Panic Attacks Support Group
A panic attack is a period of intense fear or discomfort, typically with an abrupt onset and usually lasting no more than thirty minutes. Symptoms include trembling, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, sweating, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation, and sensations of choking or smothering. Panic attacks can be very sudden, appear to be unprovoked, and are often...
Today has been a stressful day for me. Do this do that. Pain in my chest, headaches, muscles spams all over. My house has been full of screaming and unhappiness all around me. I live in a emotionally toxic environment that is only getting worse. I am the rock to the self absorbed people, I am the go to guy when real issues need to be fixed or even the little things. I have a hard time letting go and just leaving people to fix it for themselves. I think I have had about 3 panic attacks today, nothing extreme, but the kind that drain you of your will to do anything of value. One of my goals is to keep an open mind when it comes to dealing with my anxiety and panic attacks.
The brain is obviously more complex than anything we encounter on a daily basis. I feel that my talk therapy is helpful to me, but I don't feel like I am actually doing anything with it. So I have become more proactive and am working on outside the box ideas. I will be posting them as I find them and my experience with them here. Why? Well honestly because I want to help other people like me. I want t learn to help myself, but if one idea works for just one person that reads anything I write, I feel my efforts will be worth it.
Today I stumbled across alpha training online (yep its free and simple) The article below was an interesting read and sounds easy enough to implement. I know many of us have hardships with time, money, family, doctors, health and or all of the above. If we were cured of panic attacks and anxiety we wouldn't be here talking to each other about it. So even if this solution sounds way too simple to work, what do I or you have to lose by giving it a shot.
The following is the full article on alpha training I stumble across while researching brain reprogramming. Source data is at the bottom.
"There was a time when I was the director of an entire mental health system in a county in New York State, and was a very miserable human being. Although I had a wonderful wife, two beautiful children, and a great job, I was depressed, anxious, and had vague thoughts of not wanting to live anymore. It was during this time that I found a book called The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson, MD, a world-famous thoracic surgeon and professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Benson discovered what he called the relaxation response which he said was a natural part of the functioning of the human brain. In his book was a simple relaxation technique that he used as a part of his famous study about the effects of relaxation on stress and high blood pressure.
I used his technique and found that it significantly improved my emotional state and, over time, gave me a mind mastery I never expected. I also realized, however, that its effects were temporary and had to be constantly re-enforced by using the technique for twenty minutes, twice a day. Even though the benefits were worth the forty minutes a day, I discovered a simple, science-based method, called alpha training, to permanently re-establish the relaxation response in the brain. After that is done, it again becomes a natural and automatic response to unnecessary stress, needing only an occasional reinforcement to maintain its efficacy. When this is accomplished, we move into a permanent alpha state or waking meditative state that we take with us into our everyday life where we need it the most. I now recognize that alpha training is also the gateway to a powerful part of our mind that provides us with natural abilities that have been used by very successful people throughout history. This is not something that requires any belief but simply the motivation to give it the chance to work.
WARNING: What you will read about is very simple, but there is the possibility that you may discount it, because we are conditioned to complexity, not simplicity. It was Albert Einstein who said, "If the answer is simple, God is speaking."
Alpha Training
Follow these simple instructions to train your brain to automatically initiate a natural calming response any time, anywhere and tap into amazing abilities you already have. It may take a while for you to overcome the years of environmental assault on your nervous system, but, however long it takes, it will be worth it. Stay with it, and you will be rewarded.
1) Find a time and a place where you wont be disturbed. This is essential in the beginning, but once your nervous system is retrained, youll be able to do this just about anywhere, anytime. (Turn off all phones and do your best to eliminate other disturbances.)
2) Put yourself in any comfortable position, except your normal sleep position, otherwise your brain will put you to sleep; and, this is not sleep.
3) Close your eyes and put your thumb and first two fingers together separately on each hand. (This specific part of the technique may also be used with other form of meditation or relaxation, in addition to this one and is what makes this method unique.)
4) Take three deep breaths letting them out slowly.
5) Count slowly backwards from 20 to 1, focusing on each number.
6) Introduce into your mind the word TELOG, or any other neutral word or phrase you choose. If you become aware of thoughts, simply turn your attention to your word again as if you were watching a bird moving around in a tree. Twenty minutes is equivalent to 1 1/2 hours of sleep.
7) Twenty minutes, twice a day until the desired result is attained is a must to overcome the constant negative programming we are subjected to daily, but dramatic, positive results will be noticed within seven days.
*Most importantly, and this is what makes this technique unique and very powerful, during the day when you recognize that you are tense, simply repeat the three fingers and the word a few times and then go on with whatever you were doing. This takes only a few seconds, but the more you do it, the more you are retraining your brain to recognize unnecessary tension and initiate the calming response. Eventually, after youve done this often enough to change the neuron pathways, your brain will do it automatically with only an occasional reinforcement by using the full technique. This training of the brain to establish a permanent calmness moves us beyond meditation by making it possible to be in the alpha or "waking" meditative state in the midst of our everyday life when we need it the most.
