Statistics reveal that more than 19 million adult Americans in the age-group of 18-54 year suffer from anxiety. Often we see that in a particular situation some people stay very cool and relaxed while in a similar situation there are some persons who lose their nerve and become over anxious about the situation.

The difference in the behavior of people in similar situations can be best understood if we take a look at the mechanism of the brain. It has been found that the body’s fear response is coordinated by a small structure deep inside the brain, called the amygdala. Neuroscientists have shown that when confronted with danger, the body’s senses launch two sets of signals to different parts of the brain. One set of signals, which takes a longer route, relays information to the cerebral cortex, the cognitive part of the brain that explains in detail the threatening object or situation such as a big blue bus coming towards you as you cross the street. The other signal reaches the amygdala causing the fear factor to rise and hence protect oneself even before the cognitive part of the brain can describe that what actually the threat is. Although the amygdala is a very small part of the brain yet its function is very complicated. A recent research with animals suggests that different anxiety disorders may be associated with activation in different parts of the amygdala.

One or more fearful experience makes a person extra cautious and he responds with fear in similar situations, reacting in a much different way from other persons in a similar situation. But sometimes similar fearful situations become so much embedded in a person’s mind that whenever a slightly similar situation occurs then the same fear comes to the fore front and the person behaves in a hyper manner. For people who are suffering from ‘post traumatic stress disorder’ (PTSD) even a small reminder of the incident brings shivers down the spine for that person. This is because even the slight reminder of the incident can make a person recollect the fear embedded in his mind associated with the incident. Research evidence proves that genetics is also one of the factors which can spark the anxiety disorder in a person. Researches on mice have shown that there is a specific gene (SLC6A4) which is responsible for the birth of anxiety disorder in a person.

There are various ways which can treat these kinds of anxiety disorders. There are various therapies like cognitive therapy, psychotherapy and finally medication. Generally, a mild anxiety disorder can be effectively treated by using psychotherapy or cognitive behavior therapy. It is only when the anxiety disorder does not get treated by psychotherapy or cognitive behavior alone that medicines are required to treat a person. There are quite a number of anti-depressants prescribed for the treatment but Xanax is one such medicine that is widely popular among the physicians, as far as the treatment of anxiety disorder is concerned. Xanax belongs to a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines.

If you find symptoms of anxiety disorder in any of your near and dear ones then the best way is to visit your physician as soon as possible. Only your Physician can detect that whether these symptoms are due to anxiety or any other medical condition. The symptoms of Anxiety Disorder like restlessness, loss of sleep, loss of hunger, over-impulsive nature, losing temper easily, etc. are some of the symptoms which can detect the mental disease of anxiety disorder. After you come to know for sure from your physician that you are really suffering from anxiety then the next important step is to visit a mental health care professional.

Apart from the general physician there are people like psychologists, counselors, and at times even the psychiatrists. These professionals implement various methods and techniques to treat a person suffering from anxiety disorder. There are methods like hypnotism, verbal counseling, and finally medication if the situation worsens immensely then there is no way apart from medicines like Xanax. At first the effort of every physician or counselor is to treat you without putting on medication. They try various other alternative therapies to make you free from anxiety. Sometimes there are social workers and psychologists who work in close connection with the psychiatrists.

Sometimes a group therapy or group counseling is equally effective for some patients to get rid of their anxiety. When you are deciding to settle upon the idea of visiting a mental health care professional then you should also try to find out that what kind of therapy is that doctor using and whether he relies on medicines as well or not. In case you are already taking some medication to treat your condition then it is strictly advisable not to increase your dosages on your own. You should always consult your doctor before tampering in any way with the dosages you are taking. It’s only your doctor who can give you the right dose required. Once you are satisfied with the possible treatment applied by the physician you should give in completely to that physician’s way of treatment. You must though have faith on your physician completely on whatever method he applies. Sometimes it can be cognitive therapy and sometimes it can be behavioral therapy or may be a combination of both the methods that your physician may apply to treat you. Treatments for anxiety disorders, however, may not start working instantly. Your doctor or therapist may ask you to follow a specific treatment plan for several weeks to determine whether it’s working or not.

While anxiety disorders occur throughout the life time but the anxiety occurring in older people is quite different.

Interestingly, most anxiety disorders are somewhat less common and often less severe in persons over 65 years of age; for example social phobia, agoraphobia, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and the more severe forms of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Nonetheless, about 20% of all elderly persons report some symptoms of anxiety. In addition, anxiety symptoms arising from physical problems or medication side effects are more frequent among the elderly. For example breathing problems, irregular heart beats and tremors can give rise to the symptoms of anxiety. Anxiety can occur along with other psychiatric problems too; over half of elderly persons with severe depression also can be said to be suffering from generalized anxiety disorder.

