Every day new people arrive here: they are bewildered, frightened, desperate for escape from the anxiety that now blights their lives. They want an instant solution, a quick fix, a magic wand that will banish the beast with one wave.
If you are overwhelmed by anxiety then it is right to ask your doctor for medications, they bring relief allowing us to continue with family and work responsibilities. But when you stop the meds the beast could still be there waiting.
There are alternatives, methods of self help that bring recovery by changing our perception of our anxiety. First we must understand the enemy. Our nervous system governs our body and all our senses but if we subject it to worry, stress and attention for too long it becomes over sensitive. In this state it starts to play mind games with us: it tricks us into thinking we have some major illness, it sends us panic attacks and all kinds of bad feelings. We suspect some debilitating physical disease, sensitised nerves are very good at mimicing real physical illness.
But what you are suffering is not real physical illness, it's your overworked nervous system misfiring and only running on three cylinders. There is reassurance in knowing that anxiety can't kill, can't disable, can't send you crazy. It's power is limited. So now you know what your up against you're ready to start the fight back. Only that's the last thing you should do, fighting only produces more tension and strain. Instead, experience tells us to do the opposite to fighting: we should simply accept all the symptoms of anxiety for the moment and do so calmly and with the minimum of fear. Let the waves of panic and pain and palpitations come, let them wash over you and past you. They have met their match because you now understand their little game.
By denying the bad feelings fear we deny them the very thing they thrive on and by accepting instead of fighting our nervous system begins to convalesce and recover. But it must be utter acceptance, not just putting-up-with. Now you understand how anxiety works you need feel bewildered no longer, you know you are going to recover, life will not be like this for long.
If you search for the book 'Self help with your nerves' by Claire Weekes on amazon.co.uk or 'Hope and help for your nerves' by the same author on amazon.com you will find the book that first set out the Acceptance Method which with practice allows everybody to recover no longer how long or how badly you have suffered. First go to the reader reviews of which there are several hundred and note how 95% rate the book Very Good or Excellent.
Reading a book may be the last thing you feel like doing right now. But this book is special. It's all about you.
Written by
Jeff1943
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I love reading your posts. I sometimes just come on here to read them. You recommended this book to me and at first I couldn't read it as my anxiety was high. But when I read, did I read it. Helped me a great deal and I've been recommendingit people who I know are suffering aswell. So thank you
You are so right, Jeff! I have read her book 3 times! Most of these sufferers don't have the basic understanding they need to move forward. Dr. Weekes will help you get through stage 1 recovery, which is to know what's causing the strange symptoms and to no longer fear them. Another amazing author has helped me begin stage 2 recovery. Her book is not directed toward anxiety alone, but addresses unhealthy thought patterns that weaken us in all kinds of ways. Dr. Carolyn Leaf, a neuroscientist who links the latest advancements in science to scripture, (since God already knew all of this that we're discovering), has helped me along my journey about as much as Dr. Weekes. I'm going to listen to her book again, too. And probably a 3rd time. Anyone know any other great books along these lines?
Thanks Usagold, you read the book THREE times, Blimey! as we sayin Britland. I only ever mention Claire Weekes' first book so as not to overwhelm people but as you'll see from Amazon she wrote about 6 in all plus those YouTube videos. I've read the first two many times and the others just once.
Oh, I found the others! In addition to "Hope & Help For Your Nerves," I have read "Peace From Nervous Suffering", another about agoraphobia, and I bought the CD "Pass Through Panic", which I listened to almost daily when I was really struggling. Listen, Claire Weekes is up there next to Jesus in my mind! I will thank her one day, she saved me. I think I would be either dead or in a halfway house somewhere if not for her!
About 10 ago when I fell into a deep hole of anxiety and depression. A friend gave me Dr Weekes book and it saved my life... Its very strange cause I realized my father bought that book in the 60's and I found it among his stuff after he passed.. Anyway I have all her cd's and other books she wrote... I also found Caroline Leaf on James and Betty Robertson show around the same time...I actually got to meet her in person when she was the guest speaker at a siminar I attended with the school district I worked for.. Very nice lady and very smart. Now I watch her show on TBN... I still have issues with health anxiety and panic... But when i resort back to Dr Weekes it puts me back on the path..I. Just love her.. I don't think we ever become a100 percent cured but I think we learn to manage it better... My mornings are the worst for me... But by afternoon I feel almost normal.....
Thankyou for sharing that with us Jansblu2, you are right, whilst some will recover completely many of us have a genetic tendency towards anxiety but we can control it and feel normal 90% of the time by following the teachings of Claire Weekes. May I just say, mornings are the worse times for me too, this could be because the fight or flight hormone cortisol peaks at 8a.m. The L-thianine that occurs naturally in green tea helps to reduce cortisol levels so a cup of green tea first thing I find helpful. Worth a try at only £$1 a pack of 20 teabags from any supermarket.
I have had this anxiety of and on since 9 years old but mornings were always hard.. I always thought it was something that had to do with cortisol levels and yes I've been using. L theanine for about a year now but I had no idea it lowers cortisol .I never tried it in the mornings..and its funny you'd say that cause I also drink green tea every morning...I know my issues are heredity my dad suffered with them and all of my siblings suffer with anxiety panic and depression ... I've tried everything through the years.. Clare Weekes helped me so much. I have all her cds and books. I just take it day to day... The worst part to me is not so much the physical symptoms but the mental part.depersonalization and just that over all weird spaced out feeling. Thank you so much for bringing all of this to our attention.. Love your feed back..
I read this book and found it incredibly helpful. Another book I'm currently working through which has helped a lot is "The Happiness Trap" by Russ Harris. Would highly recommend it too.
Wonderful words, Jeff! Gosh - mornings are a beast it has to be said (I've been at this 'game' 40 years now after a tragic accident I was involved in aged 8 - with long periods of recovery along the way). I wish I had know about Claire Weeke's book when I was younger - by spreading the word you're helping so many people who are new to anxiety find the right ways of coping and recovering. Thank you (from an old timer)!
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Do you know any good anxiety self-help books?
