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Browse published articles attributed to Dennis Simsek, with full-archive search.
It was years ago when I played in the final of an "under 12" tennis tou ament in Vancouver, BC. At the time I was expected to win these local tou aments quite easily because I was playing tennis at a much higher level than the kids in that age group. In the final, I was up against a boy I had beaten a handful of times before without much resistance, so everything was lined up for another junior tou ament victory.
At the end of your life, I want you to be able to look back and marvel at the way you handled your anxiety disorder. I don't want you to look back and think 'what if'? This path you are heading down may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but it is the path that you must take. Take it now, take your life back, and begin giving others permission to face their own fears through your actions. They will realize through your success that they have a choice that will lead them on the path to recovery from their anxiety disorder also.
The sleep disorder Insomnia either means you have trouble falling asleep or you have trouble staying asleep. It can have a negative effect on your concentration and memory, and as I've experienced in my past struggles as an insomniac, you can become quite accident prone no matter what you may be doing during the day! So what are some things that you can do to overcome Insomnia that have worked incredibly well for me? Here they are:
Making your own personal relaxation audio can be effective in helping you practice and master many of the relaxation techniques and methods you've learned so far. This particular script includes relaxed breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, imagery, and suggestion. Preparing Your Script One good way to make a tape is to have a friend with a relaxing voice record the script for you. The sound of your own voice can be a bit disconcerting - Is that what I really sound like? The following are tips for you or whoever ends up recording the instructions:
We met a few college seniors and they were headed to a house party nearby and we decided to tag along. We met many drunk party animals that night, and although we were all having a good time mingling with each other, in the back of my mind I was trying to answer a few very important questions: How would we be able to finish our trip with the amount of money we had? Where would I find a second or third tennis racquet in case I broke a tennis string in a match? Also, where the hell are we going to stay?
You are being conned!
In the world of professional tennis, everyone sees the glamorous lives of the top 50 players in the world on TV and live during tou aments. But they usually never get to see the thousands of other professional level players struggling at the bottom of the table like myself fighting for each and every ATP tennis point they can get, just so they can continue living the dream and maybe one day play on the ATP circuit.
Can you believe this is what I was told by my therapist in just the 3rd session together? I may have just got one of the 'bad batches' of therapist during the time I was dealing with anxiety (and I truly hope so for the sake of the 6.8 millio American adults), but deep dow I believed that the continuous heart palpitations, dizziness, and lump in the throat symptoms of anxiety would some day be gone and I could live a 'normal' life again. Digging Deep
You see it over and over again on online anxiety forums and groups, people looking for answers to conce s about health anxiety, fear of leaving the house (agoraphobia), and information about a certain anti-anxiety medication or anti-depressant. But there's a few problems here, mainly the one where these questions are being answered by people who are also suffering through these behavioral problems as well, and rarely from people who have been in the sufferers shoes and have overcome their generalized anxiety and panic disorder issues for example.
Stress kills. Maybe not directly but it is definitely one of the leading causes of ailments and diseases worldwide. There are many stress induced ailments that have great potentials of leading to early morbidity or, at the very least, make peoples live full of physical difficulties such as high blood pressure, depression, insomnia, anxiety and hostility among others.
Have you had a good laugh lately? Believe it or not, your good health depends on it. You need to laugh more often, considering how negative and stressful the world is today. Turn on the TV or read the newspaper on any given day and you will be inundated with stories of global strife, poverty, and violence. Seeing all of this on a regular basis will naturally cause more stress, which is damaging to the nervous system and other bodily systems. Add to that the strain of daily living, and you've got quite a problem that, left unchecked, can create a lot more anxiety and panic.
The dangers of negative and stressful imagery can leave you feeling awful. There is the opposite to that which comes in the form of positive imagery. As I've learned, visualization powers your ability to rediscover your inner resources and refuel your outer expressions when stress is on the rise. The most powerful way I found to do my visualization sessions was through help from others as guided visualization, just like the process I was about to do on the beach through my headphones.
What a crazy year for me, I started The Anxious Athlete with the hopes of helping people through their anxiety which is now looking like an epidemic of some sorts. I still remember the day I walked out of my home after spending 31 days locked up due to my Agoraphobia, that was some day... I guess you could call it becoming enlightened? Or plain and simply bewilderment. I recognized that day that anxiety isn't something we must try and STOP necessarily, it's something that we truly must in fact experience.
I had to have another practice session that day to get over what had happened so I worked my tail off and practiced for a good two hours, but no prize money in this event meant I needed to be even more stingy with my money. My other two friends also lost in the first round, so all in all it wasn't the best day of tennis for us. As it got closer to the evening we needed to make a decision about a place to stay. We had a few friends who lived in Southern Califo ia but they didn't have enough room to help out all three of us, so that wasn't an option anymore.
Breathing properly is one of the simplest ways to drain away tension and relieve your stress. By simply changing your breathing patterns, you can rapidly induce a greater state of relaxation. If you can control the way you breath, you have a powerful tool to reduce bodily tension.
