We’re back from Comic-con and we’ve got all the news! Jes V spent some quality time with Mass Effect 3, FLitz scoured the floor for scoops, and Adrian FINALLY met his hero! We heard all kinds of announcements for fighters, and Nintendo punches the panic button with a MASSIVE 3DS price drop.
Swine Flue: How to remain calm when potential mass panic
Like any other threat to the basic need of survival, the recent Swine flue alert is causing fear in people. While a reasonable fear of death is a normal human reaction to a threat, excessive worrying and paranoia are not. The Swine flu alert can understandably trigger a sudden loss of security that for some individuals might be particularly difficult to handle.
People at risk of a exaggerated response include 1) people with generalized anxiety disorder, 2) people used to have everything under control, 3) people that present difficulty controlling emotions in general, and 4) individuals that tend to catastrophize events when under stress (what we call in psychology a tendency to black & white or distorted thinking).
It is especially important in cases of potential mass panic that we remain calm. Obsession and terror create more problems than they solve, and paralyze rather than motivate.
What to do:
1- Inform yourself and then go back to your life. The excessive exposure to media or news can increase your sense of loss of control and make you think that the worst has happened or is about to happen. Checking the news once or twice a day is plenty. Remember that things don’t change fast even the worst scenarios.
2- Tell your children the truth in their own language according to their age and model with your behavior. They will handle the situation as well as you do.
3- Follow directions carefully but do not worry about perfection. If the recommendations say wash your hands after certain activities or a certain number of times, try to do it. Remind yourself that if you forgot once or you couldn’t do exactly what the directions indicated, you are still being extra cautious.
4- Avoid participating in long rumor discussions. In situations like this, most people don’t have complete information. Pieces of information without complete reference of sources or details are rumors not worthy of your time and can be detrimental to your mental health.
5- Avoid thinking too much about negative scenarios. Try to remain based in fact. If your mind starts racing, just come back to the basic facts you know to be true about the situation. At the same time, try to think of other scenarios, also possible but this time positive to counteract the negative effects of the first ones. If this is particularly hard for you to do, ask others for help. Remember that not everything your brain tells you is necessarily true. Learn to control your brain instead of your brain controlling you.
6- Maintain a positive attitude. Continue to be grateful for the good things that you have in life and maintain hope. Positive mental attitude is priority number one in any survival situation. In fact, it’s listed as priority number one in the US military’s survival training. Positive mental attitude is more important than water and food! So even if things don’t indicate it or you don’t believe it, repeat to yourself that “I can handle this situation! Everything will be ok.”
7- Remain focused on what you can control and let go of what you cannot
Written by Psychocounselor
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Coping With Anxiety Attacks Naturally – 5 Natural Ways to Handle Anxiety Attacks
Article by John Cielo
In coping with anxiety attacks you first have to remember that they cannot harm you, and, always think and act positively. You should also seek professional medical help as soon as possible. When diagnosed with anxiety you’ll probably be given drug-based medication and perhaps some appropriate therapy as well. But more and more sufferers are using totally natural remedies for anxiety, because of the side effects that many of these drugs have. Here you’ll learn about coping with anxiety attacks without drugs.
What are anxiety attacks?
Anxiety attacks are just the body’s natural primeval response to a situation where it (wrongly) perceives you to be in danger. It then sets off a train of physical and mental bodily changes to help you either fight or run away to safety. This is called the body’s ‘fight or flight’. Because you are not aware of any immediate physical danger these changes confuse you, so that the symptoms they produce (see below) may lead you to totally believe you’re having a heart attack, or, about to die even.
What causes my body to think I’m in danger?
At the root is higher-than-normal levels of anxiety. With normal levels, a person faced with an everyday stressful event is able to handle it without too much problems because the overall increased anxiety levels are still within normal limits.
Someone with higher-than-normal general anxiety is already near the limit so that an everyday stressor can raise the overall anxiety level way over the limit. When this happens you’re unconscious mind perceives this as a dangerous situation and, rather than take any chances, switches to it’s ‘fight or flight’ mode.
What are the symptoms of an anxiety attack?
The most common symptoms are: hyperventilation, overwhelming panic, hot flashes / chills, heart palpitations, fear of dying, trouble breathing, dizziness, trembling, tightness in chest and throat, stomach cramps, choking sensation, sweating, nausea and a feeling of ‘detachment.’