As an increasing section of our population ages, mental health problems among older adults are getting more and more attention.  Unfortunately, much of the existing research so far has focused predominantly on young or middle aged adults. Studies have shown that among older adults, anxiety disorders occur two to seven times more often than depression problems such as major depressive disorder.  This suggests that anxiety disorders are a very real and relatively common problem among older adults experiencing mental health problems.

There are many reasons which result in the anxiety for the senior people. The everyday activities of the people put stress on their minds giving rise to their anxiety. Many elderly people must deal with significant changes, with threats to their independent functioning and with major losses at a time in their lives when they are often least equipped to deal with them. All this definitely leads to anxiety. Among the elderly, anxiety symptoms can also be associated with real problems such as physical health problems, medical problems, challenges to living independently, and cognitive impairment. An anxiety disorder is only diagnosed if the anxiety symptoms are excessive, uncontrollable, create significant distress to the individual and/or interfere with daily living.

The high degree of overlap between anxiety and medical problems can make correct diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders particularly challenging among older or elderly adults. For example, muscle tension, sleep disturbance, and feeling agitated can be symptoms of both anxiety disorders and medical conditions. In addition, some medical problems (e.g., cardiovascular disease, hyperthyroidism) can lead to symptoms that feel like symptoms of anxiety. For this reason it is important that both mental and physical health symptoms are reviewed thoroughly with older or elderly individuals who have anxiety-like symptoms.

Fortunately, there are many good treatments for anxiety disorders. These may include the use of relaxation techniques, psychotherapy and medications. Frequently with effective treatment, the person can then handle the challenges of his life.

Caroline’s high school result is going to be declared tomorrow and here she is lying awake with wide eyes at 1:00 A.M. in the night desperately worried, what if she doesn’t perform well, what if she doesn’t get admission in the course of her choice, what if she is forced to stay away at an alien college away from her friends. For you and me, it is a pretty ordinary situation but for Caroline it may mean the end of the world to her.

Anxiety must be a very harmless looking condition to a person who has never experienced it ever in his life. It is well said that only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. Just ask a person who has been suffering from anxiety for past several years. The endless sleepless nights spent, the frequent bouts of anxiety experienced, the constant fear nagging him etc. can be well understood only by a person who has ever experienced the condition of anxiety in his life or has come across somebody close to him with a similar condition.

It is a general perception among the common public that anxiety is something which is always attached with the grown ups or the elderly. But they are gravely wrong in their perception. Anxiety can be experienced just by any person, be it a child, a teenager, a girl, a boy, an adult or an elderly.

What we are going to discuss here is the anxiety suffered by the teenagers, or teenage-anxiety. A 13 year old child may be staying awake till 2:00 a.m. in the night worrying for his English or Math test. He might be worrying over a fight with a dear friend of his. Might even worry himself to death thinking about what if the constant fights of his parents lead them to a divorce. A teenager may also start worrying unnecessarily if he is going on his first date or for that matter attending the Prom night with his fellow buddies. For an ordinary person situations like these can be pretty harmless but for a teenager who is suffering from anxiety, situations like these can trigger bouts of anxiety which can often become troublesome if not checked or monitored. Thus it is wrong to assume that only the grown ups have reasons to worry. Anxiety is a mental disorder which depends on many factors.

A teenager may be suffering from anxiety more than a fellow teenager of his age due to many factors such as personal factors, genetic factors, the brain chemistry of that teenager etc. A teenager who has a parent suffering from anxiety has a high chance of developing anxiety disorder as compared to the other teenagers. Sometimes the constant problems in one’s life start troubling a tender mind which is more sensitive than the others. Some teenagers are more susceptible to anxiety because of the chemical imbalance in their brain. Anxious teenagers are more likely to indulge in smoking, drinking alcohol etc. and there are even instances of drug-abuse in an anxious teenager.

A brain has neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are in fact the chemical messengers which communicate with the neurons of the brain. There are basically two kinds of chemicals in the brain, dopamine and norepinephrine which are responsible for a person’s ‘feeling low’. In the face of any danger our brain is accustomed to act in a way where we can either fight the danger or can defend ourselves by running. People who are sensitive create an artificial danger like situation for the brain due to which the brain reacts,

thinking that the body is in danger, and hence starts getting anxious for the fear of a possible attack. Every fearful situation in the brain is recorded so that whenever any similar situation occurs the brain may be all set to send caution signal to the body. An oversensitive person sends signals to the brain that the body is in danger and hence the brain acts accordingly causing an imbalance in the neurotransmitters- dopamine and norepinephrine. This causes the person to become over anxious and feel overtly worried and concerned in a specific situation although in reality the situation may not be really that bad.

