MEDITOLL.COM

Imagine driving down the road one day with your window down. You're enjoying a nice breeze and the radio is on. The songs aren't your favorite, but you like them because you know all of the words to almost all of them. Feeling happy and carefree.

Then it stops. Everything just stops.

All of the sudden you can't breathe. You're choking! Why are you choking? There is nothing to choke on! Maybe something else is happening. Maybe you're having some kind of allergic reaction! To what, though? There's nothing to be allergic to. Now your skin feels weird. One second you can't feel anything, and then the next it almost feels like your skin is about to burn off. Something is wrong! Your heart! Your heart is beating so hard! It feels like it's about to pound out of your chest. You have to find a way to pull over because you're having a heart attack.

Scared! No, not scared.

Terrified.

Slam on brakes! skid to a stop! Say your prayers!...

This is just one of the many many situations I've been through in my lifetime. I suffer from a severe case of Panic Disorder. It was brought on by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which I was diagnosed with when I was about 12 years old. You think when you're a child that things will get better when you're an adult. You think that adults are invincible and when you finally are one that everything will be OK. In truth my condition would yo-yo a bit. But the older I got the worse I got. I had a few good teenage years where it wasn't so bad and I could go out and have a little fun.

Oddly enough, the OCD is under control. It's the panic that eats me alive now.

The kind of OCD that I have is mostly obsessive; meaning that I don't feel the compulsions like most people do. I would think of something and dwell on it. I would become obsessed with it. Like, when west nile was a thing, I was terrified to go outside. I wouldn't go outside. There was no way that you were going to make me go outside.

Most people thought it was funny or silly. I felt humiliated and helpless. That's just one tiny example out of the 34 years I've been alive.

I have a hard time eating from a fresh loaf of bread because there is no safety seal. The same with certain ice cream brands. You cannot pay me to eat it. I simply will not. There are very few people who can invite me to dinner because I will not eat just anyone's cooking. When new pills are prescribed to me it takes me such a long time to get up the guts to take it. I'm afraid of taking medications because the thought of ingesting something that I cannot get out of my body is terrifying. I'm scared of Novocaine. I'm scared of hair dye because, even though I dyed my hair many times when I was younger, I may develop an allergic reaction and die. These are all things that I am scared of NOW. Which is so wonderful in comparison to the things that I used to be afraid of.

The worst part of all of it is that as soon as it hits you, you are completely and utterly alone. There is no one in the world that can help you. There is nothing that can make it better.

No one can ever understand what you're going through. In order for them to understand it they have to experience it; and you don't want anyone to experience it. You don't want your worst enemy to have to face something like this.

There are a few things that ease the symptoms, though. A rubber band on my wrist. It kinda snaps your brain out of it for a while. I used to have big swollen welts on my wrist and a pocket full of broken rubber bands. Then I would use cold. A really cold air conditioner. Ice. Going outside in the winter. It would make me so cold that all I could think about was the cold.

None of these coping mechanisms work anymore. The rubber band doesn't help me. It doesn't phase me a bit. The cold just makes me... well... cold.

When I was younger I made the very wrong assumption that people were generally "good" and would understand that I had some issues that maybe needed a little more attention. Well maybe not attention so much as a little more exception.

It turns out that people just suck. Because of their past experiences a LOT of people, including my now ex-husband, thought that I was faking it (he doesn't think that anymore, BTW). But, you can't fake terror. I even have some people that I guess I am technically related to that also do not believe me. Which is fine because, in all honesty, they have their own problems.

Something that you MUST realize if you love someone with this disorder is that they do not want attention for it. They do not want to be known for it. They do not want that to be what defines them. They just want you to acknowledge and accept it.

The people that believed that I really had a problem just felt helpless. How do you comfort your daughter who is crying in a corner in her room because she's afraid to walk out of the door? How do you tell her it's going to be OK when you don't even really know what the hell is going on? Believe me, though, even when you don't understand what's going on with someone who is suffering from something invisible, the fact that you stay there, no matter what, matters.

I was told many times by people to just stop. Just get over it. I know that they weren't aware of how inconsiderate and ignorant their words were. However, after a couple years I just learned to keep my mouth shut. I didn't mention anything about the Panic Disorder unless there was some kind of pressing reason. I knew what people would think of me. I knew the things they would say when they thought I couldn't hear them. So I just didn't say anything. I have so many friends, even now, that I've never mentioned it to. Until right now.

