# My Anxiety Presentation for School



## bloomers (Apr 19, 1999)

Here is the presentation I gave on Anxiety in my speech class last week. One thing about this project is that it forced me to read a lot of books to do my research which was a great learning experience. I hope you will get something from it as well...Everyone experiences anxiety to some level. Feelings of anxiety can range from mild worry to a state of pure panic. Some people experience generalized anxiety on an ongoing basis. There are several types of anxiety. Panic disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobias, post traumatic stress disorder. Also there are specific phobias such as flying, elevators, heights, driving, standing in line, writing in front of someone, and probably the most common - public speakingI actually started researching anxiety about 4 years ago, after several months of stressful life situations, deaths in the family, a major move, and a job change I started waking in the middle of the night with this feeling of fear in my chest. I found out I was experiencing general anxiety AND Panic attacks which can be a little scary if you donï¿½t know what is happening to you. I found out in my research that women between the ages of 30-45 are at the highest risk to experience crippling anxiety and about 35% of the population have some sort of social phobia. More common than you think. I also found out that there is a lot of help out there.So to start out with lets talk about anxiety and what it is? Our bodies have evolved from the days of the caveman to have a ï¿½fight or flightï¿½ response. This is what kept us alive when we lived in caves and had predators hunting us so it was a good thing. However, we still have this same response when we sense a dangerous situation, perceived or otherwise. Our hearts accelerate, we experience muscle tension, our breathing becomes shallow and speeds up. And we must either choose to run or fight back ï¿½ except usually it is not something that is life threatening that is causing our anxiety. There is appropriate and inappropriate anxiety. Some anxiety is good. It is what makes us prepare for an interview and get up every morning and try our best at things. We all need a certain amount of anxiety in our lives because its what motivates us. To determine if your anxiety is appropriate or not you can ask yourself some questions ï¿½ Whatï¿½s the worst that can happen? What can I do to cope if the worst were to happen? How likely is it that the worst will happen? (self-fulfilling prophecies apply here) If you think your going to fail or panic ï¿½ you will. Whatï¿½s most likely to happen? Am I worrying about a problem (which can be solved) or a fact which canï¿½t be changed? If it canï¿½t be changed is it appropriate to worry about it or should I just move on? If the situation can be changed isnï¿½t it better to act instead of just worrying? Anxiety can affect our lives and our relationships in all sorts of ways. I know for me personally, I worried that maybe I was going crazy. I feared that my husband might reject me since I saw it as a weakness and thought he would too. I feared starting conversations with people because I might suddenly experience a panic attack and have to leave in the middle of it. It caused me to socially withdraw. Anxiety can be a quite debilitative emotion which causes communication apprehension. Also, there is a stigma around mental health problems so itï¿½s hard to let others know of your problems. So there are several things you can do to control anxiety which Iï¿½ll mention (Iï¿½m not going to delve too deep into all of them because I wonï¿½t have time) Iï¿½ll focus on the one most important thing you can do for yourself.Positive Self Talk is helpful ï¿½ we can control our thoughts and a change in attitude can be very helpful.Lying down for twenty minutes each day and listening to either a taped relaxation exercise or relaxing music. One of my sources recommended music which has sixty beats per minute in 4:4 time such as boroque as most effective. Pachelbelï¿½s Canon would be a good example. Music that mimics the rhythm of a releaxed heartbeat is what you are looking for. The CD by Nora Jones is awesome. She just has a very calming influence about her. Meditation is also helpful. If you are suffering from panic attacks, self hypnosis can be helpful. This is where you sort of go into a daydream state and visualize yourself in a relaxing situation. I actually went to a therapist to learn this technique and really everyone of you already knows how to do this. If youï¿½ve ever found yourself going off into a daydream state while driving or if youï¿½ve ever been mesmerized while watching a campfire ï¿½ thatï¿½s the feeling you are looking for. Medication is also available and there is no magic pill ï¿½ but sometimes medication combined with a more natural method and change in thinking is most helpful. Benzodiazepines like Xanax or Klonopin are the most common. Exposure is yet another technique. When we fear something we tend to avoid it. We may tell ourselves that what we are doing is safe and reasonable, but it isnï¿½t. Avoidance just tells your body that this is the way to cope. And for your body the learned response is avoidance, making it all the harder to face your fear next time. Before long you are a victim to your own thoughts and feelings. This is how people become agarophibic. So therapists will treat them by exosing them to the thing they fear. When I was reading my various resources for this presentation I found one huge thing mentioned across all of them. The number one easiest thing you can do to control your anxiety is to control your breathing which to me sounded so trite. ï¿½Just Breatheï¿½ï¿½But there are physical reasons for this. Physically when we are anxious we have many symptoms some of which I already mentioned. Our hearts accelerate, our breathing becomes shallow and rapid, we might sweat or need a trip to the restroom, we might shake or tremble, we might become dizzy. It would be impossible to control all of these symptoms but if we can get a handle on the breathing part of it, it will bring all your other physical symptoms back into line.When we are breathing shallowly, the carbon dioxide levels in our bloodstream are reduced which makes us dizzy, nervous and shaky. Our sensitivities are heightened and our fingers and toes might feel tingly. The reason our heart speeds up is that our body needs more fuel to react to whatever is causing us our anxiety in its ï¿½fight or flightï¿½ response. So we are in a sense pumping all this carbon dioxide deprived fuel around our body. We can combat this by making a special effort to breathe SLOWLY and DEEPLY. This will actually help deaccelerate your heart rate and in turn reduce the flow of blood and nutrients to your muscles and help your anxiety symptoms to subside. Keep in mind that we only use about 1/3 of our lung capacity. So go ahead and exhale all of that old air out of the bottom of your lungs to begin with. Then concentrate on counting as you breathe. Slowly breath in as you count to four filling your lungs to their fullest capacity. You should feel your abdomen rise. Then slowly exhale, counting backwards from 4 to 1. Every time you exhale let the muscles in your shoulders drop and relax your arms as much as possible. You should find that your arms, neck and shoulders will become a little more relaxed with each breath. Do this as many times as you need to, for five to ten minutes. You will eventually feel your body relax and your mind calm down and your symptoms of anxiety will subside.


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## trbell (Nov 1, 2000)

Hope your teacher gave you a good grade! Very nice. Did you come across the old breath into a paper bag trick?tom


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## bloomers (Apr 19, 1999)

no Tom - never saw that one - in the books I read anyway. But I'm willing to try anything!


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## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

Learnt a lot from your presentation, bloomers. Keep up the good work!


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## zayaka26 (Jul 5, 2001)

This was really good. I bet it was interesting for the other students as well. Anxiety is so common and yet we still talk so little about it. Very good.


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