Separation anxiety is a very stressful problem that many new dog owners face. It is imperative to cure this behavior not for just for the sake of your own sanity, but also for the heath of your dog. Training your dog can be a very rewarding experience, as it strengthens your bond with them, and also results in happier quality time together. The six techniques discussed below are very helpful at curing your dog from separation anxiety.

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Stress is the biggest contributor to anxiety and it is self-induced! Consequently, it is under your direct control. Let go, treat yourself, have some fun. Although we cant slow down the pace of life we can slow down our minds. Only ever do one thing at a time. When something that causes you anxiety happens, stop, close your eyes and count slowly to twenty. Break whatever it is that’s causing you anxiety down into little steps. Then take it on one step at a time, at an easy pace. Then let your mind relax. Take a break from the cycle of stress and tension and just lax out, as they say. Dont continually over-exert your mind. Take time off for you. Learn to say to people. Clear your day of scheduled plans with nothing at all planned.
Do not allow yourself to get stressed over something which you have no or little control over. If your mind is on that is your bodys way of telling you that you need to stop, relax, and regroup even if for a moment or two. Start by breathing through your nose, not your mouth, practice some controlled breathing exercises, such as buteyko (shallow breathing exercises); if you have a medical condition such as a heart condition consult your doctor first. By doing shallow breathing exercises, you will be able to slow your system down, and get your body to relax physically. Try closing your eyes while shallow breathing, through your nose, for five minutes, and relaxing; concentrate on your breathing, while clearing your mind of all thoughts.
Other ways to unwind include taking a relaxing hot bath, this will help your mind to clear and relieve your mind of stress and your body of tension. Another way is to occupy yourself with games or other activities that are filled with fun and entertainment. You could also take a break to watch a comedy and have a laugh, talk to someone, go exercise, sit by the sea, watch a sunset from beginning to end, spend time in nature, go for a walk along the beach, or next to a river, listen to the sounds of nature, take a vacation, go somewhere tranquil. Whatever it is that makes you feel relaxed.
 
By John Horrax. For better ways to cure anxiety, stress, panic, fear, or phobia click here: http://www.johnsreview.net/beatanxiety.html
References:
Jill Ermer, Living with Depression and Anxiety.
Andrew Langerman, Proactive Strategies for Anxiety and Depression.
This article is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT MEDICAL
ADVICE. No one including the editor, author, reference authors, or anyone else or any company
take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary
modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the
information contained in this article. The publication of this article does not constitute
the practice of medicine, and the information contained in it does not replace the advice of your doctor or other health care provider. Before undertaking any treatment whatsoever, the reader
must seek the advice of their doctor or other health care provider.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/stop-panic-anxiety-attacks-want-to-end-panic-anxiety-today-heres-some-tips-957692.

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Panic anxiety attack can be horrible. The experience cannot be felt by someone who does not suffer from the condition as it is only one with this problem that can tell how awful it gets. The attack is so uncomfortable and horrible that the sufferer gets ready to do anything to get over it. Studies have proved that people can go any length to get rid of future attacks. Such is the fear of Panic anxiety attack
However, the good news is that people have a lot of options today to come over the problem. Most of these treatment options are awesome and one can easily resort to a normal life again. Medical experts feel that Panic anxiety attack can be treated effectively without any complication to face in the long run if diagnosed at an early stage.
The reason why most people are forced to live with the conditions lifelong is that they never through of taking expect assistance to come over this problem. They never bothered to keep tabs on the symptoms and failed to get a treatment on time.
Hence, it is important to have in-depth knowledge about the symptoms of Panic anxiety attack. This will help you know about the trigger of the disease.
Here are the symptoms to keep in mind:
a) Skin losing color or blanching
A person with panic anxiety disorder tends to face several situations where he needs to fight or flight. When blood is diverted to the muscles during such a response, the fine blood vessels of the skin receives reduced blood flow. Hence, it is unable give healthy pink color and tends to lose this color. The symptom is not dangerous and may return back to normal once the body comes out of the attack.
b) Shaking or shivering
This is a normal symptom when a person is nervous. One may also experience drop in body temperature.
c) Sweating
This results due to the heated up body during an attack.
d) Sexual dysfunction
Patients with Panic anxiety attack may experience failure to achieve or maintain an erection.
e) Rapid gastric emptying
This is quite an unpleasant side effect of Panic anxiety attack. One tends to feel full early while having a meal. This also results in diarrhea and quick emptying of digestive System.
f) Shortness of breath
One of the most common and distressing symptoms is smothering sensation and shortness of breath. One may feel that the chest is unable to expand enough to take air or as if someone is pushing a pillow against face.
g) Chest pain
This is quite scary and often caused by muscle tension during an attack.
h) Racing heart or slow heart beat:
Anxiety tends to release adrenaline in to blood stream. This races heart and one may feel missing beats.
i) Lump in throat and difficulty swallowing
During an attack, throat muscles contract and result in lump in throat and difficulty swallowing.
Other symptoms to watch out for:
• Sweating
• Neck and shoulder pain and numbness  in face or head
• Indigestion
• Diarrhea
• Constipation.
• Urinary tract infection
• Dry mouth
• Skin rashes
• Insomnia
• Electric shock feeling all over the body
• Nightmares
• Tingling in hands or feet
• Weakness in arms
• Nightmares
• Aggression
• Losing control
• Symptoms of flu
• Sore eyes
• Distorted vision
• Disturbed hearing
• Hormone problems
• Hallucinations
• Headaches
• Hyperactivity
• Depersonalization
Download your free eBook Stop Panic Attacks and Deal with Your Anxious Thoughts here: http://www.PanicGoodbye.com/freereport.html
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Agoraphobia, or the fear of open spaces, is usually caused by panic attacks. People with panic disorder develop a fear of being too far from home, in unsafe places, or places where escape is difficult. Avoiding crowded areas, public transportation, theaters and malls becomes a habit and bridges, tunnels and other hard to leave places becomes troublesome. There is a strong hereditary link to this phobia as well as an environmental, upbringing connection that may explain your current state of anxiety. While this condition is certainly upsetting, it is definitely treatable, a good answer in a sea of bad news.

