Show 286 Using Time to Mange Anxiety Symptoms

Anxiety symptoms are pesky. We spend a lot of time trying to deal with them. 

In addition to our daily task duties and responsibilities. 

In this episode, I want to share a few tips that can restore a sense of stability and calm. 

I don't want to turn anyone into a time robot. 

There are some evil time technological oppressors that are rising in the workforce or the corporate marketplace. 

Those buggers are trying to find ways to micro manage folks working from home. This episode is about using time to help you get things done.

What I am talking about is finding the shift necessary to make you existence calmer or more relaxed.

These are concepts, not instructions. 

It is how to eat the elephant of work you have to do in smaller pieces of time. Work on a task for five minutes a day, five days a week is 25 minutes a week. This could be much better than trying to crunch it the last day that it is due.

It is about reframing time to match your needs.

Resources Mentioned: 

Bearable, an app that helps you to track not only your symptoms, but food, activity, and sleep patterns. You get a visible display on how you are doing.  Runs on Android and iOs

Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman. Sure, buy the book but you can get a lot of good info at her website.

Jim Donovan's Rhythmic Stress Relief: Stopwatch Tap Technique Bone easy to do and will help you to bring your anxiety down a notch or two.

From Very Well Mind, Find More Time in a Busy Schedule for Less Stress. The word "no" is very important.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Show 285 Anxiety Symptoms and Dreams

This is a pebble in the road about the definitions of dreams, bad dreams and nightmares. 

If you are an highly anxious person this is one of many possible symptoms of stress and anxiety that you might experienced. 

Vivid dreams and nightmares can be a sign of anxiety symptom. Or not. 

It could be just your brains way of taking out the neural trash floating around the joint. 

But you might have a different cultural or social way of understanding dreams. That is ok. It is important to recognize that your relationship with dreams and nightmares are your experience.

How you deal with them is also your experience. One that with the right information and context might give you the tools to control there appearance or doing the work on finding an effective treatment.

This episode only deals with what dreams and nightmares are, potential causes and triggers of the rascals and a resource or two to help you learn more about it.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

Brain Basics Understanding Sleep National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Dreams: What They Mean & Psychology Behind Them via Sleep Association.org

Nightmares: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

Sleep Diary and Journals

National Sleep Foundation Sleep Diary

National Health Service (UK) Sleep Diary 

MyHealth/Alberta, Canada Sleep Journal

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Show 284 Self-Directed Anxiety Workbooks

Not all anxiety, workbooks are created equal or even readable. 

Many of them are designed to be used with a therapist or our therapist directed. If you flip to a random page and can't figure out or understand what the heck they're talking about, that might not be the right workbook.

There are a number self-directed anxiety workbooks that are specifically designed so that you, as the consumer can work through your issue without a therapist.

You can gain similar information as if you were in a therapy session. But only if you actually use the workbook. Owning it and looking at it from time to time will not work.

Some of the workbooks are pretty bad. Some of them are okay. 

And some of them actually achieve the goal of being able to convey information in plain English and have a workable means of you trying to deal with your problems by yourself. 

So I have three anxiety workbooks to share with you. 

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

Your Anxiety Beast and You: A Compassionate Guide to Living in an Increasingly Anxious World 

Eric Goodman, Ph.D You also can find the workbook on many online book vendors. 

There is a preview version at Google Books.

The Anxiety Skills Workbook Simple CBT and Mindfulness Strategies for Overcoming Anxiety, Fear, and Worry by Stefan G. Hofmann. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tools and techniques. You can read a sample chapter of the workbook on Google Books.

Don't F-cking Panic by Kelsey Darragh, published by Thought Catalog Books. This is a workbook from one of the folks on the road, trying to helps the newbies and tried so many times what is the point folks. Plain English and sometimes profane English. If cussing bothers you, this isn't the book for you.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Show 283 Anxiety Information Brochures

This is a pebble in the road about some of the free resources that are out there for people that have an anxiety condition or disorder. 

While we're trying to obtain services and hopefully work our way through the process sometimes the people that we encountered don't have the kind of information that we need.

There are resources that we can take advantage of from the anxiety and mental health websites via brochures and tips sheets. You can download these docs on your phone or tablet for reading. 

Desktop folks you can read on screen as well.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

Anxiety and Depression Association of America resource page on anxiety disorders. Some of the documents have been translated into other languages.

National Institute of Mental Health Publications about Anxiety Disorders. There are documents in English and Spanish. 