I honestly feel like there is a monster inside of me (mostly metaphorical, 'cept when I'm having my monthly, then it's literal). When the panic attacks were controlling me, there was nothing I could do. There was nothing that could be said. There was nowhere safe. So that's what happened to my life.

Everything became nothing. I had people who loved me but I couldn't go places with them. Because this monster would pull me back. It would remind me that it was there and that if I went somewhere that it was going to get me. Worse, it was going to get me in front of everyone. They would see.

I turned into a recluse. I couldn't be left home alone and I couldn't go anywhere alone. I would have to have a "babysitter" if anyone went anywhere. My family would cater to this because they had no idea what else to do. Mostly because I wouldn't let them out of my sight.

Terrified.

I knew I was a burden. The ones that loved me always told me that it wasn't true. But when your best friend has to change the day that she goes grocery shopping to better suit your phobia, you're being a burden.

Situations like this will show you who your real friends are. They are the ones that are there when the dust finally clears.

I was having 4 - 10 panic attacks a day. It was exhausting. Even now, I have high levels of anxiety and I'm always hyper aware of everything which seriously takes a toll on my daily stamina.

During my years of depression I had a few relationships. Because I needed to be medicated, I needed insurance. Because I needed insurance, I needed to apply for disability. For some reason there are these human men (and women) that are called "losers". These "losers" like to find women that are insecure and live off of them. Unfortunately for them, it didn't take long for me to catch on. I might have been insecure but I wasn't stupid.

But being in more than a few bad relationships did convince me that I was always going to be alone. Who would love someone that can't even stay home alone for 10 minutes? How could I ask someone to love someone like me? I'd given up. I was 32 and I didn't care anymore. I was just going to exist until I didn't have to anymore.

Skipping all of the lovey dovey stuff, I met someone who loves, believes, and supports me to no end. He has children. I now have a family. I have a reason to be better.

I wanted to be better for the first time in a long time. The monster in me was not expecting this because she'd won so long ago. I started researching coping mechanisms again. Then I realized that coping with something isn't really dealing with it. I don't want to cope with this monster! I want to kick her in the face! I need her to back off! I needed my life back!

So I started to research how others had overcome their Panic Disorder. How did they get their power back? What did they do?

I started seeing the BEST therapist. The first one that told me what was going on was OK. It was just my body doing what it's supposed to do, it was just doing it for no reason. Or the wrong reasons. He assured me that a panic attack cannot kill you. And it can't. It's almost like your brain has a short. The wiring is broken. That is NOT your fault. You can't help how you're made. I've learned not to fight it.

Don't fight your panic attacks! Yes, you read that right! I am no doctor. I haven't a degree in anything. I just know this from experience. Do not try to stop the panic. Accept that it's going to happen. Accept that it's happening. Then, know that it's not going to last.

I've found that when I tell the panic attack to "bring it on!" that it's less severe and it doesn't last as long. Every time you do this, you get a little bit of your power back. A little bit of who you really are comes back.

I am still working on it. I am not functioning like a normal human being by any standards. I am, however, staying home alone now. I can drive a couple miles down the road for things that I may need. I can take my kids (my new family) places. I can take care of them. I am getting my life back. I wish it was a faster process but my progress is unbelievable! I am so proud of me!

Below is a link to some helpful websites that may be able to help those who suffer from Panic Disorder, and those supporting sufferers, to get a better understanding of the whole process and learn to face it! It's such a wonderful feeling!

 

By Carrie Starke

There are a few things people take on a regular basis that can absolutely destroy their sleep cycles without them knowing it. And some of those substances might come as surprise to you because you may think they usually help you relax and fall asleep. But the opposite is true. Not only are those substances bad for your health in general, but they also are bad for your sleep.

Listen, if you want to improve your sleep dramatically and you are currently doing one or more of the things listed below, I urge you to stop doing them. And if you can't stop, find some help. But it is absolutely critical that you get rid of those bad habits. So here is a list of what not to do, and why you shouldn't do it.