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The vast majority of people dont know it but the greatest stress management they can employ is physical exertion. Apart from not having to spend cash on purchasing products or purchasing cds for musical relaxation, working out only requires a negligible amount of your time everyday. In the world we live in, it is very challenging not to be stressed because just about all affairs, work, family, society, and human relationships can be stress inducers for an individual. Because of these considerations - tension have become an predictable part of peoples everyday lives.
For a few, stress can be good because it provides them an epinephrin rush as a explosive surge of tension can help them finish tasks early and attain their goals inside the given deadline. At times, tension even helps them to perform better and realise a competitive but positive mentality in life.
But not all individuals can turn stress into a beneficial energy and most put up with a broad range of health and emotional problems in time. Individuals, especially those who acquire too much stress in the workplace, endure small health troubles such as insomnia or sleep disturbances, head aches and upset tummy. These eventually lead to difficulties with concentration, mood swings and excitability, low self-esteem and morale, and poor socialization with immediate family and friends.
This type of stress, if not handled properly, can lead to prolonged health troubles and circumstances such as assorted heart diseases, assorted musculoskeletal problems, and assorted levels of psychological disorders. So to avert these, troubles individuals should be considering methods to manage tension and live a healthy life. For a few, there is no better approach to handle tension than obtaining regular physical exercise because it can reduce personal tension fast and help individuals to feel more positive about themselves. Aside from reducing tension by loosening up tense muscular tissues during stressful places, physical exercise can offer a good deal more gains than individuals could ever think of and it can assist you to:
helping the blood circulation to the brain, which is critical for a individual to think clear. While you are doing physical exercise, supplemental carbohydrates and oxygen are being sent to your brain, causing you to think effectively. Ejecting endorphins which are responsible for giving a person a feeling of happiness and positive mentality in life because despite all the tension brought by your environment, you can deal with it provided you have an adequate release of endorphins. Visually looking good and feeling good about ones assist many people manage stress because if a person feels he or she is pretty, that person can handle anything.
Physical exercise tones up one of the most essential areas of the body - the heart because when a individual gets anxious, the major organ that is affected is the heart. So, to save the heart from any illnesses and considerations taken by tension, physical exercise is needed to assure the heart has greater elasticity to pump sufficient blood and oxygen about the body. So, exercise is a very effective technique in managing stress, but before starting it, make a point that you are physically fit to endure hard energetic actions. You can determine that you are healthy if you see your doctor and realize a general check up as they will inform you what your limits are and can even recommend an workout program suitable for your needs.