There are possible ways to check anxiety in teenagers. At first a teenager should be taken to a physician who can examine and monitor the particular person and suggest a possible treatment method for him or her. Initially they should be made to go for non-medicinal therapies like cognitive behavior therapy, meditation etc. In cognitive behavior therapy, the teenagers should be told how to remove the cause of their anxiety, that is, their worrisome thoughts by changing their way of thinking. Alternative therapies like meditation can also do wonders in maintaining the inner calm of the person. All this goes a long way in the removal of the ‘what if’ fear syndrome in the teenagers which in fact is one of the prime factors for giving rise to the unnecessary anxiety in them. If the situation is beyond any control then the physician may be likely to prescribe CNS depressants like Xanax which calm down the brain activity.

Xanax (alprazolam) is approved by the FDA as the most effective drug for the treatment of anxiety and other panic disorders. A large scale placebo controlled study of the action of Xanax on anxiety disorder patients support the efficacy of the drug. Alprazolam is highly recommended for the treatment of different types of anxiety disorders like generalized anxiety disorder, chronic anxiety disorder etc. The drug can also provide relief in a short time.

But the use of Xanax is highly debated due to its potential side effects. Though Xanax is recognized as a benzodiazepine with very few side effects, it can still develop tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. It can cause dizziness, sedation, postural hypotension, confusion, headache, insomnia and other physiological and psychological problems. A methodical use of Xanax can help in minimizing all these side effects.

One should start with a small dose of the drug during the initial period of medication. 0.25 mg to 0.5 mg of Xanax twice or thrice a day would be an effective start as it will negate the sedative effects that usually set in during the first week of the treatment. And taking the drug after meals will help in overcoming drowsiness and help in the therapeutic effect of Xanax to act for a longer period in the system.

After the first week, the dosage can be gradually increased, say adding 0.5 mg to one of the three daily doses. The maximum dosage at a time should not go beyond 2 mg. One should also try to restrict the dosage between 1mg to 10mg per day. It is also advised to take a dose of Xanax after every four hours or so. This will keep the anxiety attacks that keep recurring after certain intervals under control. But it is always best to maintain the dose after consulting a physician.

The tapering process of the drug also plays a significant role in avoiding the harmful effects of Xanax. An efficient tapering of the drug should be done under the guidance of an experienced physician. Generally, it is recommended to reduce 0.25mg of Xanax after every three days. Withdrawal as well as rebound symptoms are likely to occur during tapering. Long time users of alprazolam may need around two to three months for successful withdrawal of the drug from their system.

Well, if the above schedule doesn’t help at all, alternative methods or other long acting benzodiazepines should be used. Longer acting benzodiazepine like clonazepam can be a suitable optional drug. The barbiturate called Phenobarbital may also be tried out. Adding another medication like carbamazepine, propranolol or clonidine to Xanax can also be effective in reducing the troublesome problems that occur during the withdrawal period.

More Articles

	Understanding the Odds to Get over Anxiety of Terrorist Attack
	Getting Over Exam Stress
	Affinity for Nature Helps to Relieve Stress and Anxiety
	Relaxation Techniques at your Work Desk
	Tackling Your Driving Anxiety
	Holiday Blues: Learn to Fight Your Stress and Anxiety
	Natural and Chemical Drugless Supplements for Anxiety Removal

 

Understanding the Odds to Get over Anxiety of Terrorist Attack

After the infamous 9/11 attack, the terrorist bug has bitten every single American. Every step and move of their life have been taken with measured caution, sometimes bordering on total insanity. Many Americans have stopped visiting malls, and boarding the occasional flight from the West Coast to the East Coast is accomplished with a great degree of reluctance. Parents don’t send their children out on Halloween night due to the fear of a terrorist attack, any time. Fear of a terrorist strike has become a matter of extreme worry and anxiety among the present day Americans. Well how do we screen out such unfounded fears from the minds of the layman? It better be done fast, as these fears are slowly gaining momentum to establish itself as an anxiety disorder. Terrorist phobia is here to stay.

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The media, to a great extent, is responsible for creating havoc in the mind of the average United States citizen. The government, as well as the media, has been keeping the people at tenterhooks, with their cock and bull stories all the way. They failed to bring out the stark truth and naked reality of the conflicts in the Muslim world. With the media pouring in stories of anthrax, the infamous Iraqi WMD (weapon of mass destruction) fiasco, the present nuclear crisis in Iran etc., the average American feels that he is constantly under threat of a future terrorist attack. This fear firmly grips their mind leading them to panic disorders, stressed out conditions and other symptoms of anxiety disorders.

