I really cant say that I am cured from, and that I have succeeded in overcoming panic attacks. If I let my anxiety levels rise then it is a possibility that I may have another panic attack. The difference is now that I don’t fear it. I know how to work through it.

dont panic

Overcoming panic attacks hasnt been a quick fix for me and I dont think too many people can say that it has been for them either. I worked on it, and as I have said in previous posts, I took one step at a time and now I feel I have succeeded.

Looking at life through positive eyes has been something that I have to work at but I am much better at it now than I was in the beginning. It’s like anything that has been a habit, it takes time to change. Life has opened up to me again and I am happy, which is probably a result of that positive outlook.

The hardest thing for me, still, is to not avoid certain places where I used to feel stressed, and I practice that and am doing ok. By exposing myself to the stressors I have, over time, been desensitized to them so I keep that up as I dont want to regress without realizing.

I have come a long way since my first panic attack so many years ago and I am grateful that I have overcome my fears to move forward and live a life that is full and without barriers.

Overcoming panic attacks will be different for each person and I realize that. I hope my story gives other fellow sufferers some hope that life can change for the better with proper treatment and a willingness to get better.

Anxiety doesnt rule my life anymore. I am now in control. Life is good.

People who handle stress

These people also approach problems differently from those that don’t handle stress well.  They are optimistic about the outcome and their ability to do something and not just worry over the situation.  They think of alternatives to their problems and take action.  If you do nothing and just worry about your life then the situation will never change.  This is a big solution for stress relief for a lot of people.

They don’t fear making mistakes but see these as chances for improvement. They realize that if they make a mistake nothing really bad normally happens, and they will learn from that experience. They don’t worry about change or uncertainty in their lives because they feel certain that the outcome will be ok for them and they will be able to embrace or manage the change. They know not to worry about something that might happen until it actually does.

If you are not one of these people then you can become one by changing your attitudes to a more positive one.  Be confident in decisions you make and learn from others that handle stress better than you.  Ask them their secrets for stress relief. Don’t procrastinate but take action and make good things happen in your life.

I think this quote from Woody Allen says it all about stressing over things.
“The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don’t have”.

Most people will experience this in their lifetime and yet most people don’t know what is anxiety and why it happens. The reason for its increase in recent years includes a variety of causes, including living in a more stressful society, unhealthy diets, and the rise in substance abuse.

Peaceful and beautiful

Anxiety disorders occur when the anxiety system doesn’t work properly or when overwhelmed. It can make you feel you are losing control and even to the extreme where you think that you are going to die. It makes the body go into a ‘fight or flight’ response. Anxiety can stop you from living your life the way you want and that is when it is called a disorder.

An anxiety disorder can greatly impair a person’s functioning and a professional diagnosis and treatment is important. Recurrent anxiety attacks that occur over a period of months can be classified as an anxiety illness. Anxiety can reveal itself in a variety of ways. From one-time attacks, to recurrent episodes, phobias and panic attacks.

If you haven’t experienced a panic attack it is very difficult to explain the terror you can experience and the physical symptoms that go with it such as in my case; tightness in the chest, nausea, flushed face, tingling in my fingers and scalp and diarrhea.

You can get more information on overcoming anxiety from PANIC AWAY as they get results . Read some of the testimonials as well for real stories on how anxiety has affected people’s lives.

Fear is the most typical of all panic attack symptoms. This is often characterized by the strong desire to flee. You cant predict a panic attack but a trigger is usually responsible for the onset of an attack. Stress, depression, phobias, drugs or a traumatic experience can be triggers.

If you experience immobilizing fear, lack of concentration, depression or phobias then they could lead eventually to a panic attack.

If you have one or more of the panic attack symptoms below then you could be on the verge of a panic attack:

Lightheaded
Tingling in hands, feet or scalp
Sweating
Chest pain or palpitations
Nausea
Chills or hot flushes
Shortness of breath
Intense fear
Diarrhea
Muscle spasm
Dry mouth

During a panic attack many people feel that they will lose control, have a heart attack, are suffering from a serious illness or are ‘going crazy’. Panic attacks usually only last for several minutes but they are frightening.

In my own experience the first panic attack symptom I get is tingling in my fingers and scalp and a dry mouth. I get six of the panic attack symptoms above before and during the attack as well as ‘the wave’ of panic which follows. I will talk about ‘the wave’ another time.