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It has been observed that numerous people across the world are suffering from sleep anxiety disorder. The number recorded in America is above 40 million. Health counselors related this problem to anxiety or stress. Basically, sleep disorder is an term used for abnormal sleeping pattern and the health condition shows symptoms such as sleep apnea, sleep walking, falling asleep spontaneously, waking up feeling unrefreshed, waking too early in the morning, trouble falling asleep. However, a proper seep anxiety cure procedure is inevitable for the patient to root out the cause that triggers this problem.
Is Sleep Disorder Related To Anxiety Disorder?
Of late, researches have discovered that sleep and anxiety are interlinked; sleep disorder can be one of the causes triggering anxiety disorder and anxiety disorder can be one of the strongest reasons of sleep disorder. People suffering from either of the problem are vulnerable to other kind of disease.
A part of human brain is closely associated with anxiety and lack of sleep affects that part resulting in anxiety disorders. And the noteworthy point is that sleeping disorder is one of the many symptoms of anxiety. For this reason, sleep anxiety sure is strongly recommended before the problem gets acute and chronic.
What is The Risk of Sleep-Anxiety
Inadequate sleep not only leads to continuous tiredness, but also poor performance in school and work and other health problems. Around ninety percent of people suffering from insomnia have other health problems such as anxiety and mood disorder. Most people suffering from sleep disorder are also at risk of diabetes and different cardiac disorders. According to studies, the adults who sleep less than 6 hours at night are twice at the risk of being obese.
The Treatment
Diagnosis is the first step towards curing sleeping disorder. Diagnosis by an experienced physician is essential to know the level of anxiety disorder in patient as it can help the patient as well as the therapist to determine the strategies for treatment. Though sleeping pills are one of the remedial measures taken by the doctors for instant relief, taking them for long can lead to addiction. Doctors generally refer the cognitive-behavior therapy that can identify the abnormal behavior pattern of the patient and help them to modify it, a more proper treatment for anxiety.

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If you suffer from chronic anxiety, you have most likely looked into all sorts of anxiety cures. Due to the social stigma that still exists in some segments of our society with regard to mentally health problems in general and anxiety disorders in particular, many people will try to solve the problem themselves. Reaching out for professional help is a last resort for many people. Here are some details on how to cure anxiety.
One reason why people may be reluctant to reveal the extent of their anxiety problems to a doctor is because they feel they may be subjected to a course of medication or some other anxiety cure that does not sit comfortably with them. This idea is far from the truth. Many other options exist in treating and curing anxiety and ultimately the patient has the final say about what treatment is appropriate.
Sometimes just speaking to your health provider about your feelings of anxiety might be useful in and of itself and not even require anxiety cures. Your health provider might notice that a prescription you are taking increases anxiety, or point out changes in your lifestyle that might help decrease anxiety.
If you tell your doctor about your anxiety without a clear idea of what treatments you would like to try, the doctor will typically offer you only the options of medication and therapy. You need to speak to your doctor and express an opinion about what treatments you would be interested in trying or your doctor will pick standard anxiety cures for you.
Unless there are other overriding reasons, dont feel your options are limited to using medication or going to therapy just because your doctor writes you a prescription for medication or a referral for a therapist. You should feel free to discuss alternate anxiety cures with your doctor, and ask about different kinds of treatments. Any anxiety treatment should be focused on helping to cure your anxiety.
When you talk to your doctor about anxiety problems, be sure to be straightforward about the kinds of treatments you are comfortable with and about those you arent. If you arent interested in taking prescription drugs or going to therapy, communicate this wish to your doctor.  At the very least you can state your desire  to try some other options for controlling your anxiety first. Inform the doctor that you would prefer to try alternative anxiety cures like taking a yoga class or making a change to your diet and exercise program.
Dont shy away from talking to your doctor about treatment options for your anxiety that arent medication or therapy like (for example) deep breathing and relaxation techniques. Your doctor probably not only knows about these other kinds of anxiety cures, but will probably be quite supportive of you trying these different treatments. He/she may even suggest other people you can see that have more experience with this types of treatments and cures.
Read this review on one of the best anxiety cures around.

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I have struggled with anxiety for most of my adult life, with the anxiety ranging from mildly persistent to severe, depending on my current situation. In the past, when my symptoms have gotten particularly hairy, I have sought out psychotherapy to provide an outlet for my concerns as well as learn techniques to manage my anxiety at home. I was never interested in going on medication.

As an engineer, I have hated my condition. Primarily because I am an extremely reasonable person, and nothing about anxiety is reasonable. All of my anxious concerns involved worst-case scenarios and completely improbable events. It made me feel crazy, because the engineer in me knew that my anxiety was complete nonsense. But all of the cognitive therapy in the world was not making me feel better.

This year, at the end of the summer, I was suffering from a particularly terrible bout with my anxiety. I woke up most mornings afraid of what might happen, and spent my days wondering why I was so unhappy when my life was actually so good. My relationships were suffering, and my marriage was suffering.

My dear husband urged me to seek help. He asked me to consider medication, since I continued to have relapses after previous cognitive therapy sessions. I relented, only because he asked.

It is a hard thing, having to walk into various doctors' offices to explain to them how crazy you are. To get the referrals you need to go and tell another doctor the same thing. To be a very smart person, someone who is accustomed to being able to control almost everything, and to admit that you are screwy in the head.

Thank God, with my biological training, that I have been aware that there's just something wrong with all of the chemicals in my brain. It's not my fault- in fact, in my case, it's largely hereditary. And I recognized that, perhaps, taking medication was the only way to fix my whacked-out chemical imbalance.

