Transforming Anxiety and Depression
CULTURAL VIEW ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Have you ever felt some level of anxiety in your life that prevented you from moving forward? Has your body reacted with the classic fight or flight symptoms leaving you in a trembling panic? Have you felt despair, loneliness, and a heaviness that just won’t go away? Most people have endured some level of these complicated and often confusing emotions, and they are extremely common for most people. However, there is a very negative connotation, a stigma if you will around these feelings. The general cultural consensus is that these emotions are bad and the focus is on getting rid of them as quickly as possible, which usually includes a chemical prescription from your local doctor or psychiatrist. Although taking drugs or alternative therapies of any kind may be beneficial, it is simply a band aid from addressing the core of the issue. Until someone is ready to look underneath, the situation is usually in a stage of perpetual management of symptoms.
It seems the vast majority of the public views these feelings as negative and unwanted, that they are preventing people from expressing their full potential. Well, there is some truth to that, these very strong anxiety and depressive symptoms can paralyze you to a place that becomes unbearable. The experience is now viewed as a problem and that you are damaged goods. You might even consider yourself broken, wounded, lost, or in need of fixing or healing. You might have been told by your family, friends, or doctors that there is something wrong with you, that this isn’t normal, and you should be feeling happy and joyful. You might hear that your anxiety and depression are not only a problem for you, but for everyone else around you. The way in which you receive these inferences and messages can make or break you depending on the type of person you are. The repetive theme of “I have a problem” is now running wild throughout your mind and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. You then feel hopeless that your experience will ever change.
But, what if these emotions that seem to be so daunting and hindering life, actually have the power to transform you? What if anxiety is speaking something that we don’t understand? What if these feelings are not a problem at all, but rather a call to open your mind to an entirely new way of life? Is it possible, that what many view as a problem, is actually an opportunity for life changing transformation? Can these challenges emotions, feelings, and nervous symptoms actually be here to do us a favor? Are you willing to take that step to discover what anxiety and depression are actually communicating in your life? Could it be a teacher designed to help you instead of hurt you?
SHIFT THE INTERPRETATION
It is so easy to think that the difficult sensations associated with anxiety are a bad thing. After all, that is what we have been conditioned to believe. In order to shift this perspective, requires time, a willingness, and the curiosity to dive deeper into your own psyche. Nervousness, increased heartbeat, breathing uncontrollably, constant worry, shaking body parts, adrenaline jolts, nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, feelings of paralysis, you name it the list is endless when it comes to anxious behavior. You must develop a sense of excitement about learning more about this potential for learning instead of automatically pushing it away. Running from challenging experiences is what the fight or flight response is all about. In many ways, it is much easier to run than it is to sit with your level of anxiety or depression no matter how horrible it may feel.
Anxiety arises when you are afraid of something, whether this is rational or irrational the mind will create a picture in your head about why you should be worried, cautious, scared out of your mind, or resistant to moving forward. The mind is so powerful and your belief in what it is creating seems so real that the body now reacts to these images and starts its automatic responses. It’s the responses that can scare us more than the thinking. When you feel the nervous system reacting intensely, it sends alarm bells into your mind that you should NOT proceed. This is a very normal response and the way most people interpret the signals. So, the mental anguish on top of the body’s uncomfortable reaction keeps you from moving anywhere. This is where you feel stuck, like you are locked in quicksand without your consent. What else are anxiety and depressed feelings trying to tell you?
If you are wanting your anxiousness and depression to teach you something, then the first step is to shift your thinking from this experience as being a block keeping you from being your truest self and see it as a guide for you to discovering the deeper sense of who you are and what you are capable of in your lifetime. Shifting out of the ego’s restrictive, small minded, linear way of seeing, and moving into a much more expansive awareness, leaves more possibility and more opportunity for you to use this supposed dark time into a real liberating moment. Being able to see what the fear is about and how to work this into your life instead of running from it, can begin the change that you are seeking.