"Courage is not the lack of fear, but the ability to face it." Thanks, John Putnam Jr. for that amazing quote. The only problem with it is that it is easy to talk the talk, but when it comes to overcoming fear it is a bit more complicated. I found this to be true during my years of having fear control the way I lived in many aspects of my life. However, no matter how complicated it may seem, there is hope in overcoming all our fears. There is a solution that will make your life much more manageable.
I have to admit i'm not a big fan of the continuous christmas carols, crowded shopping centers or the pressures to prepare holiday meals for people. Call me the grinch, but the holiday season for many can be a time of relentless stress and anxiety rather then a festive experience. But a few things have helped me and many others I work with stop the feelings of being overwhelmed that can lead to excess panic and anxiety, here they are:
It was a cold night in the year 2010 at the peak of my generalized anxiety disorder and panic attacks, there I was in my 'man cave' playing the victim and feeling sorry for the people that cared about me and what I was putting them through. To this day I vividly remember the way I walked up those stairs to the main living room every night alone and scared. I remember keeping the light on in the staircase, and flipping the switch with a long stick that I made once I made it to the top.
All of us date for different reasons. Sometimes theses reasons are unknown to our conscious mind. With application of thought and reflection, we can find out what we want from our dating partner and once we know what we want we can begin breaking down the walls of shyness. Reasons come first! Every one is dating - I want to date and have a partner because everyone else is doing it. Physical needs - I need a partner primary for my physical needs. I need a biological partner. Companion and friend- I want a friend who will be with me through pain and pleasures of my life.
During my 6 year struggle with generalized anxiety disorder I must have visited over 30 different doctors for my health anxiety and panic attack symptoms. I remember the day that things started turning around for me though, together with a number of factors such as getting to the point of 'no return' (deciding not to live another day the way I was), I remember hearing an interesting statistic, the statistic that stuck to me like glue was that less than 6% of doctors have any kind of training with nutrition! I thought to myself how could this be!
There are many reasons people begin to experience social anxiety, however nearly all of those reasons stem from the desire of the individual to avoid an emotional response that might arise from a social situation. Examples of these responses include nervousness, awkwardness, insecurity, fear, rejection, and a host of other uncomfortable feelings. If you experience this type of anxiety, you need to ask yourself: 'Would I have this problem if it weren't for these feelings'?
Now at the age of 33, I've been involved with tennis for a very long time. Through the years I realized that there are many more benefits to the tennis journey then there were downfalls. Being an athlete can truly make you a great person. In fact, some of the life lessons you learn in sports cannot be taught only experienced and fully understood at the time. The physical, emotional and mental benefits of being an athlete at any age are endless, but let's explore some of the most important ones that will benefit kids and adults, Physical Benefits:
I can’t tell you how tired I was of hearing the same lies over and over again from people that were supposed to be supporting me through my Generalized Anxiety, panic attacks, OCD and other mental health challenges. Often I face a new client who, because of the lies they’ve been fed through the many ways they tried to find an answer to their problem, becomes more confused and anxious because of what they are reading online or what people are telling them, and it stops now! Let’s not forget the lies you create yourself as well that stick like glue and lead you in a vicious fearful cycle.
This is how the debilitating condition known as Agoraphobia, commonly known as the fear of open spaces, develops. It starts with a person who is already struggling with generalized anxiety. The anxiety sufferer will ultimately develop an additional fear over the course of their disorder if it is left unchecked. They will begin to associate the places and situations they may have had a panic attack with the panic itself. If they had a panic attack at the grocery store, they will be likely to avoid grocery stores to keep the panic away.
What an unpleasant thing to live with, health anxiety. What's even more troubling is the fact that traditional treatments for health anxiety simply don't work very well. I remember going to doctor after doctor, emergency room after emergency room due to my symptoms of anxiety and the intense fear that a real physical problem was present. I was given a clean bill of health over and over again and was told that my problems were mental, but no 'professional' got to the root of the problem. The root of the problem of health anxiety is adrenaline.
What is an Epidemic? The rapid spread or increase in the occurrence of something. With almost 7 million people being affected by Generalized Anxiety Disorder in the U.S. alone, and 40 million people suffering from some type of mental health issue, we have ourselves a problem that is growing at lightning speed - an epidemic - that doesn't get the attention it truly deserves. As someone who suffered from anxiety, I was often told by multiple 'professionals' that anxiety is treatable, and that the vast majority of people with an anxiety disorder can be helped with professional care.
The manifestation of anxiety can cause many to experience debilitating symptoms of panic attacks which can lead to an avoidance of situations, places and even people. There are two types of people though, there are people that experience a panic attack and label it as an uncomfortable and unsettling experience that is no real threat to the individuals health, thus the fear of recurring symptoms of panic attacks isn't present (or go unnoticed).