1. Alcohol: Yes I know exactly what you are thinking and I can already here you. "But I have a glass of wine or two at night and it actually helps me sleep". False, false and more false. Alcohol, after stimulating you, will make you sleepy, drowsy and might help you pass out faster, but you will remain in the first phases of sleep (light sleep), and never enter deep restorative sleep. Because of its sedating effect, people with sleep problems tend to drink at night. But even though you may think the results are positive because you were able to fall asleep faster, they are in fact rather negative, because alcohol will actually disturb your sleep cycles and phases. Plus alcohol should not be something you rely upon to fall asleep.

Here is another interesting fact: if you thought drinking earlier in the day would not affect your sleep well think again. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa41.htm) "Alcoholic beverages are often consumed in the late afternoon (e.g., at "happy hour" or with dinner) without further consumption before bedtime. Studies Roehrs, T., and Roth, T. Alcohol-induced sleepiness and memory function. Alcohol Health Res World 19(2):130-135, 1995) show that a moderate dose of alcohol consumed as much as 6 hours before bedtime can increase wakefulness during the second half of sleep. By the time this effect occurs, the dose of alcohol consumed earlier has already been eliminated from the body, suggesting a relatively long-lasting change in the body's mechanisms of sleep regulation" Landolt, H.-P., et al. Late-afternoon ethanol intake affects nocturnal sleep and the sleep EEG in middle-aged men. J Clin Psychopharmacol 16(6):428-436, 1996; Vitiello, M.V. Sleep, alcohol and alcohol abuse. Addict Biol (2):151-158, 1997.)

Another interesting fact about alcohol, is that it actually inhibits the secretion of a hormone called ADH (Anti Diuretic Hormone), which when in normal levels makes you retain the appropriate amount of water. But when you drink alcohol, this hormone stops being produced, and therefore your body looses more water than it should. This is called dehydration. So what does it mean for you? Well the more alcohol you drink, the more your body will dehydrate and this has 2 consequences:

1. When you are dehydrated, you can't sleep well and wake up thirsty in the middle of the night.

2. You wake up in the middle of the night with the urge to urinate.

So here are 2 more ways alcohol disrupts your sleep. Knowing all this, we can come to the conclusion you will be better off without drinking alcohol at all. Does that sound too hard for you? Well you make the choice: the pleasure of booze or restful healthy deep restorative sleep.

2. Nicotine: Do you smoke? Do you find you need that last cigarette at night otherwise you just can't relax from the busy day you had and won't be able to fall asleep. Maybe as you are reading these words it's late, you can't sleep and you have a cigarette between your fingers. Well let me tell you something interesting: just as I said it with alcohol, you'd be better off without it. So put it out right now! Yes you heard me; that last cigarette of the day that is supposed to relax you, will in fact have just the opposite effect.

If you are under the impression the cigarettes you smoke actually help you relax, you have been fooled. Nicotine is a stimulant!

Nicotine stimulates your nervous system, and instead of helping you sleep, it is going to keep you awake and tossing and turning in bed. It has the same effect as drinking a cup of coffee.

Smokers will usually stay in a light sleep and spend less time in deep restorative sleep, and may not even enter deep sleep. Nicotine also reduces the amount of REM sleep. You should now be well aware of the health dangers this leads to. Nicotine withdrawal (the decrease of nicotine level in the body and the need to replenish it) usually tends to wake up the smoker 3 to 4 hours after falling asleep. Long-term chronic smokers may also develop respiratory problems and cough, which greatly interferes with sleep. I remember a man I had met some years ago, a chronic smoker; he had been smoking 1 pack and a half a day for many years. He would cough so much at night he wouldn't sleep; he couldn't lay down more than 10 minutes without coughing and also had trouble breathing. The scary part is he was only 45 years old. So if you are a smoker and would like to improve your sleep, you know what to do! I am not telling you to quit cold turkey; you could at least stop smoking 1 or 2 hours before going to sleep. I know to some of you this seems impossible; well would you rather remain with your sleep problem?

A last word on cigarette smoking: even with all this information available to you, if you decide to keep smoking, and can't give up that last cigarette of the day, please make sure you do not smoke it in bed, or fall asleep with your cigarette lit in your hand. Every year many, many people are injured, and others die in fires caused by someone who fell asleep with a lit cigarette. Be responsible, and you may save lives.

