 16: Staying Healthy 259 Examining the Connection between Worry and Health 259 Recalculating the Costs and Benefits of Health Worry 261 Reviewing the Risks of the Modern World 263 Examining the evolving realities of diseases and treatments 263 Weighing local versus global health risks 265 Watching out for exaggerated claims 266 Taking an Inventory of Your Personal Health 267 Checking out your lifestyle 267 Accepting your genetic risks 268 Designing a Health Action Plan 268 Chapter 17: Knowing Your ‘High Risk’ Situations 271 Evaluating Your Actual, Personal Risks 271 Maximising Your Preparedness 272 Taking charge of personal safety 273 Avoiding unnecessary risks 273 Dealing with Trauma 274 Thinking through what happened 276 Exposing yourself to the incident 277 Learning to Tolerate Uncertainty 278 Choosing to put yourself in high-risk situations 278 Experiencing danger in everyday places 279 Part V: Helping Others with Anxiety 283 Chapter 18: When a Family Member or Friend Suffers from Anxiety 285 Discovering Whether Your Loved One Suffers from Anxiety 286 Talking Together about Anxiety 288 Communicating with empathy 289 Avoiding blame 290 When help turns into harm 290 Guiding the Way 292 Coaching the right way 293 Looking at a coach in action 296 Teaming Up against Anxiety 298 Accepting Anxiety with Love 299 Chapter 19: Recognising Anxiety in Children 301 Separating Normal from Abnormal 301 Inspecting the Most Common Childhood Anxiety Disorders 304 Leaving parents: Separation anxiety disorder 305 Worrying all the time: Generalised anxiety disorder 307 Focusing on phobias: Specific phobias 307 Connecting with others: Social anxiety disorder 307 Anxious repetition: Obsessive-compulsive disorder 308 Rare anxieties among children 309 Chapter 20: Helping Anxious Children and Adolescents 311 Nipping Anxiety in the Bud 311 Early mastery experiences 312 Fine-tuning emotions 313 Inoculating against anxiety 314 Taking precautions via parenting style 315 Helping Already Anxious Children 318 Helping yourself first 319 Modelling calmness 319 Leading children through anxiety 320 Relaxing to reduce anxiety 322 Reducing anxiety through activity 325 Practising strategies and skills 327 Getting Help from Others 329 Who to turn to for help 329 What to expect at the first session 330 What happens in therapy? 331 Part VI: The Part of Tens 333 Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Stop Anxiety Quickly 335 Breathing Out Your Anxiety 335 Talking with a Friend 336 Exercising Aerobically 336 Soothing the Body 336 Drinking Tea 337 Challenging Your Anxious Thinking 337 Listening to Music 338 Finding Distractions 338 Having Sex 338 Staying with the Moment 339 Chapter 22: Ten (Or So) Signs That You Need Professional Help 341 Having Suicidal Thoughts or Plans 342 Feeling Hopeless 342 Experiencing Anxiety and Depression Symptoms 342 Trying to No Avail 343 Struggling at Home 343 Having Major Problems at Work 343 Suffering from Severe Obsessions or Compulsions 344 Struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 344 Going through Sleepless Nights 344 Getting High 345 How to Get the Help You Need 345 Appendix: Resources for You 347 Index 353