Perfect Practice - How often in the sport of tennis for example do two people play against one another that have the same knowledge about their sport, have similar talent levels, and have a great team of coaches behind them, but one athlete comes out and completely takes over the match and completely outplays the other. This is a common occurrence not only in sports but in every aspect of life, and it comes down to one thing... how well you have prepared.
To create something out of nothing requires a few things: an idea, which I had; a decision to act on the idea, which I made; and a sound strategy which I struggled with at first but eventually was able to see it through. In its initial stages, the "End the Anxiety" program needed guidance - guidance in the form of inspiration from some of the people who have shaped the world as we know it.
During those early years of playing professional tennis, I was extremely lonely and became home-sick quickly, but there was always a voice in the back of my head that told me to keep going. I would later in life figure out that those extreme struggles, those close battles that I lost and those grueling days of not having the money to sleep in a normal bed would all contribute to the person I would soon become (post anxiety disorder).
There are some things that you just need to hold back from saying when it comes to communicating effectively with someone with an anxiety disorder. Although anxious people hear these kinds of comments and questions quite often, they don't get any easier to hear as time goes by. If you are part of a support network listen up, because here are the top 10 things you shouldn't say to someone who suffers from anxiety:
The night before my big tennis match I again did my guided visualisation session, but this time I added a progressive muscle relaxation session to it as well. My old junior tennis coach would always tell me the benefits of progressive muscle relaxation, so from time to time I used these techniques as well when I felt like my muscles were stiffening up, or I felt some tension in certain parts of my body.
Emotions are multi-faceted. They can connect you to the world in a positive way, but they can also disconnect you from the world around you when they are profoundly negative. People who suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Depression often become trapped in an endless cycle of worry, fear, helplessness, confusion, guilt, and sadness. These emotions influence your behavior and interactions with people on a daily basis. You don't realize how much your perceptions of the world are influenced by these negative feelings.
Funny thing happened today, I had a flashback to the days of suffering through an anxiety disorder and I made a very important distinction between how my thought process was then, compared to how my thought process is now. Back then I allowed people to show me how to think in my day to day life, friends who were quick to share an opinion and their emotional attachment to any give situation dictated the meaning I placed to everything, mostly negative.
I saw many therapists during the time I suffered from Generalized Anxiety Disorder and since then have also been around a large number of people who have also recovered. I can confidently say that I prefer the advice and guidance from the people with true success stories out there rather than a one hour sit down with a professional therapist. Here are the main reasons why:
Here's a fun fact: Having sex 3 times a week cuts your chances of experiencing a heart attack in half. Yes, that's right - in half! Now that I've got your attention on the benefits of sex let's look at 9 reasons you need to get your partner into the sack more often: Instant Stress Relief: Feeling annoyed because of something that happened during the day? Give those anxious thoughts a break as you release natural oxytocin into your brain which will balance your body out.
What would you think if I told you that your anxiety wasn't the true problem, but the true problem you have is the way you hold onto, and battle with your social anxiety disorder. When we put great effort into trying to 'push away' our issues related to fear, that is the very moment it becomes chronic. When it comes to social anxiety many people tend to turn to one or more of the 4 'solutions' that we may be told will help our suffering, these solutions are:
How tired are you of hearing the same worn out teaching methods for generalized anxiety and panic attacks? You can't really blame doctors and psychologists I guess, because most of them have never experienced a full blown panic attack or have been though general anxiety hour after hour, day after day. It really does wear a person down physically and emotionally. Let me show you two of the most common 'coping and hoping' techniques that you must replace, and what technique you must replace them with when the panic cycle starts.
Every one of us has a critical voice in our heads that says, "You can't do this." Do you know what I am talking about? Just so we're clear, that critical voice is NOT you. So, what is it then? This little voice is opposed to you succeeding at anything, and is in fact the enemy. It wants you to lose and will try to talk you out of doing what is right. The time has come for you to do something different - instead of listening to that inner voice, face up to it. Say to it, "Just watch me!" This critical inner voice may be your enemy, but it is an enemy that will not control you anymore.
Jill was a good friend of mine who had been dealing with panic attacks for a few years. Jill had 3 kids, a loving husband, and amazing friends that did everything they could to help her cope with her panic attacks. Sometimes these panic attacks would appear out of nowhere, and other times something would trigger them, either way she lived her life in fear from day to day not knowing when a panic attack would strike next.
Did you know that by being so constantly aware of the way your body is feeling at every moment, as well as avoiding the anxious triggers of the outside world, that you can actually completely lose feeling for things? My own mother would ask me, “do you even care about your family anymore?” In a complete daze due to the dizzy sensatio I was experiencing and just barely conscious of her words I replied, “Of course I do mom.” To be honest, I was too occupied in my own terror filled world to care about anything.
Let me ask you something, do you have a CLEAR vision of how your life will look when you fully recover from your anxiety disorder? If not, don’t expect things to change too much in the near future (painful but true). How will your relationships with your loved ones and co-workers look? How will you be using your personal leisure time differently? What will your health and energy levels look like? Do you know what one of the most important essential needs for a human being is? It’s called growth.