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One of the best ways to manage your anxiety is to understand it. As I discussed in conditioning,
understanding and confronting the sources of your panic attacks is the best way to "re-train your brain."
So, I am always reading about research and studies that have been done to better understand why we panic. Knowing why
gives you two things: one, it allows you to attack the problem because you better understand what the problem is; but two, it gives
you a sense of control, which in your fight against anxiety is a powerful thing.
I found a great article summarizing the amazing work of Psychologist David H. Barlow of Boston University. Barlow really challenged
conventional wisdom the causes of anxiety and came up with some very interesting insights. But here are the major findings of one of his
studies--findings that blew me away.
Barlow found that around 10% of the population suffers from anxiety, which comes in a variety of symptoms and levels of severity.
Barlow discovered that while 10% of people have anxiety, only about half of this group (i.e. 5% of the population) has their anxiety
reach the level of being debilitating, enough to be characterizing as "anxiety disorder." Anxiety disorder, though, occurs in individuals
who have three common characteristics:
A generalized biological vulnerability - in other words, a particular physical or chemical tendency towards anxiety and panic,
often hereditary, typically leading us to over-react to stimuli that others are not affected by
A generalized psychological vulnerability - typically a childhood learning that there are things in the world, both internal (like
social situations) and external (like stress) that we are not in control of and that we should fear. Specifically, Barlow notes that
this is common in people with overprotective parents, who have a heightened sense of danger of things in their world.
A specific psychological vulnerability - this is the focus fear related to the previous point, in which our generalized fear
has taken root in a few specific things, which become our triggers for panic disorder. These tend to be learned in childhood.
If you have suffered from anxiety as I have, you are probably nodding your head in agreement to the above characteristics. Many people
in my family suffer from anxiety, so it is pretty clear we have the physical tendency toward anxiety. My parents tended to be very
protective, giving me a sense that there were things to fear. And they tended to tell me about their own fears--their triggers, in fact--
which in turn ended up overlapping a lot with my own. Apparently this is not a coincidence.
Barlow went on to discuss treatment--finding that conditioning tends to be the best method of treatment,
actually being more effective than drugs over the long term to change people's general ability to beat anxiety. This is great news for
everyone looking to end their anxiety and panic attacks.
Remember--gaining control over your anxiety is possible, but you need to work at it a little everyday. Don't suffer with it another minute!
Find a resource that you like--there are hundreds of them out there--and start your journey to a normal life. Millions of people have beat
their anxiety, and more do it every day. So can you!!!
I Wish You The Best Of Luck!
John Tavern
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