Well, let’s first see the odds and evens of a terrorist attack happening on American soil, weighing all the risk-related factors. Say, there are 40,000 malls in the whole country, which open for 75 hours a week. You generally spend 2 hours in one of these malls for shopping purposes every week. If the terrorists have the capacity to hit one mall per week, the odds that you will be at the wrong place in the wrong time would roughly work out to 1.5 million to 1. And if you were not a victim in that one incident, the odds would gradually move in your favor. Even in the case of a tragic situation of a plane hijack, the odds are totally in your favor. Then, why do you fear to visit the malls or catch a flight, when you know that the chance of an attack is close to zero?

A closer look at the other factors that contribute to the death mortality rate in the United States would give you astonishingly surprising figures. The odds of dying due to cancer in a given year are 1 in 600, and that of heart attack, 1 in 400. But we still fail to take regular exercise or stop smoking. And one in every 7000 die of automobile accidents in the United States alone. But, nowhere have I heard of people giving up driving, just because the chances of an accident happening to them are very high. People still drive, smoke, drink and don’t work their body out in spite of the odds not standing in their favor. So, what is the logic or the thread of reasoning behind the perennial fears of a terrorist attack?

It is high time the people start fending out for themselves to overcome such groundless fears and panics that can lead them to anxiety disorders. We must differentiate the possibility of a terrorist attack happening to our country and the possibility that such an event would affect me individually. It all comes down to the individual. The simple statistics that I have given above clearly show that we have been overestimating events that have low probabilities of occurring, while we have been underestimating events that have high probabilities of happening anytime. We need to go all out and take each day as it comes. Though it would be tough for a victim or someone close to a victim to immediately get over such baseless fears, one should learn to see reality.

We should learn to take every piece of news, the media and the government feed us, with a pinch of salt. The media too can play a role in lightening the burden of excessive misinformation of the people. The stark facts and figures tell us that we are more at risk of death due our own daily habits, diets and other schedules, than the impending threat of a terrorist attack. So, let’s leave all the fear, panic and anxiety behind and carry on with our life. We can take care of ourselves, whatever may happen. Forget anxiety disorders due to terrorist phobia because there is no such serious intimidation as is played out in the media. Busy with our daily activities, we can leave terrorist fears to the government and the media.

Getting Over Exam Stress

Stress is as old as human being. It is the way our entire physical and mental being react and respond to the environment. Stress before the exam occurs to every Tom, Dick and Harry. It is nothing abnormal, as being stressed out before the exam shows that you do care about the result or the consequence of the particular exam you are appearing. Students can take stress in two ways: they either view it positively or see only the negatives in it. Taking stress positively would do a world of good to a student. He can take it as a constructive challenge to prove his mettle. But taking stress negatively has dire consequences. When worry hits him, he becomes panicky and pessimistic. Instead of longing for success, he worries about failure. It is just a prelude to endless anxiety problems that would gradually set into his life.

But how do you know that you have a negative exam stress? You will begin to see certain signs and experience customary symptoms of stress. There is a strong likelihood of getting cold and flu in such a condition. You are prone to suffer from stomach upsets, undergo pain all over your body and see itchy rashes sprouting up on your skin. They are the outward physical symptoms that show that you have exam stress. The psychological signs would include frequent panic attacks, waking up in the middle of a sleep, always feeling sad with a tendency to cry etc.

Here are some tips that would be effective in getting over your exam stress:

• Sleep like a princess. Students start burning the midnight oil just before the exam. That is a big “NO”. Get plenty of sleep before your exam.
• Indulge in your regular past-times. Don’t confine yourself to your books. Go out and meet you friends and take everything normal.
• Don’t neglect you eating schedule. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. You require all the energy to digest everything that you have logged into your head.
• Being optimistic can take you in the right direction. Forget all your negatives. Make a list of all your positives. It can boost up your spirit.
• Over-feeding information at a stretch will result in the breakdown of your brain. Take small breaks in between your studies. It will calm your nerves.
• Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. This maxim applies to your study too. It is a time for revision. New inputs will only confuse you.
• Physical exercise can exercise your mind too. Running, jogging or even a walk would suffice in keeping you in a relaxed state of mind.
• Have fun with yourself. If you feel the pressure brimming up in you, stand in front of the mirror and tell your reflected self that you are best.

Follow these tips before your exam to let stress and anxiety disorder out through the backdoor.

 

Affinity for Nature Helps to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

The closer a man is to Nature the better his chances are for the longevity of his life. Nature brings us closer to our own self and thus helps us to redefine our nature, behavior and our true self. The farther we are from Nature, the more we suffer in the form of stress, anxiety and the other forms of neurotic disorder. Nature and humans are complementary to each other and if we avoid the closeness to nature, it is we who would suffer in the long run. The more we are growing materialistic in our tastes and needs the worse our quality of life is.

Now the question that many of us may ask is, can our closeness to nature by spending our time in and with nature reduce stress and anxiety? The environmental psychologists are of the opinion that our surroundings do influence our mental health. Let us look at some of the ways by which we can bring nature close to ourselves so that we can lead a healthier life, both physically as well as mentally.