I agreed to be put on an SSRI, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. SSRIs are used to treat both anxiety and depression. There are several different SSRIs approved by the FDA, including citalopram (Celexa), which is what I am on.

Although the exact mechanisms of SSRI action are unclear, the basic jist is that we need to have sufficient quantities of the neurotransmitter serotonin floating around in our brains in order to feel good. There is a natural equilibrium between free-floating serotonin, and serotonin that has been reuptaken by individual nerve cells. Anxiety and depression occur when too much serotonin is reuptaken and spends its time hiding in the nerve cells.

Serotonin reuptake inhibitors work by doing just that- they prevent serotonin from being reuptaken into the nerve cells, which leaves a higher concentration of free serotonin in the brain to make us feel good. SSRIs are 'selective' because they only affect serotonin, and not other neurotransmitters.

For me, citalopram has been like a miracle drug. It is sold in 20 mg tablets, and I started taking half a tablet per day. Within a couple of weeks, the serotonin in my head was having a party, and I was on cloud nine. Even though I only suffer from anxiety (and not depression), I have reaped the full-fledged benefits of SSRIs: I am not longer anxious and I am almost always in an awesome mood. My life has changed dramatically.

I am so happy- I smile more and laugh more and have a very positive outlook. For the first time I can remember, my internal emotions match up with my external reality. I really don't worry about very much anymore- small things and big things just don't bother me. For example, when I received that fellowship rejection from the NIH, I just shrugged my shoulders and thought, "Well, I'll try again. No big deal." What a fucking revolution!

There are side-effects associated with SSRIs, which vary from person to person and drug to drug. On citalopram, I began grinding my teeth pretty severely at night. So I reduced my dose to one quarter of a tablet per day, which still works wonders for my mood and seems to have largely cut out the grinding problems. My sister, who was on Prozac, another SSRI, lost her ability to orgasm. Now that is a real problem. She had to switch to another drug.

I am writing this post because I would like to help to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness. I have been telling many people in my real life about my experience with anxiety and SSRIs, and I wanted to put it out there to the internets as well. This is a problem with which many people struggle in silence, unnecessarily. This is a problem with a relatively easy yet dramatic solution. I regret that I waited as long as I did to seek out anti-anxiety medication because of what I perceived to be the 'problems' associated with such a choice. I urge any of you out there with anxiety or depression problems to seek help. If you are anything like me, you will be so glad that you did.

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I was a part of our worship team at church this weekend. When we started our rehearsal, I realized it had been a very long time since I participated on a team. In fact, I think one of my very last sets included some of the same holiday songs we did today. Yikes! Almost a year!

To understand why this matters to me, you'd have to know that playing the piano is what I do. Or rather, it's what people think I do. For almost as long as I can remember, I have been defined by others by the fact that I play piano. I play the piano at the church I currently attend. I used to be the worship leader at our former church in Maine. I paid for a substantial percentage of my college expenses on the back of one song in particular. And for a long time, I played in a southern gospel quartet. So to go for almost a year without playing is an anomaly in my world.

People would tell you I play the piano well. I don't, really. My technical knowledge is minimal, at best. I can do things but I can't always tell you what I've done or why I've done it. This is unfortunate for the piano students I taught in years past. I also have a very limited repertoire of terms associated with music theory, and if you plunk a piece of classical music in front of me, I'd be hard pressed to play anything much above an early intermediate level. And by hard time, I mean you would have pain in your ears. They might bleed. It would not be pretty.

In my humble opinion, it's not hard to fool average listeners into believing average musicians are more than average musicians. That's what I do. I fool people by one primary tool - fakery. It's all about fakery. Make a mistake? Not a problem! Whatever you do, don't show it on your face. And for heaven's sake, don't start over. My best piano teacher told me facial expressions are the mark of an amateur musician, and good musicians don't start over. They press on. So that's what I do. Although I regularly make mistakes and play notes I never intended to hit, I work them in and/or press on. Confidence - real or faked - covers a host of errors.

I have to take a little side trail to tell my two favorite "faking" stories. When I played for the southern gospel quartet, I was young. I think I started playing for them when I was 12. We were quite busy, often having 4-6 engagements a month, if I recall correctly. And being a young teen, I wasn't the most responsible of young people. Remembering - and then finding - my music was quite a feat. Because of this, I resorted to memorizing the titles of the songs with their key signatures. So before every concert, I'd make a list of the songs we were performing with their associated keys... Here I Am: E flat; Daystar: F major; Friend of Mine: B flat; and so on.

