I recently wrote about my day in the public library and how I was able to find a few books of some interest. One of the books I discovered is called Healing Anxiety and Depression
I wouldn’t say that the list is comprehensive but my goal is to share with you every little bit of information that you might find useful, effective, and worth trying to help you ease your anxiety. I didn’t particularly agree with every single entry either, but even with some shortcomings it’s a handy list to have.
1. Get help early.
2. Become a master at diaphragmatic (belly) breathing.
3. Do not believe every thought or feeling you have. Thoughts and feelings are based on complex memories and chemical reactions; sometimes they lie to you. (This is my favorite entry).
4. Become a master ANTeater; watch out for the ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) that ruin your mood.
5. Exercise (sweat and get your heart rate up) four to five times a week.
6. Diet matters … for your type. Plan your meals.
7. Meditate to calm the emotional centers of your brain and to encourage a more relaxed, happy state.
8. If you want to avoid or lessen the amount of medication for anxiety and depression, use meditation, phyiscal exercise, proper nutrition, and the ANT-eating techniques outlined in this book.
9. Healing relationships enhances mood and calms anxiety. Continue to build positive relationships in your life-practice clear communication, cooperation, and forgiveness.
10. Find the best professional specialist you can. Take your time, get second or third opinions, and go outside your insurance plan if necessary. The initial investment in an excellent treatment plan saves far more money in the long run than cutting corners on health care by staying with HMOs and PPOs. *
11. If several medications are needed, first choose medication to deal with the most significant symptoms.
12. Start one medication at a time and make only one medication change at follow- up visits.
13. Do not be afraid to use combination medications (29 percent of the U.S. population have two separate problems, 17 percent have three). *
14. Patients with severe symptoms may need three or even four medications together (typically an anticonvulsant, stimulant, and antidepressant). *
15. When there are both temporal lobe and anterior cingulate gyrus (overfocus) problems, treat the temporal lobe issue first. (this makes more sense when you have read the book).
16. Less is not better. Strive for the best dose, not the least amount.
17. Medication by itself is not the best treatment for anxiety and or depression. Bio-psyco-social treatment is best with a combination of education, support, medicine or supplements, diet, exercise, and targeted psycotherapeutic techniques.
18. Keep a daily mood log to monitor progress.
19. Have your spouse or parents go to some doctor appointments with you if they are having trouble understanding your condition or your need to take medication. Also, having someone who knows you well go to an appointment with you can give your doctor background information that may be helpful.
20. Be an advocate for your own treatment. If you’re confused about your diagnosis of if you aren’t getting better, ask your doctor about further tests and SPECT (brain) scans to evaluate your brain function. This will help with diagnosis and treatment planning.
21. Understand brain system functions and problems so you know what treatments are likely to be most effective for your personally.
22. Consider alternative interventions for mild to moderate conditions but remember that conventional medications are usually required for moderate to severe problems. *
23. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary feeling or problem. Things often look better in the morning. Get help through a hotline, a counselor, or your physician.
24. Adopt a healthy lifestyle by starting small. Start by cutting back or eliminating caffeine and nicotine (they constrict blood flow to the brain). You might get a brief boost in the short run, but these are bad actors over time.
25. Anxiety and depression runs in families. If one person has it, it is often helpful to screen others for it.
26. Education helps to decrease the impact an anxious and depressed person has on family members. Anxiety and depression affects everyone in the family. Having family members attend appointments and join support groups and read literature are ways of education them about anxiety and depression.
27. Practice our techniques for getting a good night’s sleep. Sleep is essential. Use good sleep hygiene to get between six and nine hours of sleep a night.
28. Come prepared to doctor visits, with written questions and concerns. Talk about positive effects, side effects, and what other help you need.
29. Talk to your doctor about sexual side effects of medications. There are many things that can be done to try to counteract them.
30. Make no excuses to avoid treatment. There are safe protocols for children, pregnant and nursing women, medically fragile people, and the elderly.
31. Honesty is the best policy. Tell your doctor about every supplement, vitamin, herb, and other medications you take. Don’t minimize the amount of nicotine or caffeine that you use, and no matter what your concerns are, never, ever hold back information about illegal drug use. If you have concerns about what your doctor will do with the information or who might see it, by all means ask those questions, but don’t ever withhold information. Your life might depend on drug interactions.
32. When treatment doesn’t work, be persistent; with continued advances in medicine we are able to help more and more people.
When I stumbled upon this list I found many of the entries to be simple but insightful. You may not want to adopt the entire list for your own life but I think it would be a good idea to consider many of them.
This book was written by Daniel G. Amen, M.D., and Lisa C. Routh, M.D., both of whom are neuroscientist and psychiatrist. Much of their work is based on SPECT (brain) scans and their ability to reveal the functioning (or lack thereof) of certain parts of the brain that are believed to affect anxiety and depression.
I’ll have more to say about brain scans and other ideas by Dr. Amen and Dr. Routh in future post.