Regular Walks Amidst Nature: Try to develop fascination for whatever natural surroundings you have. If the road outside your house is lined up with trees on the either side then try to wake up in the morning when there is less of traffic and take a walk on the pavement inhaling the fresh morning air and relieving your stress.

Search For Natural Surroundings: If you live in an urban area where you have difficulty in finding nature, look for parks in your area with ample greenery where you can go and spend some of your time in the company of nature. You can even go for some aerobic exercises like brisk walking or jogging in the park. This would help you to inhale some fresh oxygen on one hand and on the other hand provide you with some mental peace.

Create Some Green Space Around You: If you have some empty land around your home or some vacant plot of land at the backyard of the house, utilize that land to grow some plants or seasonal flowers. This would help you to be in touch of nature right inside your house itself. You may even feel your self-confidence increasing by creating your own little space for nature.

Utilize Most of the Outdoor Natural Surroundings: Instead of sitting inside the four walls of your room, try to bring your chair out in the open sunlight and enjoy the sun sometimes. Hang plants on your porch. You will be amazed to see that what a soothing effect it would have on your brain, by keeping you busy in gardening and landscaping. This would probably give you less time to think about your anxiety disorder or suffer any kind of panic attacks.

Adopt a pet: Animals are also a form of nature worth appreciating. The best way is to have a pet, be it a bird or an animal. The emotional attachment that we develop for our pets acts as a healing touch to the depressed and anxious minds of the human beings. Keeping a pet would let you enjoy the company of an animal or a bird.

Appreciate Night Time Nature and Weather: Make it a habit of star-gazing the clear night sky. Appreciate the twinkling of the stars and the cool moonlight. You will see yourself that how happy and relaxed you feel doing these things.

Take a Nature Trip: Try going out for trips to such places which have proximity to nature. If you decide about your trips keeping nature in your mind, you will see that after returning from such trips you are more refreshed, relaxed and stress free.

To conclude, nature plays a very important part in our lives and if we realize the close connection between we the humans, and the nature itself, we will bring lesser and lesser miseries in our lives in the form of stress and anxiety. The oriental philosophy believes that the human body is made up of 5 natural elements: earth, sky, water, air and fire. We need to keep ourselves in close synchronization with nature. It is then only that we can lead a stress free, anxiety free and a trouble free life.

Relaxation Techniques at your Work Desk

A person spends on an average around 46-48 hours weekly at his workplace sitting on his seat doing work. These are the normal everyday working hours, not to forget the extension of the working hours when you have the deadlines to meet or you are overloaded with your work. That stretches your time spent at your office further from 48-54 hours weekly or even more. All this does add pressure on us and contribute to a stressful life. For life to be enjoyable we all need challenges that we feel we can cope with. Sadly we are all, at times, faced with challenges that we feel we cannot cope with and it is then that we may experience stress.

If you do not learn to manage your stress at your work place soon, the physical machinery of your body would surely crash down, no need of mentioning the host of mental problems like anxiety, that you would invite along with the stress. In order to manage your stress at your work place you need to follow some relaxation tips.

It is not always necessary to get up from your seat in order to relax and moreover it is not even practically feasible to get up and go for a walk or refresh yourself by listening to some soothing piece of music in the office while you are working. Therefore the best way to relax is to follow some good relaxation tips by remaining at your seat itself.

Here are a few tips to destress and relax at your seat:

1. Raise your shoulders as high so as to touch your ears. Remain in that position for at least few seconds and then return to your normal position. Do this for at least 10 times and you will see yourself that how your shoulders feel tension free.
2. Shake your wrist few times for at least 30 seconds.
3. When you are constantly sitting for 8-9 hours at a stretch, destress yourself by taking a deep long breath and then exhaling slowly. This process should be repeated for at least 5 times.
4. Tense up your whole body by gritting your teeth, clenching fists, hardening your face, and closing your eyes. Remain in this way for a few seconds and then relax yourself by coming to your normal position.
5. Rub your palms long enough to generate heat and then place your hot palms on your eyes and compress your eyeballs. Use this heat to allow your eyeballs to relax.
6. Office work has been restricted to the computers these days and a person needs to strain his eyes constantly for 8-9 hours. This not only puts pressure on the optic nerves and stresses your eyes but also weakens your concentration. The best tip to relax your eyes is to look away from your monitor for some time and position your eyes on the four corners of your room and the walls. Try this tip and you will feel your eyes getting relaxed after constantly looking at the monitor.
7. Do not keep on building negative emotions in your heart. Try and speak; communicate with your colleagues and boss. This will make you stress free.