Recognizing the symptoms is a good thing as it alerts me to the fact that I am anxious and I then know to start my breathing techniques to lower my over-breathing which is causing the symptoms, so the panic attack doesn’t come on.

Forewarned is forearmed, so they say, and in my case this warning has helped me many a time.

Affirmations have been used since we have had language.  Personal affirmations are tools that can help you rewrite negative tapes about yourself and your life and are the easiest way to make positive changes and can help you to manage stress.

I hope you enjoy reading mine.

Do you use affirmations?  Please share them here.

If you want to write your own affirmations, but don’t know how to start, then there is technology called Affirm Now that can help.  To check them out Click Here!

Hay House also have a great book called DailyOM which are Daily Inspirational Thoughts For A Happy, Healthy, and Fulfilling Day by Madisyn Taylor.  Hay House has a reputation for high integrity and quality products.

Note:  Another article I like is called How to Use Personal Affirmations and I would recommend you read that article from Our Development.com another good site for personal development and the Law of Attraction.

Philips HF3520 Wake-Up Light With Colored Sunrise Simulation, White.

The Philips Wake Up Light helps to wake you in a natural and gentle way with light and natural sounds. Why would you need this? Some of us find it difficult to wake up in the morning or even to get a good night’s sleep and this alarm with lights will help you with both.In winter it is particularly difficult as it may be before sunrise or very low light when we have to get up so the alarm goes off while it is still dark. We can also suffer from seasonal affective disorder which is also known as SAD disorder which is due to lack of light.

How to recognize if you have Seasonal Affective Disorder Symptoms:

People with SAD disorder often experience:

• Low energy
• Lack of concentration
• Irritability
• Fearfulness
• Tiredness
• Drop in self-esteem
• Decrease in every day interest
• Lack of sex drive
• Weight gain or loss
• Being tearful
• Poor sleep pattern
• Feelings of despair

I can see at least four of these symptoms that I suffer from in winter. The alarm will wake you slowly by increasing the light from a warm orange glow to white, mimicking the sunrise or the increased light of summer mornings before the alarm goes off. The alarm has a choice of the radio or 5 sounds which increase in volume.

They are: Bird song, Bird in the forest, Zen garden, Gentle piano, and Seaside sounds.

The advantages of waking up this way is that you feel less tired, more refreshed and have an increased energy level because of a better sleep pattern. This also solves three symptoms of SAD disorder.

Other benefits of the Philips HF3520 wake up light are:

• Adjustable sunrise simulation
• Self adjusting brightness control
• Dusk simulation
• Works on 120 to 220 volts
• Two alarms can be set, one for weekday and one for weekend
• Two year warranty
• You can use as a regular radio
• 20 Dimmer settings
• Has a snooze button
• Has a weekly alarm setting that you can set up
• Light bulb is a LED which lasts the life of the clock

Disadvantages:

• No battery backup so not portable
• No white noise sounds
• Will be affected by power outages
• Displays only time and not date or day

Watch the video below to see how it looks.

The bottom line with this wake up light review is cost. The cost at around $150 – $160 is comparable with other alarms with light but a lot more expensive than your average budget alarm clock. You cant really compare apples with oranges. But if you have trouble with waking up in the morning or even going to sleep at night then the extra cost will be worth it. Sufferers of SAD disorder, also called ‘the winter blues’, will also benefit from using this light clock to reduce at least three symptoms as stated above.

I recommend you buy this wake up clock from Amazon as there are a few choices of supplier there and you get the peace of mind buying through them if anything may go wrong. Click on this link to see this product on the Amazon store.

Related articles

• ‘Tis the Season for Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Winter Blues Busters

When I went through this many years ago I must admit I didn’t do well.  I was very angry and this anger actually was not good for me or my family and I came to realize I was really only hurting myself by venting those feelings.   This stress and anger must have sent my anxiety levels through the roof.

Moving on while keeping sane and positive can be a challenge but I have  four tips that I found worked for me.  I’m sure I could also add a few more but these saw me through.  They are:

1.  Look after your health

Eat well, exercise when you can and get enough sleep.

2.  Pamper yourself even in small ways

Don’t be the last person you give to.

3.  Have a plan for tomorrow

Plan what your next 6 -12 months will bring and have strategies to deal with them.

4.  Be grateful for the good things in your life.

Appreciate what is right in your life now.  This will help balance out the negatives that are currently going on.