Coping With Anxiety Attacks
Anxiety attacks usually peak within 10 minutes of their commencement, and, they rarely last more than 30 minutes. The key is to always remember that the symptoms are just your body’s reaction to a ‘perceived’ danger that isn’t there at all; a false alarm. They cannot harm you. Here are 5 natural ways of coping with anxiety attacks…
(1) THINK POSITIVELY
During an attack repeat to yourself that it’s a false alarm and that you aren’t having a seizure or heart attack. Take back control. Absolutely face the symptoms head-on by repeating that you know how they occur and that they will disappear. The more positive you are the quicker they’ll go away.
(2) TALK TO A TRUSTED FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER
If you can explain to someone you trust what you are feeling, their understanding and feedback can help a lot. By bringing out your emotions and feelings with a trusted friend or family member, you are unburdening your negative thoughts and feelings rather than keeping them to yourself and having them fester.
(3) RELAX BY USING CONTROLLED BREATHING
It’s important to relax as much as possible during an anxiety attack. This can be very hard to do because the symptoms are just so frightening. During an attack you will be breathing way too fast. This builds up oxygen and upsets the oxygen / carbon dioxide balance. By concentrating on slow, rhythmic breathing you’ll begin to slow your heartbeat, re-balance oxygen / carbon dioxide, relax tense muscles and calm your mind.
(4) EXERCISE DAILY
It should be no surprise to see this here. It is well known that daily exercise improves your body and mind. It has been proved that 30 minutes of good exercise daily can reduce stress and anxiety. And it can improve your immune system making you healthier, and, the healthier you are the less likely to fall pray to anxiety attacks.
(5) ELIMINATE YOUR ‘FEAR’ OF ANXIETY ATTACKS
Whether you are aware of it or not, your fear of having another anxiety attack is the one thing that is holding back your cure. This is because you fear is continually building on your high levels of general anxiety, driving you ever closer to the limit past which an anxiety attack can be triggered. In other words your ‘fear’ itself can cause you to have anxiety attacks. You need to get rid of your fear and break that anxiety cycle in order to prevent anxiety attacks in the future.
To discover the simple ‘ONE MOVE’ technique that will eliminate your fear factor and so break your vicious cycle of anxiety, go here now http://eliminatepanicattacks.blogspot.com and prepare to get your old self back again.
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Define Anxiety – A Simple Definition of Anxiety
Here, I define anxiety and its symptoms. But never self-diagnose. The symptoms of anxiety are also the symptoms of other conditions, so play safe and visit your doctor. But how do we define anxiety? There are two sets of symptoms: symptoms of anxiety and those of anxiety attacks. The signs of general anxiety are signs that you would be aware of on a daily basis almost. Whilst the symptoms of anxiety attacks (panic attacks) manifest themselves during an attack. Often, folks are only diagnosed with anxiety after suffering an attack.
So how do you define anxiety? General anxiety is a disorder in which the victim is constantly worried or fearful about situations or things that normally wouldn’t bother them or others. When this continual anxious state starts to interfere with their social, family and work life, and prevents them functioning in a normal fashion, they may be said to have a General Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
General anxiety symptoms are things such as; continual tiredness / exhaustion, inability to relax, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, fear of public places, fear of socializing, frequent feelings of irrational anxiety / fear, compulsive behaviour, worrying about making mistakes, regular nightmares, disturbed sleep patterns, excessive crying, headaches, stomach problems, diarrhea, nausea, aching muscles, and so on.
Symptoms of anxiety attacks are things like; sweating, shaking and tremors, palpitations, shortness of breath, hyperventilating, racing heart beat, tingling in hands and feet, feeling of impending doom, feeling you are having a heart attack. There are more, but these are the usual ones.
These symptoms, more or less, define anxiety but they can also be signs of other problems, so your first port of call has to be your doctor or other health care professional. They will be able to define what your problem is exactly, and propose the appropriate treatment. Since the theme of this article is defining anxiety, we’ll assume that your doctor has diagnosed you with anxiety…
Your doctor’s first line treatment is usually through drug-based medication; for example antidepressants, anti-anxiety tablets and beta-blockers. These can be very effective, but they all have their side effects, some worse than others. This can tend to put folks off continuing with them. However, no matter how bad you feel, never, ever discontinue treatment unless advised by your doctor to do so.
There are other non-drug therapies which are becoming very popular such as; self-hypnosis, meditation, yoga, cognitive behavioural therapy, counselling, acupuncture, etc. These are therapies to help you ‘manage’ or ‘cope’ with your anxiety and / or anxiety attacks.