Tackling Your Driving Anxiety

We would find many people around us who undergo varied levels of stress under various circumstances. The chronic stress under a particular situation manifests itself into the long term neurotic disorder of anxiety. Anxiety, in any situation is bad because it makes a person hollow from within. Anxiety can pave way for many other diseases as well.

There are many people who undergo anxiety even while driving. Going behind the wheels itself, makes such people anxious. Anxiety while driving can be very hazardous. While driving a person should fully concentrate on his job only and his mind should have a single focus, only then he can drive safely. Thanks to the overcrowded roads and heavy traffic, not to mention the ignorant commuters who give a hoot to the safety norms while on the road, these days driving has indeed become a nightmare for most of us. And to top it, if it is combined with anxiety, can prove to be a deadly combination.

If you experience panic and anxiety while driving or even thinking about driving, you may be suffering from ‘Driving Anxiety’. You are not the only person who undergoes this traumatic experience every time you are on the road in a vehicle. Some people experience anxiety while driving in any situation while there are others who may face anxiety only in specific driving situations. Some experience anxiety while driving on highways, bridges or through the busy cities, while there are some who suffer from anxiety even if they are just a passenger sitting in a vehicle.

Here are some tips that would relieve you of tension and anxiety while you are on the road behind the wheel driving your vehicle. These tips are as follows:

• Create an affirmation repeating yourself aloud that you know how to drive safely on the road. This would divert your mind away from your feelings and mood of stress and anxiety while driving. These things should sound truthful to you and should seem believable to the situation as well.
• There are times when a person suffering from driving anxiety while approaching a busy road may start getting disruptive and troublesome thoughts in his mind that he is going to meet with an accident. These kinds of thoughts should be checked at the time of its origin itself. You should develop a more adaptive response to the situation.
• Take some water and snacks with you. When anxious feelings start gripping you then munch some snacks and drink some water to ward off such feelings. Even if you are preoccupied with these anxious thoughts munching some of your favorite snack would surely release some of the tension of your head.
• Another thing that helps is to focus on little things like turning on the radio of your car.
• Take a bottle of chilled ice water in a bottle even if it is freezing outside. While driving if you start feeling low or the anxious feelings start disturbing you, wipe your face with this cold water and take a sip of it and you will instantly see that it works.
• If none of the above tips help you, take some professional help of a psychologist who may try some cognitive behavior therapy on you. In some cases the patient can also be put on medicines like Xanax to relieve of extreme chronic anxiety.

Holiday Blues: Learn to Fight Your Stress and Anxiety

Christmas is a big occasion when most of us do not mind spending extravagantly beyond our means. In fact festive occasions like Christmas are an outlet to our expenditures after working hard to earn those dollars. Festivals are also a way to remember our loved ones by buying gifts for them. The average expenditure of an American household for the holiday season is approximately $1500 and once the New Year’s festive mood subsides by January end, people get some bad surprises due to their overspending and pending bills.

Holidays can bring a sense of overwhelming responsibility and even dread. And it’s no wonder: In the effort to pull off the perfect holiday, you might find yourself cast into a dizzying array of competing demands – work, visits with family and friends, gift buying, baking, shopping, cleaning, caring for kids on school break, and scores of other chores. Among a host of problems arising out of holidays one problem can also be the concern for the repayment of your heavy bills which you had forgotten about while indulging in compulsive shopping for your holidays, be it your Christmas and New Year or for some long vacation.

There are many reasons which can trigger a cycle of stress and anxiety prior, during or post holiday period. These problems can trigger either due to relationships, financial reasons or physical reasons. The feeling of missing your loved ones is perhaps at its highest peak during holidays and festive occasions. If your loved one is not near you during the merry making period, you may grow sad and seeing others enjoy with their family and friends, your sadness may automatically manifest itself in causing stress and anxiety to you at the time when you need it the least.

Financial stress can be a major stress in causing anxiety to you during this period. We all want to enjoy and have a gala time during occasions like Christmas or if we are going on a vacation; but occasions like these become a cause of worry for us when we go overspending beyond our means. Spending extra money during the holidays on gifts, food, travel and entertainment can really make your holidays horrible as instead of enjoying you may end up worrying yourself to death reeling under stress and anxiety of astronomically high bills. Moreover holidays also add to your physical exhaustion and hence add up to your stress and anxiety. The strain of shopping, attending social gatherings, doing that special cooking for your family and friends can really add to your holiday woes.

