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Anxiety and Stress Management

Anxiety and panic disorders affect an estimated 2.4 million Americans. Dr. Patricia Farrell shares information and advice about stress management and anxiety; its causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and effective treatments

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Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Our Economic Crisis and the Role of Fear
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Fear is a potent force which nature has provided to help all of us stay out of harm's way. Unfortunately, it can also cause us to act rashly in situations where restraint rather than a knee-jerk fear response is required. When fear enters, reason leaves the room.

Fear can be used to both push people to action or dissuade them from doing something. It's something politicians, researchers and patriarchs have known for ages. The research that has been done over the years involved contrived situations of smoke coming into a room, someone falling down onto a subway platform or even horses in a group. The undercurrent of fear was in each one of these and other social psychology scenarios and it illustrated how fear can cause action or keep you glued to your seat.

In addition to actions, fear has its buzzwords such as: layoffs, termination, economic crisis, foreclosure, terrorism and many others that you can think of on your own. The thing to do, however, is to allow yourself not to immediately let that adrenalin kick in and push you to rash into action.

When fear rears its ugly head:
  1. Take time to pull back from the situation and delay immediate action - unless there's an open artery involved.

  2. Breathe! If you don't know how to do relaxation breathing, go to my Self-help page

  3. Try to be around people who are calm; it's infectious in a good way

  4. Sit down and ask yourself to look for the positive side in this or the solution that is currently not being seen. Reach out to others.

  5. Let Scarlet O'Hara be your guide for a moment and remember that "tomorrow's another day." Even Annie knew that "the sun will come out tomorrow."

  6. Understand that FDR was right when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Don't let it crush you in its grip.


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Posted by: Pat Farrell, PhD at 7:24 PM

Monday, March 12, 2007

Rosie, Thanks But...
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Rosie O'Donnell has done a great service for everyone with depression, a psychiatric disorder that literally and figuratively kills people by taking away their will, their joy and, sometimes, their life. But I'm concerned that along with the wonderful information and encouragement she provided on "The View," she gave some misleading information too.

People watching the show are going to be influenced by Rosie's celebrity and that can be a very good thing, but not when she makes statements that, to my understanding, don't have any scientific basis.

I watched the clips of Rosie swinging upside down, which is part of her daily regime to maintain her mental health. As I watched, I heard her say that doing this would "release the serotonin," or words to that effect. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter (brain chemical in plain language) involved in depression. My concern is that the statement is without any scientific support and swinging upside down like that could provoke a stroke in people who never knew they were at risk for one. So, while it may have provoked a lot of much-needed talk about depression and its treatments, this one "treatment" I feel can be dangerous.

Rosie, please take note of my concern and thanks for your help with helping others realize how effective treatment can be for depression.

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Posted by: Pat_Farrell_PhD at 11:00 PM

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