Note: The list of 32 strategies was quoted directly from Healing Anxiety and Depression
Anything written in italics was my own entry and or commentary.
Anything with a * next to it indicates that I strongly disagree with the entry. Many, if not all, of the entries that I placed a * next to were related to the use of drugs to treat anxiety and depression. Like I’ve said in the past drug therapy does help some people it’s just not my cup of tea so I don’t go around promoting it (or detracting from it).
Reference: Amen, David, and Lisa Routh. Healing Anxiety and Depression
What did you think of the list?
This comment was submitted by Rory an Anxiety Guru Subscriber.
Very good list – except the parts regarding medication. I tried a few of them over the years – creates a dependence and doesn’t really “do the job.”
My own list – that helps me survive my life long anxiety – not for everybody but works for me (I know you won’t approve of the alcohol part of it.)
1.) Strenuous exercise (min 40 minutes) 6 days per week – maybe 7.
2.) Prayer/religious activities. Little personal prayers and formal ones, too. Since I have about a gazillion thoughts (mostly negative) in the first hour after I get up – I feel if I can fill up my mind with something else (prayers) that they may very well HELP me and, at worst, are keeping the negative, racing thoughts away.
Going to evening Mass in my local Gothic cathedral type church is a wonderful way to end the day. Very few people go so I get to have a huge section all to myself. I love it when they don’t have the big lights on and the church is almost dark except for the flickering candles. I can actually begin to relax and speak directly to “the big guy upstairs.”
3.) Always have the radio or tv on (except when meditating…) it, also, helps keep my mind occupied – I “lock” on to what they are saying so I don’t have to think.
4.) I do have a beer or two or a cocktail or two at night -just to turn off the racing thoughts. I feel that if I “made it through the day” I deserve some down time to relax and feel like a normal person. It eases the discomfort going over daily bumps.
5.) Have a daily schedule with many familiar things/personal. I hate change. I like to do the same thing at the same time every day. I know I can’t always do it that way but I prefer it. That’s why I have a love/hate relationship with vacations. I love the planning and the going (except flying – that’s a no-no) and the arrival but after I’m THERE – I start to get stressed out about everything because everything is different! Then when I get back home I get terribly depressed as the vacation never lives up to my crazy anticipation.
6.) Have hobbies, follow sports, write, take classes, keep busy – clean the house! Watch and go to movies – I see about 10 a week.
7.) Meditate 40 minutes every day. I count my natural breaths and try to push away thoughts when they arise. I have a “Thoughstream” gadget that monitors my stress level with a little gauge. I, generally, start at the highest level and can work it down to one of the lower ones in that time.
8.) Get lots of good sleep. I like to go to bed early with all my stuff (xword puzzle, books, radio, computer games.) There is no better feeling than getting into a “warmed up” (by heating pad) pillow top bed and just doing “me” stuff for a few hours. At 11PM I will listen to a local radio program that plays religious chorale music for an hour then I turn out the light and listen to some of my favorite radio programs at midnight til I fall asleep.
9.) I went to a very good, wonderful hypnotist a few years ago and he made a relaxation tape just for me. I often wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep – that’s when I play my relaxation tape all night long. He has a great, soft, loving type voice and he puts me right to sleep and I STAY that way all night. Thank God for “Larry” – he’s one of my angels. My dear husband who is so supportive and helpful is another one. I, also, don’t have as many nightmares when I’m listening to “Larry.”
10.) Offer something scary/painful up for someone who might be suffering.
We Catholics believe that we can help a bad situation (for the living or the deceased) if we do something hard here on earth and “offer it up” for that intention. It doesn’t have to be for ONE thing – it can be for, say, “all the people who are suffering today and have no one to pray for them” so their suffering will go away or lessen. I can offer it up for my parents, who are deceased, that they are with God in heaven. Like yesterday I closed the dishwasher door on my knuckle and it hurt so bad I almost broke into tears. RIght away I decided to “offer up” my pain in order for God to help other people who are suffering. I don’t know – its hard to explain. It made me feel like a good person and, maybe, it did help people
Today I have to do the prep work for a colonoscopy I’m taking tomorrow and instead of worrying and fretting all day I’m going to offer up my misery for my usual “intentions” which involve praying that my parents are with God, as are my deceased family members and friends, people I have hurt in my lifetime and people who hurt me (that’s a HARD one!) and for all the animals and people who are suffering this day that God will relieve their suffering and give them peace of mind and courage.( I guess its like trying to put a positive “spin” on my misery!)
11.) When I have to do a “hard” thing like the colonoscopy or something “health-wise” I plan to do something fun afterwards then I just try to think about the “fun” thing and have my mind jump over the “yucky” thing.
12.) Acupuncture and Chinese herbs help, too.
Guru, I know this is way too religious for most folks but it helps me. I’m still anxious a LOT but I’m trying to help myself, and, as I said, this stuff works for me.
Thanks for reading.
Rory