Anxiety, a many headed monster !
Anxiety meditation - The Cure.

Definition of Anxiety

The usual Dictionary definition usually starts with something like this: -

1. A state of mental uneasiness or concern about some uncertain event.

or 2. An uneasy or distressing desire for something.

Some Synonyms, (or words with the same or similar meanings), include care; solicitude; foreboding; uneasiness; perplexity; disquietude; disquiet; trouble; apprehension; restlessness; distress.

Which initially sounds fairly benign, and not something that you should be overly concerned about.

But if you look further, you will find that a third definition is much more sinister sounding –

3. A state of restlessness and agitation, often accompanied by a distressing sense of oppression or tightness in the stomach.

In other words, there are obviously many different degrees of severity of Anxiety, some much more important than others.

Types of Anxiety

Examination Anxiety, that you all feel before sitting down to an examination.

Which may show up with physical symptoms of sweating, nervousness, fidgeting, increased pulse and dilated pupils.

Or Social Anxiety that you feel before a new “date” or before an important business meeting or something similar.

Or Separation Anxiety that you feel if you are taken from familiar surroundings or people, (very common with children – for example, having to leave their parents to go to school for the first time).

These fall into the first definition category -

A state of mental uneasiness or concern about some uncertain event.

I am sure that you have all experienced these three kinds from time to time, and will no doubt continue to do so.

They are a hassle, and something that probably you would like to be able to control better – but they are not totally incapacitating.

Sure – you may experience uncomfortable feelings which may show up as physical symptoms of sweating, nervousness, fidgeting, increased pulse and dilated pupils, and so on – but you work through that in a short time.

But some forms are severe. - Severe Forms of Anxiety

Or consider the thousands of U.S. ex-soldiers who are suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the stresses of combat – which is essentially another severe and incapacitating form.

And finally, consider Panic Attacks - which affect literally millions of people – they often “come out of nowhere” and make the person experiencing the attack truly believe that they are about to die – or become unconscious, or have a heart attack at the very least.

You can see then, that it can exist in a whole range of severity, –

- from the relatively mild form that you all experience from time to time on a fairly regular basis, that can be a hassle, but does not interfere with your life too much.

- to the severe and incapacitating forms that I have just mentioned, that can totally prevent you from leading a normal life.

In fact, researchers now think that a small amount of anxiety from time to time is entirely normal, and can even be beneficial.

What it can do for you is to prepare you to deal more effectively with the threat of an imminent stressful situation.

It can do this by changing your physical body into a “Fight or Flight” situation.

Which it does by stimulating the Sympathetic Nervous System so that you are in a more alert and efficient state – typically by increasing your heart rate and blood pressure, sending more blood to your muscles, dilating your pupils to see better and so on.

These are all entirely normal reactions to any kind of stress, but when these reactions are grossly increased and exaggerated, then the opposite happens – you become severely adversely affected and impaired by them, and become less able to deal with the anxiety or stress than you normally would.

To summarize then ; -

A small amount of Anxiety can be very helpful, but a large amount can be very harmful.

Anxiety Assessment

– and therefore to be able to assess whether you need to take any positive action to change how it affects you or not.

You can do this as follows, - look through the following three categories, and carefully decide which one fits your particular reality best: -

First Category – Mild Anxiety

This is the kind that affects all of you from time to time.

It may cause temporary uncomfortable feelings, but these are not of sufficient strength to affect your day-to-day living in any appreciable way.

This level of anxiety tends to occur infrequently, and usually passes rapidly and resolves itself.

It is accompanied by few or minimal physical effects.

Second Category – Moderate Anxiety

A more intense form, that occurs more frequently.

Usually associated with physical symptoms such as a racing pulse, sweating, restlessness, shortness of breath and so on, (once again the “Fight or Flight Reaction”).

May begin to have effects on your normal day-to-day living, and therefore can be moderately stressful as a result of this.

Third Category – Severe Anxiety

The severe form also includes such disorders as Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Phobias, Stage Fright if incapacitating, and Anxiety Disorder.

Essentially severe anxiety is present when it markedly interferes with your normal day-to-day living, -

.... in effect, where the anxiety controls you rather than the other way around.

It is always associated with strong physical and mental symptoms, which often include fears of dying or of becoming unconscious, or feeling that a heart attack is happening.

It is usually a chronic condition, which tends to become worse during times of stress.

Studies have shown that up to 20 percent of Americans may be affected by some form of anxiety disorder, and would therefore score in the third category (at the high or severe level).

It affects women twice as commonly as men.

This would probably include all those of you who may have been diagnosed as having, or strongly suspect that they have, any of the following: -

…. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,

…. Agoraphobia, or any other kind of Phobia,

…. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,

…. Panic Attacks, or

…. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

So how can it be helped ? - anxiety meditation!

These are: -

1. Certain particular medications – generally classified as “Anxiolytics” – used in only a few cases, and should be for short periods of time only.

2. Counseling, when accompanied by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,

3. Meditation for anxiety – especially of one specific kind.

Let’s look at these in greater detail -

1. Anxiety Medications that may be used, especially for those of you who are severely affected, usually fall into two main groups –

- either a sub-group of sedatives called Anxiolytics - for example Xanax (Alprazolam), Klonopin (Clonazepam) or Ativan (Lorazepam), and less effectively, Valium (Diazepam).