This simply takes practice and a commitment to viewing this cyclical pattern as a means to see what is lying underneath your current conscious awareness. Tapping into the observer, the greater field of awareness within and around you, can help guide you to see from a non-judgmental loving place. The hidden gems the mind withholds are where the greatest treasures reside. What is it you are truly afraid of? Are you afraid of what life looks like taking on something new? Are you afraid of becoming something different than everyone else? Whatever block is causing your anxiety, it’s not necessarily a problem needing to be fixed, it is a chance to meet an entirely deeper side of yourself that you haven’t met yet.
IS THINKING WORSE THAN REALITY?
Thoughts in your mind can run wild. So much so that you lose total control of your own thinking mind. The inner noise can be so loud, so overwhelming, that you begin believing everything it’s creating. This excessive chatter can make you believe a future situation you are concerned about is going to go terribly wrong. Thoughts can create all kinds of mental imagery that produce mild to extreme anxiousness or depression. It’s the images in your mind that begin to take hold on you. For example, let’s say you have a fear of flying. Your fear of flying is due to your fear of the plane crashing. Now keep in mind, as you are imagining your plane going down, you are sitting on the couch in your home. While seeing the plane falling to it’s demise your body is responding with all kinds of fight or flight response signals. Your heart rate increases, your sweating, breathing is shorter, and your nerves are through the roof, and all the while you have been in the comfort and safety of your house. You haven’t even started packing yet! You’re mind is creating a movie of what if scenarios, usually preparing you for the absolute worst case scenario.
When you finally muster the strength to actually get to the airport, you may still have all the same images in your mind, and your body is responding accordingly. When you get on the plane, take your seat, take off, reach cruising altitude, all seems well except for the images still floating through your mind. What is happening in reality, which is a smooth harmless ride on the plane, is not matching what your mind is creating. Some people cannot relax the entire flight due to the continued worry about what might happen, instead of being present with what is actually happening. Others may get extremely anxious before boarding, continue feeling nervous until take off, and then they might relax as the plane is in mid-flight. Many people only carry the fear during take-off and landing because crashes often occur at this time. No matter what fear or worry you are dealing with, the mind is typically creating more than what is actually happening. The mind is in direct opposition to the real scenario.
If you look at the above experience, what was worse, the movie in the mind, or simply sitting on an airplane that was at no risk of danger? What is worse, feeling the physical by products of the mental anguish, or sitting on the airplane without the award-winning drama going on in your mind? When you recognize that your mind is off in another world while your body is in the present moment, you can begin to step away from the theatrical production spinning through your head and start questioning what your mind is saying. Creating this space to observe, to watch, to see what is really going on in your mind brings you one step closer to disconnecting from the nervous or depressed cycle you may find yourself in.
SIMPLE THINGS TO DO WHEN ANXIETY TAKES OVER
Having personal experience with dealing with anxiety and the fight or flight response, I know the grip it can have on you. When you are becoming the thoughts in your mind, or when you are believing everything about the overwhelming worry, you will notice the nervous symptoms that simply respond to this thought pattern. When you feel the fight or flight response entering, a simple thing to do is connect with your breath, breathing in deeply, and exhaling deeply. Do this several times to calm your nervous system. Taking up a regular meditation practice can help you get comfortable with this. Then find that space within, the space within where you can watch yourself, where you can step outside of the mind. Look around you, look at whatever environment you are sitting in and ask the question, “Am I okay in this moment?” Meaning, is anything currently threatening you? Are you really and truly threatened, in harms way of any kind, both mentally or physically? If the answer is no, and it usually is when you are dealing with chronic anxiety, get into the frame of mind that you are OKAY. Nothing is putting you in danger and the fight or flight is merely in a repetitive reaction from remembering a past event or worrying about a present or future possibility. When you see that you are okay, and you really and truly feel it, then simply watch the body start to calm down. Continue to breathe in and out deeply, calming the nervous system as best as you can. The more you understand that nothing is harming you, the better you will get at this practice.