One particular day, I accidentally wrote down the wrong key signature for a song. Sometimes, this isn't a problem. Switch a D for a C and the singers can probably squeak by. Switch an E flat for an A flat and you have bigger problems. That was exactly what I did. At one point, the lead singer actually ducked behind the pulpit. It was so awful he actually squatted down behind the pulpit to hide. And it was all my fault. But did anyone in the crowd think it was my fault? Nope. I pressed on, because that's what you do. Look pleasant and make the best of it.

The second one was at a Christmas concert. If you've ever heard one southern gospel song, you've heard them all. Literally. There are some differences, but they all follow similar patterns. On this particular day, I think my song list flew off the piano mid-song, and I had no idea what song was coming next. So I just hit a generic introduction in a common key and played a generic background until I figured out what song they were singing. And it worked. And the worst part is that the singers didn't even realize something was wrong. This is no testament to my playing. Some of the songs were that interchangeable.

Back on track now... I've also learned how to play what matters. I try to play the things that get the biggest bang for their buck, so to speak. I expend my energy trying to do something interesting at a point where it actually matters, rather than trying to make everything else technically perfect. Also, I've learned a lot more about playing for my audience. I primarily play for church audiences, but I've also played background music for some dinner theaters and things like that. When you know what your audience expects, you make the notes that matter sound similar to what the audience expects. This makes them happy. And if you make people happy with your music, they think you're a good musician, whether you really are or not.

This is not the blog post I intended to write. I intended to write about how I felt about my experience this weekend. But in writing this, I've suddenly realized a whole dimension to some decisions I've made, and I've decided to write about that instead. Or maybe in addition. We'll see as the paragraphs develop.

Anyway, over last fall and early winter, I felt increasingly burned out when I played with our worship team. It took the tiredness a long time to overwhelm the guilty feelings I had when I considered taking a break. They finally did, and I asked our worship pastor for a break, which he graciously encouraged me to take. And what I appreciated even more was the fact that he didn't harass me to come back, unlike others. Over the last few months I've sort of cringed to be at Sunday morning church because I've come to expect a bit of badgerment over if/when I'd play again. And quite honestly, I didn't quite know what to do with that. What I wanted to do was pitch some sort of minor tantrum about the state of my life and my perceived spiritual abandonment. But that didn't seem particularly appropriate, so I usually smiled awkwardly and stumbled over some words I still can't recall saying.

I think all this fatigue stemmed from the fact that somewhere in the summer of 2008, I stopped believing God existed. This, therefore, made it very hard to get up in front of 700 people and participate in telling them how "great" our God is. At the same time, I was also becoming increasingly tired of being someone other than who I was. It was like my life had all sorts of little compartments, and I had to work hard to keep them all organized and segregated.

A few weeks ago, our worship pastor and his assistant asked how I was doing and where I was at on the whole God/music issue. I told them I was willing to give it a try. I felt excited at the prospect, but the nerves hit when I finally got the schedule request via our online scheduling center. My anxiety only grew as the days went on. In fact, I never replied to the scheduling email. You're supposed to either confirm or decline the request, but I never did either. I always intended to find a reason to decline, but when I hit Saturday afternoon, I realized it was too late. This promptly kicked my panic into high gear. Actually, I had a full-blown anxiety attack - racing heart, labored breathing, inappropriate amounts of sweating... And I was snappy. Ask Tahd. The boys basically stayed clear of me on Saturday. It was clearly in their best interests.

I dragged my panicked behind to rehearsal and tried very hard not to let my tears mess up my makeup on the way. (Because yes, I was wearing a "precisely applied" look purchased on Black Friday at the MAC counter courtesy of my 20 mile bet with my husband.) For a while I listened to Christmas music, but I realized distracting myself from my inner world was only making in scream louder in the form of more profuse tears. So I looked for something a little more introspective or soothing or something other than, "Give me my Christmas presents while we rock around the Christmas tree and mommy kisses Santa Claus because baby, it's cold outside" or some other basically meaningless entertainment.

Strangely, I landed on a station called WVCY. If you lived around here, you'd understand why I am so embarrassed to write this! :) They stand for almost every religious thing I stand against. To say I am not a fan is to put it mildly. I'm sure they're not all bad or that bad, but they hit a very distinct nerve in me - the nerve just past my last thread of tolerance. But yesterday I had to listen to them. They were playing hymns - old hymns. Some that were known to me, and some I'd never heard before. But even the ones I'd never heard before were familiar. There was something about the music that was both familiar and soothing.

I didn't know why I felt anxious until now. I knew it wasn't performance anxiety. I wasn't nervous about knowing the songs or being able to play them. They were all basically familiar to me, and I probably could have stumbled through all of them without music. But when I started this post, I realized I was anxious over the fakery. I was anxious about standing up in front of people and presenting myself to them in the way they've always known me - as the piano player - all the while being in a different place than I was when they originally defined me as such. In the course of the past year, I have made a significant journey. I started as someone who believed God was at best a concocted farce; to someone who was tired; to someone who couldn't tolerate more bitterness; to someone who was willing to try to make some sort of sense out of pain even if it wasn't the sort of sense I originally hoped for; to someone who feels tentatively healthier. And tentatively real.