Here are a few tips that can help you release some stress and anxiety at the time when you can hardly afford to suffer from anxiety or stress:

• Do not suppress your feelings. Try not to stay in solitude. Give a vent to your feelings and talk with a person whom you can trust and depend upon.
• Be realistic in your expectations regarding your family and friends as to who can really come over with you to enjoy and who can not. Sometimes if you think over this issue logically and practically, you may understand that person’s genuine reason of not being with you. This way you can reduce your stress and anxiety by unnecessarily thinking about that person’s absence during the celebrations.
• Set differences aside and be understanding in your relationships.
• Stick to a budget according to your income. Do not try to measure the happiness with costly gifts. Try to give hand made gifts. It will not only make others feel loved but would also add a touch of personal warmth. Be wise to spend through your debit cards rather than overspending with credit cards. As long as there is money in your account you would know the limit of your expenditure and hence you will plan your expenditure accordingly.
• Create a spending plan. Be wise to develop a calendar to alleviate your last minute moments of stress and anxiety.
• Do not abandon your healthy habits. Learn to stick to healthy eating and physical activity. Decide before hand that how much you will eat and drink. Take out plenty of time to sleep and also do not forget to schedule some time for a little physical activity.

Natural and Chemical Drugless Supplements for Anxiety Removal

Destructive outbursts of people can be really destructive, enough to land the people in prisons. It is a real pity that these kinds of outbursts can well be brought under control but half of the time, either the cause is not known or even if the cause is known then we are unaware of the method to tackle it. Anxiety can be a real trouble for all those whose lives have become hellish because of anxiety. Most of us may be of the opinion that the only way to handle anxiety and related disorders is to rely on medicines. Benzodiazepine drugs like Xanax are often prescribed for the removal of anxiety. Another set of drugs that people go in for to relax themselves and calm down their minds are the SSRI drugs, that is, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs like Prozac.

No doubt medicines like Xanax give instant relief to the patients but there are also such supplements which if taken can provide a lot of help to get relief if you are suffering from anxiety. These supplements are quite distinct from the drugs that may be addictive in the long run. Some of the drugless remedies that can prove as an aid in your condition of anxiety are as follows:

Magnesium Citrate: Magnesium is called the anti stress mineral. Intake of magnesium calms nerves, improves digestion and sleep too. Restless sleep and insomnia are the common symptoms of magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is required to relax your muscles and soothe your nervous system. It is also helpful in triggering the sleep inducing hormone-melatonin.

Fish Oil: Researchers say that a daily intake of fish oil supplement in your diet would help you a lot in relieving yourself of stress and anxiety. Fish oil if taken regularly can even replace your anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax. People who add a daily dose of omega-3 fatty acids to their regular antidepressant treatment have significant improvement in symptoms, including anxiety, sleeping problems, sadness, decreased sexual desire, and suicidal tendencies.

Stevia: Stevia is a natural herb that has its origin in the country of Paraguay . Stevia can be 30 times sweeter than sugar and is widely used as a no calorie sweetener throughout the world and a dietary supplement in the US . Stevia is extremely nutritious and contains minerals like magnesium, niacin and vitamins like vitamin. Stevia has no fat and no carbohydrate and thus is ideal even for the diabetics. More of sugar intake always triggers such chemicals in our brain that add to anxiety and depression. Herbs like Stevia fulfill our craving for sugar on one hand and on the other do not harm the body.

B-Complex Vitamins: B-Complex vitamins help to even out the bad effects of sugar intake. Taken together these vitamins provide a healthy balance to the body that helps in alleviating neurotic disorders like anxiety.

Exercise: Start exercising if you have not exercised so far. This is so because exercise produces such chemicals in our brain that provide a calming effect and help us to tackle the situation of anxiety in a better way. Apart from checking anxiety, exercise is beneficial for combating other diseases as well which are related to an unfit body.

What are Most Common Causes of Depression in Teen?

With the fast pace of life picking up in the advanced nations of the world, every second person in the world is becoming prone to anxiety, depression, sleeplessness or insomnia. One of the important, but may be not the only reason for an increase in psychological and neurotic disorders is the excessive indulgence in the materialistic world, which of course, we can’t stop ourselves from.

This gives rise to certain disorders like anxiety, depression and other similar ailments. No doubt, medication should be the last resort. Other alternative healing methods like the oriental healing therapies of yoga, meditation, reiki e.t.c. can also be made as one of the options. But when you run short of patience, due to the above methods being time consuming , you can always switch over to such medicines which act as ‘calmer’ or ‘relaxant’ like XANAX which is an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drug.

Anxiety is the result of our own faulty life style because of which we depend on medicines like xanax. So if we want to get rid of this nervous disorder then first of all we have to get rid of our sedentary life style and should not become over-indulgent in today’s materialistic life. Moreover, even if we are taking medicines like xanax we should see that we take these kind of anti-anxiety medicines only upto the point of treating ourselves and should not become overly dependent on these drugs.

Apart from our lifestyle and psychological reasons there are some medical or biochemical reasons as well for a person suffering from anxiety and depression. One ‘medical’ cause of depression often given is the overproduction of stress hormones.

The hormonal imbalances related to depression are to do with our natural reactions to stress, and stress and depression are certainly linked. But does this hormonal imbalance actually cause depression?

