Magnification Syndrome is the tendency to make little things, big things. This of course is not a real syndrome or condition, but it is what anxiety sufferers endure from time to time. It is not voluntary on the part of the anxiety ridden person either it's just that when you have anxiety everything seems bigger than it is. Someone says something nasty to you and you get emotionally wounded - this is magnification syndrome. The things that people say mean so much more when you have anxiety because you are more sensitive then most people. The
Looking For An Exit
When you walk into a movie theater, eatery, or any other public facility do you look for the exits? Do you sit near the exit or at least keep an eye on the exit? Until recently I used to do this all the time and I think it added to my anxiety while I was in public since the predominate thought during my time out was always "when the hell can I get out of here". There is no such thing as a "looking for an exit syndrome", but looking for exits is a direct result of your anxiety disorder. This is because people with anxiety
No Adrenaline Please
Going to the dentist is a much hated proposition for many people but if you have an anxiety disorder this can be an extraordinary ordeal of cosmic proportions. O.K. that was clearly an exaggeration however it can really be difficult to go and see a dentist if you have a "nervous problem". In my last post (Dental Debacle ) I wrote about my hellish visit to the dentist. It was all related to an "overdose" or more accurately a misplacement of local anesthetic that contained adrenaline without me knowing it. And although I did include a no
Fear and Anticipation
Much of our problem as anxiety sufferers lies not only in the "now" moments of anxiety attacks and symptoms but also in the "maybe" of these same things. To a large degree I think it's the maybe that causes most of our angst and worry since it stimulates and prolongs the very emotions and feelings we hate so much. In his 1872 work called The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals the naturalist Charles Darwin wrote that "if we expect to suffer, we are anxious; if we have no hope of relief, we despair".
Top Ten Signs That You Have An Anxiety Disorder
Have you ever wondered what exactly makes you officially anxiety ridden? I have thought about this question a lot and I wanted to a create a list of behaviors that say anxiety disorder loud and clear. Now this stuff is only funny when it's not happening, but it can be funny. You know you have an anxiety disorder when... 1. You enjoy checking your pulse AND have other people check your pulse too. 2. You can't sleep at night and watch colorful, cheesy and old television shows to help you fall asleep. 3. You question your sanity at
Color Yourself Calm
When I was a kid my mom and her sisters would have "coloring sessions". I never understood why adult women would gather around a table to color in coloring books, but it turns out that they were calming themselves. In family circles it was a well known fact that my mom and some of her sisters had anxiety issues, but what they didn't know was that coloring was actually serving them as an anxiety therapy. When we color it brings our brains into a semi-meditative state. So what you think of as child's play is in fact an inexpensive and effect
Automated Tranquility
It would be great if we could easily undo the accidental Jedi mind tricks that got our anxiety levels to this point. But the reality is that we will have to actively work on relaxing as part of our quest to manage our anxiety. To help us along I started a series of post related to alternative anxiety therapies. At first I wanted to talk about just a few over the past week. But I quickly realized that there were in fact many different types of therapies available to help an anxious person chill out and so I'll be introducing a few more this
Dance Your Anxiety Away
Therapy can be a frightening word because it brings up images of dimly lit waiting rooms filled with bad reading materials. But like the "smiling therapy" I recently reviewed there are in fact many fun ways to pursue therapeutics. One of the most fun forms of anxiety therapy I can think of is dance therapy. So despite your possible misgivings about looking goofy and or falling on your face you shouldn't be afraid to get on a dance floor. This is because there is real evidence to suggest that dancing can help improve your mood and serve as an
How Smiling Can Help Your Anxiety
Recently I posted an article about how to know when you need a therapists and I have decided to expand on this idea. In that article I spoke about how seeing a psychologist could help you if you felt overwhelmed by your anxiety. But are there other forms of therapy aside from talk therapy that can help you along? It turns out that there are quite a few of them and I wanted to share some of them with you as part of my "anxiety therapies series." Now the therapies I will be proposing are only called such because they are intended to help