The truth is I'm not spiritually very confident. I'm not sure I have yet - or want to - fully embrace what I've been learning and experiencing. And I don't want to pretend I'm anything other than that. But I don't know how to do my fake piano playing and still reflect all the things that are in my heart. The dichotomy between the two comes from the heart of who I am and who I've been, and I don't know how to reconcile those things with who I want to be. I need to figure out how to convey my personal tentativeness through my piano playing. I think that's why I currently prefer singing. I feel less fake. Singing the actual words keeps me connected and from getting lost in my head.

Additionally, I don't know how to deal with the fact that others define me through what they see and hear when I play. I do not want to be who they think I am (which is made worse by the fact that my father is the pastor of the church at which I play; people think all sorts of things about a pastor's daughter). I know others' perceptions need not have any bearing on who I am, what I do, or how I think, but when people put me in a box, I'm never sure how to get out or if I should get out or how to let them pretend I'm in the box while I go about my business.

Anyway, all that to say I was anxious. And I didn't know why. But now I do. And I also want to say I've gone on long enough to make it look like I think the whole worship team experience somehow revolved around me and my anxiety and my piano playing. It didn't. I was just one part of a really great team who did some really cool stuff to create an interesting, compelling worship experience. And even if I don't soon get my thoughts on these issues sorted out, it was honoring and humbling to be a part of that group.

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Take a look at the rightmost sidebar of this blog, and you will see the HONcode badge.
I am honored and excited that Anxiety, Panic Health was accredited by the Health on the Net Foundation in October, 2008. It means that this site complies with the Health on the Net Code of Conduct and can display the HONcode badge.
The award-winning Health On the Net Foundation developed the HONcode in 1996 as a means to standardize requirements to establish the reliability and credibility of health information. It certifies websites through a stringent application and review process, then polices the site to make sure it continues to comply with its eight Principles. It has certified over 6,500 websites worldwide in 32 languages, and has partnerships with the European Union, the World Health Organization, the National Library of Medicine, and Google.
This article is the first in a two-part series. Todays post will introduce you to the Health On the Net Foundation. Tomorrows post lists the HONcode principles and how Anxiety, Panic Health complies with them.