Anxiety Canada also has a resource page of downloadable documents for parents, students and others needing assistance.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Show 282 - A Rock and Health Literacy

This episode is about a rock, actually a crystal, that caused me to think about the multiple times a day someone is trying to sell me something.

A thing they think I want.  Or need. 

And if I am vulnerable, like I might just want that scoop of designer ice cream as an adventure in tasting, I'll go along with the bit.

Men's shaving and grooming kits. Not so much. That happens if I'm watching a wood crafting  or male garden videos. Or non-political preppers. 

There are such people and what they are doing is important. But I don't need to see a bunch of fear based ads on the collapse of the world unless I fork up money for dehydrated food.

Anyway, there are people and companies salivating about the mental health marketplace. I get pitches all of the time from drug rehab companies, therapists from other countries, and public relations people who prove that seven out of ten times they are not reading or listening.

It seems researching is not a fundamental part of their profession. 

Maybe that is a bit harsh.

 

Let's put it this way. The competent ones know not to send me a pitch for an interview.

Dancing at the headbanging ball, I tell you.

Anyway, this episode is about being cautious about the claims of products, services and entities claiming to aid you in your quest to do something about your anxiety symptoms. 

Don't let the Instagram fool you. Just cuz you see it on Esty does not make it a safe purchase.

One major point I'd like to emphasis; count the number of condition the product claims to treat. Are they related? Most time it claims to fix everything from foot pain to face acne. 

And you know that isn't possible. You don't go to the foot doctor for a sunburn on you face.

At least, I hope you don't.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

Wired article about How to Navigate Online Mental Health Resources. It is rough but doable. But still a pain.

From the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission there is Scamwatch. Does a good job of explaining how a scam works.  One of the items mentioned is that the treatment is effective against a range of unrelated conditions.

From the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there is a page on 6 Tip-offs to Rip-offs: Don't Fall for Health Fraud Scams.

There is also a FDA there is a searchable database on known fraud products. You can type in a search for anxiety, depression or almost any health condition and a list of problem products will appear.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Show 281 Wee Bit of Grounding

There are a lot of grounding techniques but one of the most accessible is to breathe. Specifically deep breathing. Breathing is a non-verbal way to communicate that it is ok, chill out, you are safe.

I went to the eye doctor to get my eyes checked. Unlike the dentist, I'm much more calm about the examination. I want my eyes taken care of and make sure they get what they need.

I'm an active participant. I can gamify the target test. It doesn't mean I'm not anxious, but I don't have as many triggers to set off an alarm as I do in a dental environment.

Grounding has multiple meanings depending on the context but what I mean by it is a technique that you can use to lovingly call your brain activity back to normal. It is a way to center yourself back to an internal safe place. 

Note the use of the word "lovingly". 

Yelling at your internal self to cut the crap and be normal will not work. The part of you that is freaking out cannot hear or understand verbal commands.

In this episode, a very easy method to practice deep breathing for grounding.

Resources Mentioned: 

Healthy Mind Innovations has a free app for meditation and relaxation skills called Healthy Mind Program app. It is available in the Google Play Store and on the Apple iOS store.

The University of Rochester Medical Center has a video on the 5,4, 3,2, 1 Hand on Heart Anxiety Reduction Technique. 

Verywell Mind has a full post about PTSD  grounding techniques , and some of the methods you can use to help bring it down a notch or two.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Show 280 Quick Look at Skin-Picking Disorder

Some symptoms are hidden inside the body. And some symptoms are very visible. 

There are different reasons why people pick at their skin and not everyone that does. This has an anxiety condition. There are some skin conditions like acne that causes folks to pick at it. They shouldn't, but their skin condition is caused by an organic physical problem with.

And then there are those symptoms that cannot be ignored. It is a self-inflicted visualization of a problem.

This is a quick pebble in the road, just the facts and where you can find help and assistance. 

Resources Mentioned: 

The International OCD Foundation page on Skin-Picking aka Excoriation. This website has a lot of information about the various forms of OCD and OCD Spectrum disorders.

Pick Me Foundation has a skill management page to help folks learn skills and techniques on handing their symptoms.

Merck Manual has a patient accessible guide to the disorder that will give you a basic understanding of the disorder and how it can relate to anxiety and depression.

The TLC Foundation for Body Focus Repetitive Behaviors has a directory of therapists that have been trained on treating the disorder. They also have a resource page with help and support. You can download their booklet on BFRB on treatment guidelines.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.