Posted by: Ryan Rivera in Panic, anxiety on
Sep 08, 2011
When it comes to dealing with anxiety and panic, men notoriously struggle. In a society where males are supposed to “man up” and take life “like a man,” most men that suffer from anxiety and panic make dozens of different mistakes that only serve to fuel their stresses further. In order to reduce panic attacks and cure anxiety is to avoid mistakes that cause the problems to progress further. Here is a list of the top ten mistakes that men make when it comes to their own panic and anxiety
Male Panic and Anxiety Mistakes:
- Ignoring It – The most common mistake men make is the belief that their panic and anxiety issues will simply go away on their own if they ignore them. Men deal with a great deal of stress, pressure and expectations every day. The belief that the best way to deal with a problem is to avoid it is simply not true. Men need to confront their issues if they hope to reduce their panic and anxiety.
- Addictive Outlets – Due primarily to the idea that men need to “tough it out,” many men seek out addictive outlets for their anxiety that only serve to fuel the behaviors. Alcoholism and gambling both cost money, affect relationships, and will ultimately lead to more stress and anxiety. Self-medicating through addictive and destructive outlets will only lead to greater problems.
- Making No Changes – Often times things like relationships, bad friendships, a hostile workplace, etc., cause men to experience these high levels of anxiety and persistent panic attacks. Yet many men refuse to make changes in their life that would reduce these problems. Instead, they continue to spend time with the same people and stay involved in the same activities, only serving to continue to improve their stress levels.
- Health Concerns – For years, panic attacks were misdiagnosed as physical health problems. This belief has created a culture where men believe that things like panic attacks are limited to women, and anytime a man feels a panic attack like experience, they assume it must be something physical, rather than a mental health issue. The result is that they worry about their own health, which leads to even more panic attacks.
- Misplaced Values – Society has taught men everywhere to value things that are not achievable for everyone. Money and power are nice, but not everyone can be the alpha male all of the time. Men are often taught that they need to be successful millionaires and providers, and those lofty goals only serve to make anxiety issues worse.
- Sexual Prowess Concerns – Anxiety itself is a common cause of sexual dysfunction, both with premature ejaculation and impotency. In today’s society, a man’s sexual prowess is considered part of his identity, and men that fail to perform due to anxiety tend to experience even greater anxiety in their daily life.
- Agoraphobia/Loner-ism – When men experience panic attacks and severe anxiety, they often feel like they need to deal with it on their own. Some men start to experience agoraphobia and never leave their house. Others simply become loners, spending little to any time with their friends and family. Since social support is one of the prime tools in reducing panic attacks and anxiety, this causes both of those mental health issues to worsen.
- Responding To False Alarms – Often with panic attacks, a small increase in your heart rate due to something normal – like caffeine or exercise – can lead to the onset of another panic attack. Men, especially, tend to focus on their physical responses to stimuli as signs that something is wrong with them, triggering a panic attack and increasing anxiety.
- Avoiding the Doctor – Panic attacks and anxiety are mental health issues. But part of addressing your mental health issues involves ensuring there relaxing your mind about your overall physical health. Going to the doctor to ease your own mind about your physical health is an important part of addressing panic and anxiety attacks, and men tend to avoid the doctor any way they can.
- Failure to Seek Help – Of course, one of the biggest mistakes men make is not seeking help. Panic attacks and anxiety only get worse if you try to deal with your issues alone. Friends, family, psychologists and trained experts are all there to help you through any of your panic and anxiety issues, and the benefits of talking to others far outweighs any personal embarrassment or guilt about your own anxiety or panic.
Panic and Anxiety in Men
Panic and anxiety problems are both serious considers that affect millions of men all over the world. Yet men have a tendency to make mistakes when it comes to addressing these issues. If you find that you are suffering from panic attacks or severe, persistent daily anxiety, the worst thing you can do is try to deal with it alone.
Posted by: Uticopa in genes, anxiety on
Jun 03, 2011
I don't believe it - anxiety is in your genes!
It's what we've always thought. There's a gene to explain our anxiety attacks. Researchers have now found that certain variations in a mood-altering gene actively influence whether or not we take an anxious or sunny view of the world.
Psychologists from the University of Essex came up with the results after showing 97 volunteers pictures depicting positive and negative images. The participants were shown pairs of pictures selected from 20 pleasant, 20 unpleasant and 40 neutral ones in order to judge which ones grabbed their attention. Those with the longer version of the gene sought the positive images, such as sweets, while others were actually prone to staring at the negative (anxiety-inducing) pictures, like spiders.
The findings show that those of us with a long version of the gene tend to have a ‘sunny disposition', dwelling on positive aspects of life and deliberately downplaying the negatives. Conversely, those with a shorter version display definite anxiety tendencies, even when there is no obvious reason.
Historically, British people have always ignored the effects of our poor, wet weather. The heavy rain has always been there, so most carry on regardless. However, as the world shifts towards global climate change, water-related problems are arguably the most imminent and most personal. As Britain's temperature rises and weather patterns become more extreme, will our health be compromised by a lack of clean water and diseases spread by polluted floodwater?