The relaxation response was discovered by Dr. Herbert Benson. Alpha training, or the association of the physical and mental signals with a relaxed state of mind to create the conditioned response of the calming effect was discovered by Stephen Scalese."
2003-2009 Stephen G. Scalese
Source: http://sgscalese.hubpages.com/hub/Stress-and-Anxiety-Eliminated-How-To
The brain is obviously more complex than anything we encounter on a daily basis. I feel that my talk therapy is helpful to me, but I don't feel like I am actually doing anything with it. So I have become more proactive and am working on outside the box ideas. I will be posting them as I find them and my experience with them here. Why? Well honestly because I want to help other people like me. I want t learn to help myself, but if one idea works for just one person that reads anything I write, I feel my efforts will be worth it.
Today I stumbled across alpha training online (yep its free and simple) The article below was an interesting read and sounds easy enough to implement. I know many of us have hardships with time, money, family, doctors, health and or all of the above. If we were cured of panic attacks and anxiety we wouldn't be here talking to each other about it. So even if this solution sounds way too simple to work, what do I or you have to lose by giving it a shot.
The following is the full article on alpha training I stumble across while researching brain reprogramming. Source data is at the bottom.
"There was a time when I was the director of an entire mental health system in a county in New York State, and was a very miserable human being. Although I had a wonderful wife, two beautiful children, and a great job, I was depressed, anxious, and had vague thoughts of not wanting to live anymore. It was during this time that I found a book called The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson, MD, a world-famous thoracic surgeon and professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Benson discovered what he called the relaxation response which he said was a natural part of the functioning of the human brain. In his book was a simple relaxation technique that he used as a part of his famous study about the effects of relaxation on stress and high blood pressure.
I used his technique and found that it significantly improved my emotional state and, over time, gave me a mind mastery I never expected. I also realized, however, that its effects were temporary and had to be constantly re-enforced by using the technique for twenty minutes, twice a day. Even though the benefits were worth the forty minutes a day, I discovered a simple, science-based method, called alpha training, to permanently re-establish the relaxation response in the brain. After that is done, it again becomes a natural and automatic response to unnecessary stress, needing only an occasional reinforcement to maintain its efficacy. When this is accomplished, we move into a permanent alpha state or waking meditative state that we take with us into our everyday life where we need it the most. I now recognize that alpha training is also the gateway to a powerful part of our mind that provides us with natural abilities that have been used by very successful people throughout history. This is not something that requires any belief but simply the motivation to give it the chance to work.
WARNING: What you will read about is very simple, but there is the possibility that you may discount it, because we are conditioned to complexity, not simplicity. It was Albert Einstein who said, "If the answer is simple, God is speaking."
Alpha Training
Follow these simple instructions to train your brain to automatically initiate a natural calming response any time, anywhere and tap into amazing abilities you already have. It may take a while for you to overcome the years of environmental assault on your nervous system, but, however long it takes, it will be worth it. Stay with it, and you will be rewarded.
1) Find a time and a place where you wont be disturbed. This is essential in the beginning, but once your nervous system is retrained, youll be able to do this just about anywhere, anytime. (Turn off all phones and do your best to eliminate other disturbances.)
2) Put yourself in any comfortable position, except your normal sleep position, otherwise your brain will put you to sleep; and, this is not sleep.
3) Close your eyes and put your thumb and first two fingers together separately on each hand. (This specific part of the technique may also be used with other form of meditation or relaxation, in addition to this one and is what makes this method unique.)
4) Take three deep breaths letting them out slowly.
5) Count slowly backwards from 20 to 1, focusing on each number.
6) Introduce into your mind the word TELOG, or any other neutral word or phrase you choose. If you become aware of thoughts, simply turn your attention to your word again as if you were watching a bird moving around in a tree. Twenty minutes is equivalent to 1 1/2 hours of sleep.
7) Twenty minutes, twice a day until the desired result is attained is a must to overcome the constant negative programming we are subjected to daily, but dramatic, positive results will be noticed within seven days.
*Most importantly, and this is what makes this technique unique and very powerful, during the day when you recognize that you are tense, simply repeat the three fingers and the word a few times and then go on with whatever you were doing. This takes only a few seconds, but the more you do it, the more you are retraining your brain to recognize unnecessary tension and initiate the calming response. Eventually, after youve done this often enough to change the neuron pathways, your brain will do it automatically with only an occasional reinforcement by using the full technique. This training of the brain to establish a permanent calmness moves us beyond meditation by making it possible to be in the alpha or "waking" meditative state in the midst of our everyday life when we need it the most.
The relaxation response was discovered by Dr. Herbert Benson. Alpha training, or the association of the physical and mental signals with a relaxed state of mind to create the conditioned response of the calming effect was discovered by Stephen Scalese."
2003-2009 Stephen G. Scalese
Source: http://sgscalese.hubpages.com/hub/Stress-and-Anxiety-Eliminated-How-To
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