This will be brief…

I just wanted to give you this link where you can read the articles I’ve posted online related to anxiety relief, panic attacks, depression, finding an anxiety cure, and much more.

I post regularly to several online article databases. The content is an extension of topics you’ll see covered here and through my site.

Take a peek…

http://searchwarp.com/Author21043.htm

Other topics you’ll find discussed there include procrastination, insomnia, quit smoking, dog obedience training, how to clean clutter from your home, and more.

I just came across an interesting article published online last February claiming that adults with an anxiety disorder might well have had psychiatric problems in their youth.

A study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health revealed that about half of the adults in the study group of 1,037 people had some type of psychiatric illness by the time they were 15 years of age.

One-third of the 232 adults with anxiety disorder suffered with anxiety disorder in their youth, Anxiety is the most common childhood illness, followed by depression.

They also learned that adults with post traumatic stress disorder demonstrated severe behavioral and defiance problems as children.

Anxiety disorder, a common ailment among the adult population at around 30%, includes panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and social and other phobias.

Many of my regular readers will know that I adhere strongly to the belief that our years as children and teens can be a significant factor in adult anxiety disorder and other adult psychiatric problems.

This article confirms my belief in the importance of considering a person’s childhood when diagnosing adult anxiety disorders.

Seeking help for children early on can impact their futures by correcting any conditions that can trigger anxiety disorder in adulthood.

You can read the entire article here:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2007/half-of-adults-with-anxiety-disorders-had-psychiatric-diagnoses-in-youth.shtml

Get more information about Anxiety Disorder.

Low self esteem can be easily missed if you’ve already convinced yourself that your self esteem is just fine. I was severely shy as a child and blamed that on how I felt, day after day. It never occurred to me that I had low self esteem.

Then one day my therapist said to me, “You rely too much on other people for your own happiness.”

I was 35 years old at the time, still battling massive anxiety and panic attacks. He wasn’t talking just about my need to have people around me. That was because of my panic disorder. I was afraid to be alone because I didn’t trust myself.

He was talking about my tendency to put everything on my upbringing, on how my parents treated me. I craved approval that was hard to come by. It was hard back then, and it was hard when I became a married adult.

I didn’t know how to “feel good” about who I was unless I received accolades from other people – at work, at home, in social situations.

His next words of wisdom were, “You don’t like yourself very much.”

The link was obvious. I relied on others to let me know I was okay, that I was liked and accepted, and that I was recognized as a valuable person.

Clearly, I had a lot of work to do if I were to ever recover from my anxiety and panic attacks – and get rid of my low self esteem.

After doing some digging, I discovered that to improve low self esteem, it’s necessary to find things about yourself that you do like.

Now, this took a bit of work, but fortunately I still have my school report cards from way back in the 1960s. It was evident where my strengths lie. Going down the list of subjects, I realized that I truly felt good when I worked on certain areas, like English Literature and Art.

How was this knowledge going to help my low self esteem?

Simply by focusing on those talents that I knew I was good at. I began doing some creative writing and a few paintings and sketches. With each piece of work, I could feel my self esteem creep up a little.

It was the start of my recovery from my panic and anxiety disorders and my low self esteem.

Once I was able to pat myself on the back, I required less recognition and approval from other people. Over time and after numerous creative projects, and eventually English classes at my local high school, I noticed a significant improvement in my low self esteem.

Perhaps for the first time in my life, I felt good about who I was. I now was aware of my true talents and I didn’t need anyone to confirm them.

Recently, I began watching soap operas – something I swore I’d never do. But a few years back I got hooked on Guiding Light – one of the top award winning programs. When the show started out 70 years ago, they introduced each episode with a poem about finding your light.

“Finding your light” is the key to your own happiness. Once you find it, you will begin to experience the inner satisfaction and excitement that I now feel. You will know who you are and why you are here.

Tap into your true talents and put them to use. Put your entire mind, body and soul into those talents to make them the absolute best they can be.

Make sure they are talents that give you tremendous personal enjoyment, because to focus on anything else will not work.

Get to work on your low self esteem by looking inside at what makes you glow. Your anxiety and panic, and even depression, will subside.

