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Just a question for everyone who has anxiety as well as panic attacks

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Just a question for everyone who has anxiety as well as panic attacks

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 2

Hi everyone!

The Alexander Technique worked on me, but I would never have been able to pay to learn it. I used to be very withdrawn and walked with a limp, which I only have now when I'm really tired. It seems to have taught me about changing my reactions at the source, eliminating fear stuff, pretty much got me over a significant fear of heights. Used to have asthma too, which it seems to have worked on. I learned it by having a b/f who was training to teach it, and by offering myself as a practice "body" for the other members of the teacher-training class. At the time, I thought it was for studying consciousness - so it's gradual physical effects were sort of a surprise. I was a slow learner though.

It's a kind of behavioral muscle memory reset button, changing the outside posture to influence the inside attitudes. Group classes are cool and inexpensive if you can find them. If you can't find a teacher or classes (these are offered to actors & musicians at universities, etc. ) there is an offshoot called learningmethods that I haven't checked out much, but that seems to work more like classic psychology.

Alexander Technique would be tricky and probably a bit discouraging to learn by self-study. Because one of it's principles involves the complete self-deception of perception that comes from taking for granted whatever you've gotten used to doing. Used to be the best place to learn it free in self-study was performanceschool.com or maybe it's .org?

You're supposed to be able to "get it" in about six private lessons, (at a cost similar to music lessons) according to the BMJ British Medical Journal Aug. 2008 issue. The classic way of teaching people for it to "stick" takes 24 lessons. The BMJ did a video on A.T. that is still available on youtube if you want to find out more about it.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Like having the cr...p scared out of you. These expressions have to come from some where and usually are based on fact even if it is some times distorted.

I spent a lot of time on the pot during panic attacks.

Here for you, Davit.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 43

Holy cr*#!! lol

I find it really funny that this topic came up... when my anxiety was at its worse, I would get panic attacks upon first awaking. And I would awake at like 5 in the morning (so not normal for me, who is NOT a morning person). So, I would awake and have to go to the bathroom.. also extremly unusual for me that I would be so "regular". Like clockwork almost. I would awake with a panic attack, go have a c*#p and my anxiety would lessen.
I always wondered if it was connected somehow.

Thanks for the info! :}

Ocean

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 118

CndGuy

You are right about the stomach. Have you ever herd the expression take a Cra* and get out of here. This is sometimes the response from a panic attack that your body wants to get rid of all excess weight so that you can run better.

Also did you know that there is more serotonin in your gut then in your head. One can see how the mind gut reaction occurs in this case.

Dizzy

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 89

Dizzy,

Good question. I don't know about the Alexander Technique, but I do know that in the theory of Neural Linguistic Programming, or NLP, they talk about modeling behaviours. So, if you see someone confident like you want to be, and you model their behaviour, you will start to feel confident too.

It seems to me that our minds and bodies share a two-way street. We know without doubt that our minds can affect our bodies, so it seems reasonable to assume that our bodies can affect our minds.

I read about a study recently that suggests that our stomachs directly influence our thinking, or are a part of the process. So if there is something wrong with your stomach, it can affect your thinking. Maybe that's what is meant by 'gut feeling'.

Even through this Role Transition that is bringing on anxiety, I find that if I stand tall, keep clean and well shaven, I have a bit more confidence that I will make it through. So, yeah, I guess I do believe that the body can affect the mind.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Dizzy.

Once again you have come up with something interesting.

You know that people have certain postures they take depending whether they are aggressive or meek. (shows more in dogs) I think it very well may be something we do to ourselves also. Stooping or walking hunched over, making ourselves smaller and less noticeable. A reaction to how we feel about our selves. The question I have to ask is if the tension from being in this unnatural position causes anxiety and if that is why progressive muscle relaxation works? If we are conditioned to put our bodies in certain positions in accordance to how we feel then do we also feel certain ways according to the position we are in? Take sleeping for instance, is it because we are uncomfortable in the position we are in that causes panic attacks or is there an association with that position to something else, or a combination of both say the uncomfortable position bringing to attention the association? I'm inclined to believe the latter. Which is why it some times works to get up and sleep some where else like in a recliner. It breaks the association.

So what do you think? Has anyone tried walking taller, standing straighter, or taking longer steps to make themselves less anxious? Has it kept an anxious situation from becoming a panic attack? Seems like it should work.

Here for you,

Davit.

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 653

Hi Dizzy,

I can't comment on the study but what you say makes some sense to me. However, I see it as your internal processes manifesting ourwardly, not the other way around. If you are feeling confident, it usually shows in your posture and stride; the opposite, as you mention, when you are feeling stupid or unworthy. Sometimes we suggest to "fake it til you make it"- i.e. walk tall and proud even if you don't feel it and often that will help you feel it. I guess that might be more in line with the article you mention. Hmmm. Perhaps there is more than one 'right' answer!

Tiana, Health Educator

13 years ago 0 +0 / -0 118

Just a question for everyone who has anxiety as well as panic attacks. They say there is a mind body connection, which I truly believe. We are working on the mind in CBT and in a sense our body with behaviour. I just discovered something on the internet I have not looked at it much yet but would like an opinion of people who have or educators. Our minds can create tension in body then when we are in this frame of mind, (Stress causing tension) is it possible that we are also adding to the tension with maladaptive ways we hold our bodies. This makes total sense to me when you think your abilities are outweigh by your coping mechanism. Perhaps we also add postural distress to this stress by the way we hold our bodies (hunching over). This allows you to get into a body position while say, working, that is learned just as the false belief is learned in your mind. There happens to be a person who deals with this maladaptive behaviour Alexander Technique Self Study. I have known that I hold my body I a defeatist attitude when I have made a mistake and am trying to correct. I can even go back to school and remember the way my body was when I could not read due to double vision. I also remember that my religious professor said that you carry your lifetime in your body or face. I know I read that people whom spread themselves out at a desk such as putting your feet on the desk and spreading out actually make a lower stress hormone as measured in the saliva, as compared to a person who holds him or herself confined. I am wondering that how you hold your body may have as much affect as how you think, one plays on the other. Is this Alexander Technique Self Study bogus? If it is, are my observations also wrong about the way we have come to hold our bodies in a defeatist attitude, hunched over, head stooped, stomach tightened.

Dizzy

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Just a question for everyone who has anxiety as well as panic attacks