3. Caffeine: If you didn't know it yet, caffeine is, according to wikipedia.com "the world's most popular psychoactive drug". It is widely used for its stimulating effect, to stay alert, and fight sleepiness. It is therefore absolutely logical caffeine should be avoided in all its forms as we get closer to the end of the day. But logic is not always followed. Have you ever found yourself drinking a caffeinated drink less than 6 hours before going to bed? Well if you have this bad habit, change it right away because it can take up to 6 hours for caffeine effects to wear off.
Here are some of the known effects of caffeine:

-Stimulates the central nervous system

-Increases alertness

-Increases heart rate

-Diuretic (makes you urinate more)

-Raises body temperature

Another little known fact is that caffeine is not just found in coffee. As a matter of fact it is contained in many other common foods and it also has different names such as:

-Guaranine

-Mateine

-Theine

And here is a list of the foods we can find caffeine in:

-Coffee

-Soft Drinks

-Chocolate

-Energy drinks

-Tea

-Some Diet Pills

Of course not all theses foods contain the same amount of caffeine. Chocolate for example has a low caffeine content. But did you know that a serving of soft drink contains 10 mg to 50 mg of caffeine, when an average serving of coffee contains 40 mg. You see soft drinks are as much of a stimulant as coffee is. Also know that "decaf" does contain caffeine, but in smaller amount. Odds are, you know you shouldn't drink coffee at night and therefore you avoid it.

But are you avoiding soft drinks as well? If you are drinking a couple of cans of soda within 6 hours of going to bed, you are increasing the caffeine in your body, which in turn stimulates your nervous system, and will make it harder for you to either fall asleep, or stay asleep. You may toss and turn in bed with your eyes open for hours and wonder why you just can't relax and go to sleep; the answer may lie in those cans of soda you had a few hours ago, or even the cup of coffee you had after dinner.

As a rule of thumb, if you have trouble sleeping at night, you should avoid all caffeine containing food within 6 hours of going to bed. You will dramatically increase your chances of going to sleep and staying asleep, you will find it is much easier to relax, turn your mind off and finally get the rest you need.

A side note on caffeine: Some people consider caffeine as a substitute for sleep. They will just disregard their lack of sleep and "compensate" with one cup of coffee after another to stay awake and alert. Knowing what you now know about the importance of sleep, I am sure you understand this is not something you should do. Your body will accumulate fatigue, will not be able to repair itself and will eventually breakdown (disease).

There is absolutely NO substitute for sleep. If you are not sleeping enough, drinking coffee, soda or taking caffeine pills to keep you awake and "functioning" is not a solution. It can become a vicious cycle, leading to addiction: someone does not sleep well at night, wakes up tired without energy and decides to drink coffee all day long to "stay awake". Caffeine accumulates in the system and when the time to sleep comes, this person can't relax and stays wired due to all the coffee drunk during the day. The next day, he wakes up tired again and starts the process over. If this is happening to you, your health could be in serious danger and I would recommend you find a way out of the addiction, and stop relying on coffee. You will be tired at first, maybe even completely exhausted, but your body isn't a machine!

4. Sugar: Sugar is not technically a stimulant but its effects are similar. The intake of sugar will cause a raise in your body insulin level to metabolize it, leading to a surge of energy. Amongst other things sugar stimulates the release of dopamine, which can lead to hyperactivity. Knowing this, you will probably want to stay away from all high sugar content foods, especially refined white sugar. This means no sodas (again), ice cream, candy bars, cookies and many other things!

The average soda, for example, contains about 40 mg of refined sugar, which is equivalent to about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Not only does sugar interfere with sleep but it also leads to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. From now on, make a conscious effort to avoid refined white sugar, and yes you will have to change your habits, but there can't be any results without change. You body will thank you for it.

5. Exercising at night: You must know that exercising at night or shortly before bedtime can have the opposite effect and keep you up. To prevent this sort of problem, you should always avoid exercising close to bedtime. As a rule, do not exercise 3 hours before going to bed. It is much better to exercise in the morning, and if you don't have time, you could start waking up 30 minutes earlier.

As you become familiar with your sleep, understand your natural rhythms, and start getting good quality, deep restorative sleep, you will notice that waking up earlier is actually easy and gives you more energy. Take advantage of this extra time to exercise instead of ending the day with it.

So there you have it 5 sleep killers revealed to you. You know what to do!

