Читать книгу The Anxiety Getaway - Craig April Ph.D - Страница 6

Introduction

Welcome to the first step toward your anxiety getaway! The fact that you’re reading this suggests you’d like to overcome the difficult, limiting, uncomfortable, and sometimes downright terrifying experience you call anxiety.

But are you sick and tired of it? I hope so. Why do I ask? Because that emotional state is a good catalyst for great change! How do you know if you’re both “sick” and “tired” of anxiety? Well, you sort of know it when you feel it. But rather than risk being vague, I’ve got an easy test for you to determine if you’re there. If you answer “yes” to at least three of the questions below, you will be crowned as “sick and tired of anxiety.” Here it goes:

1.Do you dislike that your anxiety disrupts or interferes with your life?

2.Are you annoyed that anxiety inhibits you in some way?

3.Do you miss a time in the past when you didn’t struggle with your current symptoms?

4.Do you feel like anxiety is your unwelcome companion, accompanying you to places or situations where it doesn’t belong?

5.Do you envy those you believe do not “have anxiety”?

6.Do you dislike that you sometimes feel ashamed or embarrassed by your anxiety symptoms?

7.Are you troubled by a belief that anxiety reflects who you are?

8.Are you upset by the belief that people might see you as weak or incapable in some way?

9.Do you sometimes see yourself as weak or incapable for struggling with anxiety?

Answering “yes” to just three of these items means that you’re ready to take on what’s in these pages in order to claim your calm!

Now, this may or may not come as a surprise, but when you read on, you’ll soon learn you can’t defeat anxiety without… your lucky t-shirt. Wait! Scratch that. I meant without facing fear, of course. Hence, the subject of fear runs through the veins of this book (I was going to say arteries, but that didn’t have the intensity I was looking for). To overcome your anxiety symptoms, it makes sense to see your anxiety as an expression of your “fear.” So on your journey you’ll move toward not only overcoming anxiety, but also that which you fear. More importantly, you’ll learn how to outsmart your brain’s false “fear messages.”

I’m often asked by patients if I’ve ever personally struggled with anxiety. I usually smile and say very few people can become experts in anything without firsthand experience. Frankly, I’ve had just about every anxiety issue under the sun. There are few things in life that are quite profound. Defeating anxiety by facing and overcoming fear is one. Few experiences can simultaneously release, empower, enlighten, and inspire us like facing fear can.

I’m proud to say that by practicing all that I’ve included in these pages, I’ve overcome fears in the triple digits over the years. I even overcame a few in the midst of writing this book! I’ve faced fears both big and small. Many of them subjective, others more common, I suppose, in that a larger part of our population fears facing them, too. For example, I’ve been skydiving and scuba diving, taken a flight in a glider, gone parasailing, had countless public speaking engagements, officiated a wedding, been on live news, and even allowed an animal expert to place a tarantula on my head. And yet, there are and will be other fears to face. Some I’m familiar with and continue to work on, others are unknown and have yet to arrive. That is the nature of fear.

I believe that facing fear is one of life’s purposes. For, in order to evolve, change, and grow, one must face fear. You can learn a lot by this process. Lessons that can guide you throughout your life. I’m not talking about facing fear from an ego standpoint—that’s something else. And I’m not talking about being an adrenaline junkie/thrill seeker, either. That’s also something else. Though, if you enjoy that, by all means! Facing fear is more about being on the journey to reach your potential and seek the truth.

I remember some years ago watching a reality show depicting climbers on their journey to reach the peak of Mount Everest. Many of them were climbing it for ego, it seemed. Still, a few others seemed to be in it for the journey and to reach their potential. Many were impeded by their physical condition. One person in particular, a firefighter, came very close, but had to stop. The biology of his body would not allow him to continue and struck him with altitude sickness. Though disappointed, his epiphany at that moment was he had reached his own personal Mount Everest. That was his peak. We all have our Everest. There are real struggles and limitations, and then there are those that are self-imposed that we allow to hinder us and our potential.

Anxiety isn’t the enemy you believe it to be. In fact, your anxiety is communicating with you. It’s most likely trying to tell you two things. First, that you’ve got something to learn. And second, that something needs to change.

In this book are the most successful techniques I’ve used over the past twenty-plus years to help hundreds of patients achieve complete reduction in anxious suffering. The techniques I’m referring to fall under the treatment classification of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (also known as CBT), which is different from most, if not all, other forms of anxiety treatment in that it’s been scientifically proven to be effective.

Thankfully, though science-based, these techniques are easy to put into place. Anyone can face fear and extinguish their anxiety symptoms. The hard part is stepping into what scares you. This is no cause for alarm, though. This book provides gradual, easy-to-understand steps to do so, no matter how afraid you are.

In the pages to follow, we’ll specifically be discussing anxiety in the form of phobias, panic attacks and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). I’ve left out post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because, though common, this falls outside the realm of a typical person’s anxiety struggles. I’ve also refrained from discussing what my field calls generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), given that this diagnosis is a bit of a misnomer. Its symptoms are more stress-based and focused on real-life conflicts (e.g., financial woes, marital conflict, etc.), albeit ones that might be blown out of proportion, resulting in worry. That said, its symptom of worry is rooted in fear. Therefore, those with GAD can still benefit from the lessons in this book, especially those on imaginal exposure, false belief, and “What If” thoughts. So for you, GAD sufferers, feel free to read on. You’ll receive plenty for your efforts, too.

In addition to “fear,” you probably noticed that the subtitle of this book mentions the brain. You’ll soon learn how your brain plays a massive foundational role in the manifestation and continuation of your anxiety symptoms. More importantly, you’ll learn how to outsmart it by using the counterintuitive approach. I should say—so I will—that this book is in no way meant to be a treatise or comprehensive report on the brain’s functions, interactions, and development related to anxiety. That would defeat the purpose of this book and is also better left to neurologists or neuropsychologists. This is a self-help book. My purpose is to teach you how to treat your anxiety on your own. What I’ve included is out of necessity, to inform you of both how you are encouraging your brain to generate anxiety, and more importantly, how you can outfox it!

Chapters 1 through 6 are geared toward providing you with anxiety getaway information, lessons, and techniques for you to start applying. The last three chapters (7, 8, and 9) are where you can pinpoint your own anxiety symptoms diagnostically and put all that you’ve learned together to easily create your personal self-help treatment plan. You might find that, because the last three chapters are focused on specific diagnoses, only one might apply to you. So when you arrive there, feel free to just read what resonates. Though if you’re unsure of your diagnosis, it’s probably best to read each chapter to support your quest. After all, you’ve got to know what you’re dealing with to treat it! You might even find that they all apply, for it’s not uncommon to have an anxiety trifecta! Conversely, you may find tips and info that do directly apply to you, even though the diagnostic label may not.

Once you put the techniques in this book into practice and reap the rewards, you’ll have entered a new stage in handling your anxiety, and perhaps even in handling life’s challenges. Simply put, you’ll be in charge of eliminating the anxious suffering you experienced prior to your anxiety getaway. This book makes you captain of your own cruise ship.

But you must continue to practice your newfound skills! Anxiety resolution is not a one-and-done achievement. Life has its difficulties, its ups and downs. Fear can and will arise. But now you’ll know exactly what to do when it does. And all you’ll have to do is…do what you’ve learned!

In the upcoming pages, you’ll learn more about what your anxiety is and what it isn’t. You’ll also learn how to outsmart your brain’s false fear messages. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to claim your calm and make your anxiety getaway!

Whether you believe it or not, you’ve already taken the first step. Now it’s time to take a few more.