And what of our mental health? Will our stoic disregard for the weather turn to mental depression or worse?
Health professionals, until now noticeable only by their absence in the climate change debate, will become increasingly important in helping us to understand and adapt to problems and in promoting behavioural changes that might avert the greatest threats.
Posted by: Uticopa in fear, anxiety on
Jul 06, 2009
Is it growing old, the dark, cancer, death? We all have our fears, but how to deal with them so that our stress levels don't get blown sky-high?
Let's take ‘growing old'. If you talk to youngsters and ask them how they view the old people they pass on the city streets, often they will laugh and say things that indicate the old are aliens from another planet. The truth is that children need educating. Those old people are not ‘aliens': it is me in the future! The clothes the old people wear are not a sign that they haven't a clue about fashion, but simply that they choose to continue wearing the ‘fashion' from their own youth. What I'm trying to say is that education is one way of dealing with the fear of growing old.
Maybe you fear the very process of death and the aftermath. In ancient and some current third-world societies, children are exposed to death in a very real sense. They are taken to look at the recently-deceased member of their family, to show respect for the dead. There is often a serenity on the face of a dead person which can dispel all fears about dying. My late father used to say: you must remember me often and quote some of my sayings; in that way, I can live on. This is good advice because by so doing you can ease your own mind by remembering them when they were living and so help your own grieving process.
How to solve the stressful equations of life?
Rather like a stack of dominoes, once the bankers of Wall Street unleashed their economic ills onto an uncertain world, piece by piece, the world's economy started to collapse. Eventually, the unstoppable force reached the common man. But there were considerable knock-on effects on individuals, resulting in mounting stress levels.
Living in such unpredictable times evokes feelings of anxiety or even fear. There is a solution within each of us, but none of us knows what we're capable of until a crisis hits.
Of all the tools to combat depression and negativity, humour is by far the best medicine - for both patient and doctor! Television and radio are both under-rated as purveyors of exactly this kind of medicine, no data ever being collected on the numbers of sick people made to feel appreciably better by switching-on at home and laughing uncontrollably at the comic of the day. From the comedians of yesteryear like Laurel and Hardy or Jack Benny, to Tommy Cooper or that special brand of comedian today like Jackie Mason who use ethnicity to make us laugh - we all have our favourites. By watching other people's mishaps, we laugh and feel instantly better.
But, is there a scientific reason for this? Here are a few examples:
Humour combats fear
Posted by: Uticopa in worrying, anxiety on
Feb 03, 2009
When we reach that point in life when the middle years have passed, would we have done things differently if we had somehow gained the wisdom that comes from learning from our own mistakes?
They say that education is wasted on the young. When we are adolescent, suffused by swirling hormones and an intolerable need to impress our peers, how can we concentrate on learning those school subjects that will be so essential to our future life? How to show due diligence at schoolwork when the very act of striving for perfection brings a swathe of disdain and criticism from the very peers we so want to impress? We listen to school friends who say ‘why do I need to learn French? I'll never need that - I want to be a train-driver'.
The very fact of being a child, by definition, means that you can't possibly know or envisage a future, mature, life where unforeseen opportunities abound and hitherto undreamed of possibilities may require you to use those very skills that you disparaged so long ago.
At a recent seminar on bipolar disorder at St. Andrew's University, the personality Stephen Fry discussed his condition with psychiatric students and practitioners. He has also made a series of programmes for the BBC about his condition and how it famously manifested itself in 1995 when he walked out of the West End play Cellmates.
Other celebrities who also suffer from bipolar include Hollywood actors Richard Dreyfus and Carrie Fisher, and British comedians Tony Slattery and Jo Brand. It is interesting to note how sufferers working in the creative arts can diffuse their talents in such a positive way. Conversely, history is littered with undoubted sufferers who went undiagnosed: artists like Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Van Gogh and Hemingway.
There is an interesting character in Eastenders on BBC TV called Jean Slater (the mother of Stacey). In recent weeks, the storyline has followed Jean's personality fluctuations: from the highs when she was close to her son Sean, followed by the lows when he went away. It was only when Jean finally realised the seriousness of her condition that it was revealed she had bipolar disorder.
What exactly is bipolar disorder?
Posted by: Uticopa in anxiety on
Dec 30, 2008
The bad
We all recognise the syndrome. You can't sleep and you can't get those pessimistic thoughts out of your head. All those doubts and fears deep within your mind paralyse your thinking. An invidious cycle begins whereby your anxiety levels soar sapping your emotional energy and darkening your day-to-day life with burgeoning black neuroses. Constant worrying takes a heavy toll. It keeps you up at night and makes you tense and edgy during the day. You hate feeling like a nervous wreck, but what can you do? It's as if, by constantly being preoccupied with all those "what ifs" and worst-case scenarios, worry itself becomes a problem all on its own. You may worry that you're going to lose all control over your worrying - that it will take over and never stop.
The good