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When I came to Christ back in 1976 my life was not terrible.  I was already dating my soon to be wife and I was gainfully employed.  My wife and I got together at a time when life was difficult for both of us.  Her mother was dying from cancer and it was a tremendous strain on a family with seven kids still at home.
I had been through a tough time with troubles of my own.  My father was about to kick me out for a second time and I was beginning to have panic issues at night, although I had no clue what was going on.  Our relationship grew quickly.
Her mother passed away a few months after we began dating.  She was 17.  She worked and every week she would sign her pay check over to her father to help with finances.  Right after her mother passed my father kicked me out for the second time.  I had moved back home to save money to get married and in an instant I had no place to live.
During this time my wifes brother began to share Jesus with me and I was all ears.  I had never heard anything resembling the Gospel before.  In short time he and his future wife invited my wife and I to a Saturday nigh concert at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa.  I came to Christ that night after hearing the Gospel presented clearly for the very first time.  My problems were solved!
The Gospel message was sound.  My prayer was sincere.  I was born again.  Looking back I realize how the enemy fed my mind with how things would and should be for me.  It was exactly what my wounded spirit was looking for.  As time went on I fed this idea with my own misplaced ideas and it all set me up for a big fat mess!
It was easy for me to blame the devil for the unpleasant things that had been a part of my life.  After all, he was the enemy of my soul.  Now I belonged to God and God is perfect and God is good.  I began to expect a life free from the unpleasant and after time I believed I was entitled to it.  When mental illness came knocking on my door I was not at all prepared and as I had created a God to my liking, I was not at all prepared for the years ahead.
In a sense I thought I was bullet proof.  Other people experienced tragic circumstances.  Other people were injured in car accidents.  Other people were homeless.  Other people were beat up unfairly.  Others got sick.  As I was fortunate to have not been impacted by these things I figured thats the way it should be.  That mindset was naive and not based on Gods Word one bit.  Sadly I was blinded to that and as time moved on I became an angry and bitter man.  I was no ones poster boy.
As I mentioned, when Panic Disorder and then Agoraphobia came calling my sword was hanging on the wall and I had no defense but my own reason.  What a pitiful weapon to be armed with as a Christian.
Mental Illness in and of itself is a monster to be reckoned with.  But we dont slay the monster by reasoning things out as I did.  Those of you who are suffering with a Mental Illness may relate quite well to this.  Unfortunately, there is this thing that has creeped into the church that goes by the name of Stigma.  And when we suffer stigma from the Christians we trust the most our world can be turned upside down.  Thats not Jesus.  And the suffering is compounded.
Thankfully, many in the church are beginning to see that Mental Illness is no more a weakness or a sin than cancer or diabetes.  Sadly many who are suffering are afraid to go to anyone with their problem(s) because the pain of being rejected is too much to bear.
I have mentioned Joni Earecksen Tada several times here as she is such an example to me.  She has come to grips with her being quadriplegic and is filled with the joy and love of the Lord.  She reaches out to others in her weakness and God honors that.  Only the most extreme and heartless person would blame her for learning to accept and live with her circumstances.
Christian, you may be called to live a life where you may suffer with Mental Illness for may years or even the rest of your life.  God may also choose to heal you by His tender touch or He may heal you through the tools in this world He has made available to us.  That might include counseling and/or medication or in some cases being able to pour your heart out to a trusted person in your life.  But I can tell you from experience you wont be healed by wishing for it as I did.
Those in wheel chairs and those with other type disabilities learn to live with their   They go through the same doubts and fears as we do.  They also wonder if God has forsaken them.  Remember that God only forsook one person and that means that the Scripture is true when it declares He will never leave or forsake us.  Jesus suffered that for us the joy that was set before Him, His children that He loves more than we could ever imagine.
Some of us may need to accept the fact of our illness and that we may be called to live with it.  That doesnt mean we give up.  It doesnt mean we were one of those who is somehow stained with sin that cant be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.  It also doesnt mean our lives are any less than all of those believers we are surrounded and at times enamored with.  God is not a respetor of persons.
I wanted to be healed so badly from my anxiety.  I cried and prayed.  I read books.  I went to a church where I thought God hung out more than other places.  I was not open to the idea my illness would not be dictated by my desires.  I am now.  Thats not defeat.  In my life its a huge step in learning to trust God for everything.  I have so very far to go.
Rom 8:31  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?
Romans 8:33  Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth;
Romans 8:34  who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Romans 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:36  Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Romans 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Romans 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Romans 8:39  nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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OCD affects 2 percent of the population and is the number four psychiatric pathology in terms of frequency following phobias, substance abuse disorders, and depression.
The people affected are obsessed with cleanliness, order, and symmetry, or are overcome by doubts and irrational fears.
In order to reduce their anxiety, they carry out rituals of tidying, washing or verification for several hours a day in the most serious cases.
These signs reflect major suffering and a serious handicap that often last for years, and should not be confused with obsessive, perfectionist and meticulous personality traits.
One third of patients are resistant to the usual treatment, a combination of cognitive behavior therapy and antidepressants such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
Hypotheses centering on a dysfunction of the striato-pallido-thalamo-cortical cerebral circuits have in the past encouraged experimental attempts at psychosurgical treatment involving the destruction of certain parts of the incriminated cerebral areas or of their connections in patients with the most serious cases.
But the efficacy of these trials, which were never evaluated in a rigorous manner, is unclear because of uncertainty in the choice of the cerebral targets. Furthermore, the lesion is irreversible and thus open to criticism from an ethical standpoint.
More recently some neurosurgery teams have tried to reproduce the effect of the lesions using the deep brain stimulation technique. Despite interesting observations, a serious lack of precision concerning the choice of the target was reported.
Deep brain stimulation involves implanting two electrodes in the brain and connecting them to a stimulator implanted under the skin. This stimulator acts as a pacemaker, delivering a direct electrical current which modulates the sequences of abnormal signals emitted by the target brain region. The electrodes each contain 4 different contacts spaced two millimeters apart and each contact can be stimulated independently of the others. This technique has been used with success since the end of the 1980's in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
In order to propose a reliable therapeutic alternative for the most severe forms of OCD, French researchers from INSERM (Institut national de la sant et de la recherche mdicale) chose a different approach focusing on a small area of the brain that is involved in motor disturbances in Parkinson's Disease (the subthalamic nuclei).
Stimulating it led to a substantial reduction in behavior disorders in two Parkinson's patients. In such patients the insertion of an electrode at the center of the subthalamic nucleus eliminates motor disturbances. But when the site of the stimulation is shifted by a few millimeters, changes in the psychic state and behavior of patients are observed.
They may for example become hyperactive, insomniac or irritable. If the contact is changed again, these effects disappear. Previous research by Luc Mallet and his colleagues demonstrated that depending on the precise localization of the electrode, one of the various aspects of behavior, motor, social or affective, could be modified.
Deep cerebral stimulation was thus proposed as a therapeutic alternative for people with severe OCD that have not responded to pharmacological and psychological treatments. This technique has the advantage of being reversible. It also allows for precise adjustment of the various stimulation parameters (frequency, voltage, pulse duration) to obtain the best possible result.
Sixteen patients, divided among 10 French university hospital centers, were selected for surgical implantation of an electrode in each subthalamic nucleus. Over the course of 10 months, they were monitored by the doctors, psychiatrists and researchers involved in the study.
The electronic stimulator connected to the electrodes was activated and then deactivated in a randomized manner: eight patients underwent a period of active stimulation followed by a period of "placebo" stimulation while eight others received "placebo" stimulation followed by real stimulation. "This was a double blind test, i.e. neither the patients nor the doctors knew the periods of stimulation," Luc Mallet explained.
The results were encouraging. After the surgery and at the end of 3 months of active stimulation, 7 of 10 patients showed a response to the treatment and an improvement in their condition with at least a 25 percent reduction in symptoms.
Evaluation of the efficacy of the treatment also focused on the capacity of the patient to return to normal family life, to form new social ties, or to go back to work. After 3 months of active stimulation, 60 percent of the patients reached satisfactory overall functioning with only moderate discomfort due to the illness. Only 12% of the patient group reached this level during the sham placebo stimulation.
"Among the patients monitored, some experienced a return to a social, affective and professional life that had been abandoned for years because of the illness," Luc Mallet said.
Deep brain stimulation was also trialed with a small group of Tourettes syndrome patients. Tourette syndrome is the resultant of a joint dysfunction of the limbic territories and the basal ganglia. This disease is characterized by motor and vocal tics. In patients with the most severe forms, medication has no effect.
Three people benefited from the deep brain stimulation technique. The electrodes were implanted in the limbic zones of 2 deep structures, a nucleus of the thalamus and the internal globus pallidus, in order to compare their respective efficacy in a double-blind protocol. The best results were obtained by stimulating the anterior part of the internal globus pallidus, with improvement in symptoms on the order of 70 percent.
Prolonged monitoring of patients ( of 6 years for the first patient to undergo the procedure) shows that the effects are maintained over time, allowing them to resume working and to have a normal social life.
A multi-center trial is now in progress on a larger number of patients. The researcher team will try to determine if this treatment can become a therapeutic option that is usable outside of a research setting.
This research demonstrates the considerable therapeutic potential of deep brain stimulation. When applied with precision, it allows for fine regulation of neuronal systems, the dysfunctions of which lead to pathological repetitive behaviors in humans.
While the INSERM researchers have shown that deep brain stimulation is effective in treating the most severe forms of obsessive compulsive disorder they caution that it is still an invasive technique with all the risks inherent in any neurosurgery. They also advise that the results require further evaluation and refinement of the stimulation parameters.

