Eliminate Anxiety and Feel Safe Without Drugsby Dr. Doris Jeanette, licensed psychologist

Can you be still for 15 minutes, not talking, reading, or watching televsion, without jumping up to "DO" something? If not, anxiety is keeping you from relaxing and feeling peace and calm. Everyone has some degree of anxiety in his or her body.

The good news is we do not have to live with anxiety. Joe Wolpe, MD, father of behavior therapy, was my supervisor at Temple Medical School in 1975. He is the one who taught me this, as well as the difference between anxiety and fear.

Fear is a normal feeling that alerts us to real dangers, such as a fire raging in our home or a car rushing toward us. It propels us out of the house or back on the curb! We do not want to eliminate fear. It is essential for our survival.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is a learned response, which is maladaptive. It interferes with our highest functioning and delicious enjoyment of life. We do want to eliminate it because it ruins our life. And we can. Since anxiety is learned, we can unlearn it. It may require a little effort on our part, but we can definitely move beyond our conditioned responses to a higher level of functioning. I have had great success with motivated people in eliminating anxiety out of the body and nervous system.

We know we are anxious when we get caught up in our thoughts, forgetting we have a body. We are like the static on the radio, unclear and disharmonous. No one can reach us and we can't reach anyone. The communication lines are broken. Our radio station doesn't come in. This is when we could freak OUT and have an anxiety or panic attack.

Most people deny this nervous, static energy that is buzzing around their nervous system. They "bind" their anxiety by watching television, talking, eating, drinking, or constantly "DOING" something. For example, instead of meeting his anxiety face to face, a man would work late at the office. A woman would have sex with anything and anybody. These avoidance behaviors are what push people away in relationships.

Instead of using drugs, legal or illegal, to mask the problem, we can eliminate this static out of our nervous system once and for all. Then we can relax and feel more secure. When we deny our anxiety, our energy is drained and we are weakened. When we face our anxieties, we free up energy for creative living.

Without anxiety, we " connect." Our radio station comes in clearly because we are still, others can tune into us. Even if we are scared, hurt or upset we are in harmony because we are dealing with the truth inside of our body. As we accept ourselves where we are, the food tastes better, the love is greater and the sound is more beautiful. Others come closer.

There are many methods for releasing the tension out of our body. My favorite is being still while breathing and feeling my body and emotions. Verbal therapy is limited; you need something that directly affects your autonomic nervous system and body. Find what works for you, all techniques have value. But be sure to choose a practitioner to help you that is more relaxed than you are.


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