If you are dealing with an extreme fight or flight response, it is possible that the body will simply respond no matter what you try to do mentally. Sometimes calming yourself and breathing doesn’t seem to stop the body’s apparent auto pilot symptomology. If this is happening, do your best to remind yourself that the body is just doing it’s thing. You can simply say, “There it goes again.” Find an area to step out, to sit quietly, to lay down if you can, and simply allow the nervous system to run through the motions, keeping yourself as calm and peaceful as you can. The more you run stories and worry through your mind, the worse it gets. Interestingly, this can become a personal art form that you work with and fine tune with each new experience. Everytime you feel anxious, you have another opportunity to work with it, to allow the system to calm, and then work to continue your life. The fear you experience is often fear of the unknown. When you get comfortable not knowing, and shifting your perspective from being afraid of the unknown into curiosity about what lies beyond this experience, your anxiety will begin to shift as well. It doesn’t mean it will go away completely, but you will establish a strong foundation of how to work with it, to let go of it when needed, and to question what you are listening to when your mind is creating mental trickery.
Another practice when fight or flight kicks in, especially if breathing deeply and finding the inner calm seems to be out of reach, is going with the intensity you are feeling. Some people need to express the energy that is charging through their system in order for it to dissipate. For instance, the fight or flight response is truly there to save your life, it is completely concerned with your survival. When it senses a threat, the adrenaline kicks in and you are full speed ahead! When the threat is irrational and is not present, you can reason yourself through it as mentioned above. However, let’s say the body just won’t cooperate. Running, running in place, moving the body in any capacity you can, may also help the system calm down. This is completely opposite of calming the system, however when presented with substantial energy within, it may be helpful to move with that energy. See what works for you. There is no right or wrong way to cope with your own anxiety. What is helpful is practicing different methods to understand how your own nervous system works, and how you can bring it back to a calm state of being.
A FINAL THOUGHT: ARE THERE PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS
Another place to investigate is within your body. Are foods, liquids, the air you are breathing, substances and chemicals you may be putting into your body causing an increased level of anxiety or depression? The mental health arena rarely looks at food or chemicals as a possible cause to persistent anxiety or other mental disturbances. There are definitely mind altering chemicals out there, as well as toxic substances and heavy metals that can damage areas of the brain. If you have a build up of these materials over time, it is possible that it is contributing to your trouble. Cleaning up your diet with a vast array of hydrating fruits and vegetables, eliminating processed foods, and focusing on alkalizing the body can help eliminate unwanted cellular waste obstruction causing any extreme behavioral symtoms.
There are accounts on record of mentally ill people participating in fasting with the help of a professional, and have eliminated symptoms completely. Arnold Ehret, author of the Mucusless Diet Healting System, Rational Fasting, and other health books from the late 1800’s, recounts working with individuals suffering from schizophrenic type episodes. After a guided fast and proper reintroduction of food, the symptoms were completely eliminated, and the person was free from symptoms. A Russian psychiatrist, Dr. Uri Nickolayev, reportedly treated over 7,000 patients suffering from various psychiatric conditions during the 1970’s with the use of supervised fasting. He labelled five stages of a fast which took place over at least a thirty-day period. The more disciplined the patients were after the fasting period the more success they experienced. Those that fell off the recommended diet experienced a return of their symptoms.
It certainly begs the question, how much mental illness today is really just the mind going to extremes, or is there some sort of physiological cause? Is there chemical obstructions in the brain causing behavioral disturbances? So many people are told they simply have a problematic mind and there is nothing they can do about it. They are often told to take a pill for the rest of their life. But, what if there is another cause within the physical body? What if cleaning out the body can eliminate waste buildup in the brain that is causing erratic tendencies? It is certainly worth researching and looking into, especially if you are in this position. If recreational and pharmaceutical drugs can create notable mental and behavioral changes in people, then it certainly seems plausible that other chemical substances built up over time could cause chronic anxiety and depression. Whatever the underlying cause, it’s worth doing your own research and investigating to help transform these supposed hindrances of anxiety and depression into stepping stones toward self-awareness.