Dr. Simon Marmier is dedicated to improving the life of mankind worldwide. He maintains a private wellness practice in northern Spain, where he is helping people regain and maintain optimal health naturally. He is the author of "How To Get A Better And Healthier Sleep Starting Tonight". For more information on sleep, visit his insomnia solution website

By Simon Marmier

For many, many more options for overcoming insomnia, visit Good Night Sleep [http://www.a-good-night-sleep.com/index.html]. You are welcome to reprint this article on your health-related website, as long as you reprint it in full, including this resource box.

By Jenny Jackson

• Fears, anxieties and phobias cause emotional stress.
• Making decisions such as choosing a mate or deciding on a career.
• Environmental problems such as noise, pollution or being too hot or too cold.
• Relationship problems such as having to speak in public or dating problems.
• Important changes such as moving home, a new baby or a new job.
• Family problems such as financial difficulties or coping with an unruly teenager.
• Chemical abuse including tranquilizers, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine.
• Challenges at work such as meeting deadlines or unpredictable work colleagues.

• Forget what others want and expect of you.
• Find your passion and purpose.
• Stay true to yourself.

I happened to be talking to my local politician before Christmas because a fine website on depression, [http://www.DepressioNet.com.au] was about to lose funding for its crucial 24 hour support forums as a result of failure by the Australian government to fund its programs.

So I pinged the pollies and Bill, my local politician, wanted to chat. The one illuminating aspect of our 45 minute conversation was that it was very hard (for politicians) to decide what other health programs should be cut in order to increase funding for mental health because of myriad vested interests.

Watching news reports around the world and back home I see similar difficulties arising. It is somewhat reminiscent of the ‘Yes Minister’ dilemmas that Sir Humphrey Appleby would put to his boss, thereby stymieing him every time.

Just last week in South Australia an identical furore erupted. There, the government was brave (or hassled) enough to announce increased mental health funding. The opposition was equally mean enough to demand to know what (more highly valued) general health programs were to be sacrificed for the increase. Read the report here:   

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1545360.htm

Now to get back to Yes Minister, Jim Hacker in his early days would have said ‘But we should just fund health needs according to the cost to the community, the individual and the carer. And that should be the minimum amount needed to restore the ill person’s health so as to function in relationships, at work and in the community.’ You wish!

The unfairness is obvious when authoritative reports state: ‘Stigma is systemic in decision-making at the highest political levels. Ultimate responsibility for mental health services lies with government leaders at Federal and State levels.

‘It is they who have ensured these services have had such a low priority in policy-making and funding…

‘The proportion of Australia’s health budget spent on mental health services is under 8%. In comparable OECD countries, the proportion is 12% or more.’ Dare to Care, SANE Mental Health Report 2004 at http://www.sane.org/images/assets/Research_reports_and_images/MHR2004text.pdf

A report by Access Economics for SANE Australia in 2003 calculated the costs of bipolar in Australia as being ‘$16,000 on average’ per year for each sufferer. Yet spending is ‘only $3,007 per person.’

It gets worse. The report states that this paltry $3,007 is even less than spending on the average Australian’s health care, even though ‘the burden of disease – the pain, suffering, disability and death – is greater for bipolar disorder than for ovarian cancer, rheumatoid arthritis or HIV/AIDs, and similar to schizophrenia and melanoma.’

And who makes up the shortfall? According to the report, ‘around half (i.e. $8,000) of this cost is borne by people with the illness and their carers.’

‘Mentally healthy’ public outnumber the mentally ill by a factor of 4 to 1. They want their subsidized spas and perfect teeth at the expense of us getting into hospital when we need it! But because they still view the behaviors of mental illness as not symptoms but as plain bad behavior, our health needs are viewed as less deserving than theirs, and funded accordingly.

Because of the ‘Yes Minister’ factor, I think we face an uphill battle persuading the politicians. They won’t shift until public opinion does, to say nothing of favors and kickbacks.

The 4 people in 5 who don’t have a mental illness have something much worse—prejudice. They are the ones who need persuading that mental health deserves equitable funding.

By Madeleine Kelly

By Abhishek Agarwal

We have found a pure natural depression supplement that can also help with
anxiety and overall general well being.

By John Gibb

I found overcoming anxiety was not easy at first, but when I finally realised that the attacks themselves could not harm me, I stopped getting them. There are things that can be done that will make it easier to overcome anxiety attacks and ensure that they never come back.

By Johanna Baker

By Michael Russell

By George Jhon