- or some sort of Anti-depressant, especially those of the SSRI group, such as Buspar.

The main problem with the sedative medications is that they tend to be very addictive if taken continuously for longer than about 2 weeks, and also become less effective over time, thus requiring steadily increasing dosages to get the same effect.

Also they can be very dangerous when taken with alcohol.

The Anti-depressant medications can be useful, but it has been clearly shown that both they, and the sedative medications, can interfere with the best method of treating these disorders – which is the next therapy –

2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - this is a powerful modern form of psychotherapy, that has been found to be very effective for all forms of anxiety, and also for depression.

It is based on the idea that people who are suffering from these disorders continue having their problems because of negative emotions that are triggered by inaccurate assessments of events going on around them.

To make it clearer to you what is meant by that, I have taken an excerpt from Wikipedia, as follows: -

An example from cognitive therapy may illustrate the process:

Having made a mistake at work, a person believes, "I'm useless and can't do anything right at work."

Believing this, in turn, tends to worsen his mood.

The problem may be more worsened if the individual reacts by avoiding activities and then behaviorally confirming his negative belief to himself.

As a result, a successful experience becomes more unlikely, which reinforces the original thought of being "useless."

In therapy, the latter example could be identified as a self-fulfilling prophecy or "problem cycle," and the efforts of the therapist and client would be directed at working together to change this.

This is done by addressing the way the client thinks and behaves in response to similar situations and by developing more flexible ways to think and respond, including reducing the avoidance of activities.

If, as a result, the client escapes the negative thought patterns and destructive behaviors, the feelings of depression may, over time, be relieved. The client may then become more active, succeed more often, and further reduce his negative feelings.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the most effective treatment system for all forms of anxiety, and is very much the treatment of choice for those of you who have severe forms, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or if you suffer from Panic Attacks.

In the past few years great strides have been made with a computerized version of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – that minimizes the need for a counselor, and besides being much cheaper than a psychotherapist, also gives a greater sense of privacy.

It has been so successful that it has been approved by the British Health Service, and is now available to British patients through the National Health Service

All that is required is a referral recommendation from your General Practitioner.

I have been unable to find a good source for this to be available in other countries, but the British organization that is the origin of this in the National Health Service program is called NICE, which stands for the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, here is a link to them: - www.nice.org.uk and they may have ideas of where it is, or soon will be, available in other countries.

3. Anxiety Meditation - certainly anxiety meditation the cheapest of the three treatment modalities available to you.

A certain specific kind of meditation is very useful, when done regularly. (Although any kind of meditation will be beneficial to some extent).

Forms of anxiety meditation

What kind of meditation is best ? And Why ?

The reason for this is twofold: -

First, - because any form of regular meditation causes an overall calming of the mind, and therefore Anxiety and Panic Attack and similar symptoms are much less likely to arise.

and Secondly – and much more importantly, if you practice Mantra Meditation on a regular basis, then after about three months of daily meditation, the Mantra becomes part of a “Conditioned Reflex” in your subconscious mind.

This means that in any situation where you feel a stress-provoking set of circumstances starting – all you have to do is start saying the Mantra to yourself mentally, and it will automatically and rapidly counteract the possibility of an Anxiety Reaction or Panic Attack.

Mantra meditations are the only kinds that have this amazing ability to be effective without actually meditating, but by just mentally repeating the Mantra to yourself.

Anxiety meditation - Where can you learn Mantra Meditation easily ?

The first is a complete page that gives information about Mantras in general, with free instructions how to do Mantra Meditations yourself using two examples, one of which is a Christian Mantra.

Click meditation mantras to take you to that page.

A Comprehensive anxiety meditation E-book just for YOU

And the second is a more detailed and comprehensive look at Mantra Meditations as a favored form of anxiety meditation.

Included are complete instructions how to be able to choose your own personal meditation mantras, that will work much better for your anxiety meditation than any other.

This is available to you in an E-Book that I have personally written on the subject of anxiety meditation or meditation for anxiety, and may be accessed by clicking meditation mantras ebook

Summary of anxiety meditation as an anxiety relief aid

Anxiety is common to all of us in one way or another.

It may be Mild, Moderate or Severe.

How can anxiety meditation help us fight anxiety?

The Severe form also includes similar disorders like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Phobias of any kind, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Panic Attacks.

If you have a very Mild form, then that is indicative of a very low anxiety, and therefore probably nothing needs to be done, as a normal small degree of anxiety is an advantageous thing.

With a Less Mild form, you may still not be concerned by it, but if you are, then anxiety meditation such as Mantra Meditation alone will be sufficient to cure that.

Moderate anxiety, often can be cured by Mantra Meditation (anxiety meditation) alone, especially in the lower half of this range – but those of you in the upper half of this range will probably also need some counseling and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to be completely cured.

Severe Anxiety (and including the other disorders as we have just mentioned – Panic Attacks and so on) , certainly require the use of anxiety meditation (Mantra Meditation), coupled with counseling and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and maybe also the use of medication initially only, or in very severe cases.

Mantra Meditation, as form of anxiety meditation, is a unique and low cost and free yet very effective treatment modality, and this website offers you all-that-you-need to learn that in one fell swoop ! Guaranteed !!

So (as it is very politically correct to say at the moment!) - It Is Time For A Change !, get control of your Anxiety Now!

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