It is true that depressed people often have increased levels of stress hormones in their bloodstream, but again, this is a symptom, not a cause.

When you reflect upon some particular issue again and again, or introspect in a negative way, you create emotional arousal that causes the release of stress hormones. That night, in REM (dream sleep), you become emotionally aroused again as dreaming ‘flushes out’ the emotional arousal from your brain. That is why depressed people have higher levels of stress hormones, and also why you can wake up feeling exhausted.

People who are pessimistic, have low self-esteem, worry excessively, or feel they have little control over life events are more likely to develop clinical depression. Even events such as the death of a loved one, divorce, financial strains, history of trauma, moving to a new location or significant loss can contribute to the onset of clinical depression. Some medications also can actually cause clinical depression. Therefore, it is important that people inform their doctors of all medications they are taking and report any depressive symptoms. Often it has been seen that people who drink heavily on regular basis also get buried into clinical depression.

Reasons

Thus, there is no single reason for the growth of depression and anxiety in the people. A whole lot of factors right from physiological, mental, our social lifestyle and even the bio-chemical factors together form a unique package for a depressed person.

Your doctor has prescribed XANAX® because he/she may have diagnosed you with either Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Panic Disorder with or without agoraphobia. XANAX has also been shown to be effective in the treatment of anxiety associated with depression.
In the treatment of anxiety disorders, XANAX offers some individuals prompt relief of symptoms. An early-morning dose (8 am) of XANAX takes effect within 1 to 2 hours1 in healthy adults.
Recently, a new, once daily formulation of XANAX® was approved by the FDA and is now available to patients. XANAX XR® (alprazolam extended-release tablets) is indicated for the treatment of Panic Disorder.

	An oral solution of .25mg , .05mg , 1mg/5ml , and 0.25mg / 2.5ml is available. Tablets of xanax are also available in the various quantities of 0.25 mg, 0.5mg, 1mg, and 2mg.Actual doses must be decided by the physician only.
	For a normal dose you are advised not to take xanax beyond 8 months
	Do not use xanax if you are less than 18 years old.
	If you are between 18 to 60 years of age then take .25mg to 1.5mg of dose daily.
	If you are above 60 years of age then increase your dosages carefully.
	The amount of dosages also depends upon your type of disorder. For anxiety or nervous tension you can start with .25mg to 0.5mg of xanax thrice everyday. Your maximum intake can be 4mg in 24 hours .
	For panic disorder start with 0.5mg of xanax thrice a day. You can gradually increase it to 1mg of xanax daily but only at an interval of every 3 to 4 days. The maximum that you can take for panic disorder is 10mg in 24 hours.
	You can take xanax with or without food but every dose has to be taken with a glassful of water.
	Swallow the whole medicine. Do not crush chew or break the extended release form-Xanax XR.
	You will get the full benefits of xanax in the first day to a week.
	If you miss any of your dosages of xanax never try to make it up by taking 2 dosages together because an overdose can be fatal. Overdose symptoms include sleepiness, dizziness, confusion, slow heart beat. an appearance of being drunk, unconsciousness etc.
	If you experience any of the following rare symptoms of overdose of xanax like convulsions, hallucinations, memory loss, trouble in breathing or trembling then see your physician immediately.

Problems with:

Liver Function: If liver disease is present,start dosage at 0.25mg,increase as needed.
Kidney Function: N/A.

Testing:

Before taking: None if for short term use.
While taking: None if for short term use.

Take With: With or without food. Take each dose with a full glass of water. Do not crush, chew, or break the extended-release form alprazolam (Xanax XR). Swallow them whole.

Full Benefits of Xanax In: First day to a week.

Missed Dose(s): If within one hour take, if over an hour skip and then continue on your normal schedule. Never Take a Double Dose!

If Stopped Taking: Do not stop taking Xanax tablets without consulting your physician and never abruptly if you have been taking for over three weeks. Seizures may be a side effect of sudden discontinuation of Xanax medication. Your doctor may recommend a gradual reduction in your dose.

Important Safety Information

XANAX should not be used if you have a condition called acute narrow angle glaucoma. It can be used if you have open angle glaucoma. Ask your doctor if you have questions.

Side effects, if they occur, are generally observed at the beginning of therapy and usually disappear upon continued use. The most commonly reported side effects of Xanax in clinical trials were drowsiness, fatigue, impaired coordination, irritability, light-headedness, memory impairment, insomnia, and headache.

To assure safe and effective use of benzodiazepines make sure that :

	Until you experience how the medication affects you, do not drive a car or operate hazardous machinery.
	Do not increase the dose even if you think the medication isn’t working, without consulting your physician.
	Do not stop taking this medication abruptly or decrease the dose without consulting your physician, since discontinuation symptoms may occur.