I recently came across a package that includes several books to help you develop self confidence and find success in life. It’s called Mind Power.

In my last post, I referenced the name that shook Virginia Tech last Spring - his name was Cho.

There were a lot of things going on with him that, for some reason, was waived off. Even though he was put in contact with the very people who could have helped, they didn’t. It was surprising that they would release him considering that one medical report stated that he remained a threat.

Despite all the warnings, he didn’t receive the help that could have prevented the killings.

I just published an article that you might find interesting.

The article is entitled: “Could Teaching Students About Mental Illness Have Helped Cho, Klebold, Harris And Others?”

It discusses the lack of understanding that we still have about mental illness. It talks about things we can do to prevent such events from happening in the future.

Namely, we need to more thoroughly educate ourselves and others about mental illness so that we are better able to identify when someone needs help.

Click Here to read the article.

For years, education has been important to helping people feel more comfortable with those who suffer with any mental health malady. We’ve come a long way since the 1940s and 1950s when such people were put away in institutions, isolated from the rest of society supposedly to protect us from them.

Fortunately, those days are long gone. Now we need to take it the next step. People need to know what the signs mean and what to do about it – when they are serious and when they are not.

We’re getting there, but cases like Cho show that we still have a long way to go.

To help people learn more about depression and suicide among teens, I’m currently putting the finishing touches on revising my book, “A Guide To Teenage Depression & Suicide” which I wrote back in the late 80s.

When it’s ready, I will announce it’s availability here.

Stay tuned!

It’s that time of year when kids are going back to school. With the terror last spring at Virginia Tech where students were massacred for no apparent reason, it’s understandable how students will now be much more reluctant to attend school.

They will likely experience constant underlying fear and anxiety that the same thing will happen in their schools. A recent article insists, however, that just because a person has social anxiety disorder doesn’t mean they will become violent.

It is now learned that Seung Hui Cho, the student responsible for killing 32 and injuring 29 people on the campus, did have social anxiety disorder. It’s been suggested that this was why he turned violent.

For centuries, people have feared anyone showing signs of a mental disorder. It’s taken generations for society to understand the true meaning of mental illness and for their fear to subside. There still exists some stigma, however. People like Mr. Cho reignite that fear, not only among the general public, but among families who have family members with a mental disorder of some sort.

Social anxiety disorder is associated with a fear of being in public, of socializing with peers, and of being humiliated. It usually leads to withdrawal from friends and family, and any social situation.

Dr. Rachel Bryant is a licensed psychologist practicing in New York State who assures parents that social anxiety disorder does not lead to violent actions. While the disorder might make his or her life uncomfortable, it is other factors that lead a person to commit violent acts.

Here’s a quote from an excellent article that goes into more detail of why Mr. Cho might have done what he did. The piece also discusses the duo Klebold and Harris who killed a number of people on the Columbine campus several years ago.

You can read the entire article at http://www.slate.com/id/2164757/

The predominant initial theory, which still retains support, is that Cho suffered from anger fused with depression. With school shooters, the anger almost always begins with a loss. The definitive Secret Service study on school shooters found the killers varied in every trait except two: every shooter was male, and 98 percent had experienced a significant loss, grievance, or sense of failure.

Two-thirds felt some sort of failure, and half had lost a loved one—typically meaning they’d been dumped.

Everyone gets dumped and gets dumped on. “Most of us get angry, kick a trash can, drink a beer or two, and get over it,” said Dr. Dwayne Fuselier, an expert on gunman psychology who headed the FBI’s Columbine investigation. But for a few, the anger festers. “Anger turned inward results in depression,” Fuselier said, “withdrawing from friends, relatives, etc.”

It’s important to understand mental illness so we can better react to people suffering from any of the disorders, such as social anxiety disorder and depression.

It’s interesting to note that the students who commit such tragedies isolate themselves from the rest of the student body. They are often bullied, rejected and feel that they are misunderstood.

In the meantime, it’s encouraging to read that just because a person has a mental condition doesn’t mean they will be prone to commit murder. As Dr. Rachel Bryant says, there are other factors involved.