Your palms begin to sweat. You can feel your heartpounding through your chest. A million negative thoughts race throughyour mind. All because you find yourself in a situation that seems outof your control. Most of us deal with this feeling of anxiety bysuffering in silence till the situation passes away. But a few dayslater we find ourselves grappling with another set of similarcircumstances. And the entire cycle repeats itself. Endlessly. Read onas Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty offers a permanent solution to anxietythrough the use of case studies.
What is anxiety? Anxietyis a defence mechanism that serves the purpose of alerting us todanger. It is an emotion that each of us experiences in differentintensities throughout our lives. In excess however it causes emotionaland physical disturbances. When in an anxious state our autonomicnervous system gets aroused and certain chemicals are released which inturn lead to an increased heart rate, breathlessness, dizziness,fainting spells etc. As the anxiety increases we may experience alarger number of symptoms. Exams and Interviews Asa young school-going boy, Manish experienced a pounding heart just ashe would reach the examination hall and later he experienced the sameproblem at job interviews. Paralysing thoughts such as, ' I will fail,I am no good' went through his mind and as a result his performancefell and he experienced a full-fledged panic attack withbreathlessness, wanting to run away and even fainting. Solution Manishneeded counselling coupled with medication to calm his severe anxiety.The triggers and the irrational beliefs were discussed and he was mademore aware of his capabilities. As a result, rational options wereelicited from him, such as 'I am good, I am talented and I will passthe test'. He also opted for Vippassana to calm his nerves. Meditativepractices and breathing exercises help calm the state of hyper arousal.All this together helped him overcome his fear. Accident and Injury MrJohar just froze when his auto overturned. He received a deep gash tohis forehead and as he touched it, he felt his palms wet with blood. Hetook a long time to find his way out of the overturned auto although itwas not a very difficult task. Within a short span of time he recoveredautomatically. Yet, such a situation of panic need not have arrived,had he been trained in handling emergencies. Solution Fight,flight and fright are the three most common responses during such asituation. Rehearsing a disaster response in life is extremelyimportant and can prevent extreme anxiety. Being prepared for adisaster involves internalising the immediate response throughinformation and visualisation exercises. Emergency drills must beperformed in schools and workplaces where we spent a large part of ourday. This helps in reducing fear and also the time taken to reach anemergency facility. Honeymoon Shibufroze when his wife held his hand on the nuptial night. He beganperspiring, breathing heavily and suffered palpitations. Shibu hadstudied in an all-boy's school and was shy by nature. He was also notallowed to interact with his fiance after the engagement as theirfamilies were conservative. Due to his inability to share physicalrelations with his wife, he felt guilty and was contemplatingseparation. Solution Shibuwent in to counselling where he expressed his fears and it was learnedthat the biggest blocks were the irrational beliefs of the couple andthe two families such as, 'The girl is too smart and not fit for ournaive Shibu'. The family also learned about Shibu's problem withintimacy and held yet another irrational belief such as, 'It is aphysical problem'. Such beliefs were discussed with the couple andclarified. During this period all physical intimacy was suspended andexercises aimed at knowing each other were advised. Slowly the act ofintimacy was introduced in baby steps across an eight week period andthe issue was resolved. Pregnancy Lekhaworried daily during her pregnancy about having a normal baby. She didnot sleep well and lost her appetite. She wanted a baby boy as that wasthe wish expressed by her family. She would feel breathless duringvisits to her gynaecologist. Solution Lekhawas advised counselling where she expressed her fears to the therapistand later to her husband in the presence of the therapist. Duringtherapy she revealed that when she was just a child, her aunt wasreprimanded in her presence for giving birth to three girl childrenconsecutively. The entire experience was forgotten and came to lightonly during counselling. Helping her visualize her positiveexperiences, providing peer support from her elder sisters who hadchildren calmed her completely. Her husband's strong reassurance wasthe icing on the cake. Riots Lifewas not the same for Mr. Rathod after he was ruffed up in a recentriot. He experienced severe pain in the chest and lived in constantfear. His fear reached such extreme levels that he refused to leavehome entirely. Solution Followingsuch an event fear and anxiety is common but if it persists for longerthan a month than it requires help and is referred to as 'Posttraumatic Stress disorder'. Rathod was prescribed anti-anxietymedications for a short span of time and he also went into counselling.He was exposed to similar anxiety inducing situations in an imaginarystate and taught deep breathing, calming techniques. His family wasalso counselled and educated about the symptoms and the treatmentprocess. Slowly but surely life returned to normal for Mr. Rathod. Group Moderator for [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Connect your World with Us join Now - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dimpill_gang/join Affiliated group from dimpill_gang for Only Adult Mails - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fantazies/join Affiliated group from dimpill_gang for Only Health and Food Mails - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Health_and_Gourmet/join Chat on a cool, new interface. No download required. Go to http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php