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Anxiety and panic attacks are to most people a completely two different issues. However when they do definitely can be combined to create anxiety panic attacks. While either of these conditions can become an issue for someone if the symptoms go beyond what is considered to be normal anxiety, one feeding into the other is a completely new set of problems. When this stage is reached, the affected one should seek medical treatment immediately.
What usually happens is that a person becomes anxious about something, or probably several things. When the concern is very strong, it has a tendency to produce anxiety. And which can lead into anxiety panic attacks. While the anxiety is not always a bad thing, it can become so if the focus is purely on being anxious and concerned about the situation. The anxiety grows, giving it room to escalate into a feeling of panic. This is the panic that will cause a full blown panic attack.
Normally, the best way to fight these off is to figure out the source of the anxiety. While knowing what is making a person anxious can certainly help. This may not completely remove the nervousness surrounding the issue. If the anxiety cannot be controlled, it only gets worse. This is the main cause for a large percentage of anxiety panic attacks.
The assistance of a proper healthcare professional that is trained specifically in treating anxiety disorders and panic attacks should be consulted to help control anxiety. The aim of these professionals is to find a way to help you control the symptoms as well as possibly gaining an insight into why the anxiety persists. Part of this process usually includes prescribing an anti anxiety medication of some kind. Together, the two of you will work to find the proper dosage that will work best for you in fending off your anxiety.
There are also other methods to help control your anxiety panic attacks. These are the natural or herbal remedies that we read much about. There are professionals in this field who are able to assist you in finding what will be more effective for you. They will most likely instruct you in the use of relaxation techniques such as meditation that will help calm and balance those anxious thoughts. When you are feeling calm, it is rather difficult to give into anxiety that may bring on an attack.
Which ever way you choose to treat your anxiety panic attacks problems, please always remember that that what works for one person may not always work for another. Each condition and situation is unique in its own way and, therefore, needs its own treatment. What is important is that you make an effort to take up the treatments and the results will be shown.

Similar posts: anxiety