Making a break and moving forward is important.   Dont let stress and anger eat you up.   Focus on the new positives that now can come through in your life and push those negative thoughts and anxieties down and out.  I encourage comments on your own experiences so please feel free to do so.

I have been using visualization techniques for awhile now to achieve stress relief which in turn keeps my anxiety levels low.  Through a mind technique like imagining my favorite sounds, sights and smells I can put myself into a more calm state and often it lifts me up to a happy and positive mood for the day.

My favorite “happy place” is a rock pool on a white sandy beach.  I imagine sitting in the rock pool with the waves coming in and feeling the warm rush of water relaxing me as it washes over my body.  I can hear the rhythmical sounds of the waves crashing on the shore around me, the warm sun on my skin and the smell of the fresh salty air.

The main visualization technique for stress relief though that I use is one where I have conditioned myself to react to smells especially perfumes, and when I travel I buy a new perfume to use, and then that aroma gets associated with the places I go to and I have found this repeatedly to be a great mind technique.

For instance I have a lovely light perfume which has a refreshing fruity smell and when I wear it I am transported in my mind back to Hawaii again.  It’s like a dejavu affect and I can fell and smell the warm air and the total bliss of being in paradise again. You can prolong that feeling by resting somewhere, closing your eyes and walking yourself in your mind through an experience you had during that time.

Another example of visualization is through sound.  I have a lovely recording of rainforest music.  When I hear the birds and the waterfall and the wind rustling through the trees I can feel I’m really there walking through a winding track covered in fallen leaves, bark and moss and I look up at the canopy above in awe at the enormity of the scene.   With this mind technique I find around 20 minutes is enough to find me more relaxed and calm again.

Remember when you finish any visualization technique for stress you should always come of it slowly,  like you would from a long sleep.  You can have quick visualizations like my aromas ones that lift your mood instantly but they are shorter lived but don’t discount them because they are still happy moments to be treasured.

Some of these potential sources of stress include:

• Role conflict
• Role ambiguity
• Working relations
• Overload
• Control (or lack of it)
• Feedback (or lack of it)
• Support from colleagues (or lack of it)
• Uncertainty over job future

Work stress and pressure anxiety may come from doing extra hours just so you can keep your job and this puts not only stress on you, but your family, your friends and your lifestyle.  You don’t have the time you had before for leisure, being a parent or a loving spouse or friend.  It may be that you don’t like what you do in your job or the people you work with.  How can you improve the way you feel about these issues?  How can you get stress tips?

Think about how you can make your job more enjoyable for yourself.  Why don’t you try and enhance the skills you have?  Another idea is to where possible  pace your work out and you will find that work stress and anxiety will reduce also. The job and stress don’t have to go hand in hand, you can decide that you wont let it take over your life.

What you shouldn’t do is let it affect your health.  Your health is one of the most important part of your life so keeping healthy will also help make you feel happier with yourself as you have some control over this aspect of your life.  Make sure you eat well and choose healthy food to feed your nerves.  Take a healthy lunch to work and include some fruit every day.  The fructose will give you an energy boost without the high calories.

Exercise is also important at this time when you may have work stress because it helps you release the stress in your body.  We say we don’t have time to exercise in our hectic lives but making some time even if its 15 minutes a day will see your stress levels improve.  Maybe it means you get up that little bit earlier in the morning or you go for a walk at lunchtime.  Try and make some time for exercise.

You can be in control of work stress and if you just follow a few of those ideas above it will improve.

Related articles

• Stress-Busters: Frugal Ways to Reduce Anxiety
• Lupus – Stress – Depression- Anxiety
• 11 Lifestyle Factors That Could Be Making You Anxious

dark feelings

How do I know I have anxiety?

You may be showing the signs of anxiety if the feelings or behaviors below affect your everyday life:

• Worrying about everything

• Feeling negative

• Feeling restless or irritable

• Find it hard to do everyday activities like work and study

• Lack of concentration

• Difficulty sleeping and/or relaxing

• Avoidance behavior

• Physical symptoms like heart palpitations

• Irrational thinking

• Have muscle pain

If you experience more than a few of these then you should consult a medical practitioner to be assessed professionally. Don’t avoid seeking help if you do have these signs of anxiety. Don’t wait until you get worse . Avoidance is also a sign that you are not handling the anxiety.