But what about the underlying cause(s) of anxiety? The two treatment types above focus on either reducing the symptoms of anxiety, or, helping you cope with your disorder. They don’t seem to do anything about the underlying condition(s) that are causing your anxiety.
And the very ‘fear’ of another anxiety attack can bring one on. As long as this irrational fear exists it’s very difficult to stop attacks and resolve your general anxiety. If you can eliminate this fear, you can prevent further attacks and get rid of your general anxiety much more effectively.
Want to discover how to break out of the cycle of fear? To discover how to rid yourself of your fear factor so you can eliminate anxiety attacks and get rid of your anxiety for good, then just go to http://eliminatepanicattacks.blogspot.com and you could get your old self back again.
The author constantly researches health issues then writes reports on his findings so that you are perhaps more aware of the facts, and then, better able to make an informed decision on your choice of treatment and cure. Remember to always consult your doctor first. Please visit Eliminate Panic Attacks for more information.
LYRICS: Left my fear by the side of the road Hear You speak Won’t let go Fall to my knees as I lift my hands to pray Got every reason to be here again Father’s love that draws me in And all my eyes wanna see is a glimpse of You All I need is You All I need is You Lord Is You Lord One more day and it’s not the same Your Spirit calls my heart to sing Drawn to the voice of my Saviour once again Where would my soul be without Your Son Gave His life to save the earth Rest in the thought that You’re watching over me All I need is You All I need is You Lord Is You Lord You hold the universe You hold everyone on earth You hold the universe You hold You hold VIDEO CREDIT: ExtremeFaith
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Calculating When To Panic About Your Debts
There is another level to what should be the purely financial predicament of how to manage your credit card debt. That side has to do with the human toll that carrying that debt from month to month and year to year can have on a human being and on a family. A family’s funds are at the center of what make the family work. The old funny story goes “Money can’t buy happiness but it can rent it.” And while that’s cute, money and debt can make the difference between a family that is able to exist calmly within its resources and one that is on the threshold of disaster.
So when you sit down and decide that its time you took seriously the problem of conquering your credit card debt, you have a few battles to fight that are not only about interest rates and least possible repayments. The reality is that not any of us can face down something as overwhelming as a massive credit card debt if we just do not think we can do it.
A person’s self confidence is rooted in the notion that he or she can and has had success at facing a problem before. So we can take on a new problem as you did it beforehand and you can do it again. However when it comes to confronting tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt, it’s possible you have never confronted such an elusive opponent. It is an adversary that seems to want to swallow you up. And that can set off despair and make you just want to throw up your hands and give up.
So the question mark arrives, when is the best time to panic? Well, you know the solution to that problem is – NEVER! This is not just pie in the sky hopefulness talking here. There are some extremely pragmatic reasons that you must stubbornly refuse to freak out no matter how terrible the credit card debt threatens to get.
For one thing, if you are the dependable person in the house whose job it is to control the funds of the family unit, those people you worship rely on you to steer your family unit out of messes. This is the job of a head of household so the last thing they want to see is for you to come unglued because of a a small number of bills. So for the sake of the people you love, keep your head and continue searching for options and answers.
The other wisdom to not panic is that there is always something you can do. You can get another job or else find another income source to continue paying those amount outstanding down. And as long as you can make the repayments on any given month, there is hope the subsequently month you will begin to pull in front. So long as you have your healthiness and there are job opportunities to be had, you can work and get out of this mess. It might need some hard work but you can complete it.
But even if you can’t work and the payments keep getting higher and higher, that is not a good reason to freak out. You can renegotiate with lenders to get some direction over the debt. You can utilize a credit consolation service to get your repayments down and get on a schedule to pay them off over time. And at the very end of the spectrum of what you can do, there is bankruptcy. And as terrible as that word sounds, bankruptcy is not the end of your world. Lots of people use it and come out the other side of it fine and ready to take on the world again.
So take some heart in the fact that you actually are not doomed and there is always a way out of the tight spot you are in. It might take some looking, some resourceful thoughts and some management to get there. But you can only find those resources inside yourself if you obstinately refuse to panic.
There are two free reports here to help you decide what is best for you, please click on the links below:
For a free 66 page report called “Debt Crisis” http://www.makeyourmoneywork.smarter-not-harder.info/Debtcrisisa.xhtml
Or a free 64 page “The Bankruptcy Recovery Guide” http://www.makeyourmoneywork.smarter-not-harder.info/TheBankruptcyRecoveryGuidea.html
Written by ToddPittenger
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