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 In a world demanding high technology, high performance, high grades and over-achievement for leadership with smiles. Tears and fears are erased like chalkdust from the days events as the world chants, "Don't worry; Be happy," in an ever-increasing frenetic pace.
Reviewed by pogo
Conquering Panic and Anxiety Disorder: Success Stories, Strategies and other Good News
Jenna Glatzer, editor
with Dr. Paul Foxman, commentary
Hunter House, Alameda,CA
ISBN 0-89783-381-8 2002 237pp 15.95 USD
http://www.hunterhouse.com
For those in an invisible prison, Conquering Panic and Anxiety Disorders is a key to escape the pain and torment suffered silently within the personal life that is difficult to speak about or explain. The agony of isolation may not be detected in daily life at work or within the circle of friends, but it remains deeper hidden with the soul and the anxious moments of self-doubt and dread to open the mail, answer the door or face the audience. In a world demanding high technology, high performance, high grades and over-achievement for leadership with smiles. Tears and fears are erased like chalkdust from the days events as the world chants, "Don't worry; Be happy," in an ever-increasing frenetic pace. Color the eyes, draw the eyebrows and paint a smile upon yor lips. Stuff the nightmares back into the anxiety closet, secure the padlock and walk on. It's life.
Take a pill, get a drink, throw a party; but smile, you're on a stage where the audience demands a performance, so play the play before the footlights and pray fervently that folks like it. Anxiety and stress - the demand to perform like clowns before family and friends, to wear the power shoes and enter the interview with the charm that bewitches the snakes on Medusa's head. Often doubts, like arsenic in groundwater, seep slowly into our minds, poisoning our perceptives on what we are and insidiously perverting our views on life by isolating us from ourselves and from the world around us.
"Every day, my world shrank a little smaller, until I felt like a pathetic shadow of the person I'd been before. What started as a problem only in big crowds had advanced to a tdial wave, rendering me incapable of normal social interaction. I couldn't even invite someone over to watch television with me.
I began sleeping days and staying up all night, in order to avoid people altogether. I had really search to find reasons to keep on living. I had a diabetic cat, and often I talked myself out of suicide only because I convinced myself that she needed me. If I died, who would take care of her insulin shots? She'd nuzzle up alongside me, and I'd hang on for one more day, knowing how implicitly she trusted me and how she wouldn't allow anyone else to come near her with a needle. For me, she purred and took her medicine well..." (p8)
Crazy? No. Absolutely not. As many normal healthy people as those who have emotional problems, suffer panic and anxiety disorders. In 1999, a Canadian medical scientist, Jacques Branwejn announced that he discovered a relationship between a genetic mutation and panic disorders. In 2002, this was supported by Dr. Xavier Estevill, the head of the medical and molecular genetics at Duran I Rynals Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. He concurred that there was a gene or environmental factor could cause an abnormality in chromosome 15 that was not inherited, but existed in 100% of the patients with panic and anxiety disorders. Previously, panic and anxiety disorders had been treated as "anxiety neurosis" based on Freudian theory that it was caused by deeply rooted within paychological conflicts or the upsetting impulses of a sexual nature. The term "anxiety neurosis" also stigmatized a person as being "Neurotic" or a candidate for the gummi-zimmer in the crazy-house. Now panic and anxiety disorders are recognized to be physiological problems which should be treated with skilled medical assistance. Nearly 80% of those who receive treatment and care for these problems, overcome them so winning isn't a spectator sport enjoyed by a minority. Victims do win their battles. There's hope that a person can overcome the crippling effects of panic and anxiety attacks.
The stories offer personal insight, compassion and support, with extra spoonfuls of hope, for anyone who has ever known the defeating numbness and terror of a panic attack striking like lighning out of a blue sky. Each person panics differently. Some have difficulty breathing and pounding in their ears; others have sudden cold sweats; yet others suffer nauseea and diarrhea and eventually become inhibited from the fear that they might make a spectacle of themselves at the worst possible moment. Donny Osmond was terrified to walk onstage; others withdraw into a secluded world defined by agoraphobia. Conquering Panic includes thirty-one stories with many different experiences. No two people suffer the same way, and no two people conquer it the same way. Like a traveler in the heart of a Dark Forest of Fear, there are many ways out; but you must choose your path and follow it until you feel the sunlight warm your
life again.
Jenna Glatzer offers her story as an introduction to the collection - a victim of agoraphobia. Her isolated world was was broken through a chink in the wall via email. A correspondence began, establishing deep personal communication which gave her a lifeline. Then one day, a note entered which changed her life for good. One note led to another until they met... You'll have to read to find out what happened.
The book offers insider information on personal response, reactions and experience. Dr. Paul Foxman offers commentary on the different experiences presented with tips and insights of strategies used to overcome the crippling effects. The book contains listings for websites, organizations and self-help programs for those too afraid to reach out. Being ridiculed isn't fun, and being stigmatized is cruel. There are people who do understand and they have been through the same ordeal and they won't ridicule the pain or anxiety that you may feel. It's not in your head, but something that destroys the fabric and order of your life, shadowing you everywhere so that you fear that a small misstep will cause all your ambitions, dreams and hopes to collapse. Have courage. Fight back. With so many friendly voices to give encouragement, the way out of the Forest of Anxiety may not be immediate, but definite.
Dr. Paul Foxman, suffered himself, but is now the Director of the Center of Anxiety Disorders in Burlington, Vermont. Panic and anxiety disorders include: agoraphobia, APD, obsessive-compulsive disorders, social anxiety disorders, selective mutism, PTSD, generalized anxiety, panic attacks and body dysmorphic disorders. Nearly ten percent of Americans suffer from panic or anxiety disorders; but if you start considering artists and writers as people, then the figures soar. However, many people suffer, but afraid to speak, they hang onto it silently like an unspoken, forbidden, hidden sin.
Offering encouragement and compassion, the book presents stories of hope. Someone's been through a similar ordeal and overcome it. Carefully edited, clearly presented the stories open a window to a new world where prisoners of panic and anxieties can look out for a new day. For more information visit: Conquering Anxiety
Pogo
pogomcl@authorsden.com
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