Anxiety and Prescription Drugs - How to Start and End Your Day Without Either
The reason I am writing this article is because every day, I woke up with at least five things I was worried about getting done that day.
Then to compound those five worries, each time the phone rang, or I received an email, the list seemed to grow exponentially - so by the time I had brushed my teeth, I had at least 10 things I was anxious about, before I even got dressed! Sound familiar? So with that scenario, no wonder we race out of the house like it is on fire - we have to get 10 things done BEFORE we learn about the other 10 things we will undoubtedly come across that need to be done TODAY.
So the race begins! The RACE to where? Just think for a moment - we all have the same number of hours in a day to complete any given number of tasks.
So why do we feel that if we RACE faster than the next guy or gal - that our Anxiety Angel will select us as the fortunate one to complete their tasks and win the RACE.
Again, RACE to where and to what? We have become so misguided about how we spend our time, that we don't even remember spending a "normal" (what is that?) 24 hours actually taking TIME to accomplish each task WELL - not before anyone else does.
Every day, I see at least 5 potential car accidents - Why? 100 percent of those accidents would be caused by someone rushing to get ahead of someone else; someone trying to get to the "Yield" sign before the next car does so that the "next car" will be doing all the Yielding and we will be making our mad dash to the next TASK - hmm.
Let's review this situation.
Think about the most frustrating situation you could possibly face when you are in a hurry.
The Numero Uno enemy to our RACE to the accomplishment finish line is -Traffic Jams, right? OK -now let's analyze What causes those traffic jams?According to Craig Davis, Physicist at the University of Michigan, "If everyone would be good citizens and move over when the signs tell you to, traffic would move more quickly," said Davis.
"It's the science of complexity.
In large group dynamics special things happen because each individual is trying to maximize their own benefit.
" Of course, though, no one likes slowing down, it is not a natural instinct in this world of haste.
Slowing down is perceived as losing time, losing the ability to accomplish our goals, and just being behind everyone else in the Race.
But is that actually true? Of course not.
Slowing down is a way to gain more control of your day.
Think about it - when everyone is rushing to finish their own personal RACE, everyone of course increases their speed, and cars end up traveling like bunches of anxious grapes, driving too close together.
They don't call it a "Rat Race" for nothing.
The faster one driver goes, the faster the others around him or her will go, not even knowing why they all are running in the first place, or more importantly, what is just ahead of them.
Then, if a car in front does something unusual or unforeseen, drivers have torespond by hitting the brakes.
That in turn makes the next driver brake.
Soon, a wave of commuters are flashing red brake lights, which causes the gridlock.
Physicists think of traffic jams like water turning to ice.
This is because just like when water freezes, it cannot flow smoothly, frozen water, like a traffic jam, takes time to "unfreeze" which increases the amount of time that everyone spends on the road, and decreases the ability to get where we are going quickly.
So in our effort to be "hasty", we end up defeating the purpose and slowing ourselves down by rushing, which also causes anxiety about the loss of time.
So instead of the fast track we intended to be on we are on the anxiety track, with no real source of relief.
Thus, we have allowed anxiety into our lives, and have in essence lost the control we sought.
Yes, a never ending cycle of anxiety.
But you may ask, what harm can a little anxiety cause? Isn't being anxious a part of living in this fast paced world? Well the choice is really up to you, but consider some facts.
Anxiety and stress are linked to heart attack, stroke, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, and some forms of cancer and other illnesses.
Even if we avoid those things, what about those anti-anxiety drugs that the commercials go on and on about as being the best hope for a calm anxiety free day? Well though they run through the list of "side effects" very hastily at the end of the commercial as they portray anxiety free people tip toeing through the tulips, the side effects can make the anxiety we would suffer without the drugs a viable alternative.
With such symptoms as "brain shivers" (where the feeling that patients describe as feeling like their brain is experiencing an earthquake in their head) migraine headaches, depression, lengthy dark nightmares, just to name a few, should cause us to pause and consider an alternative.
While anti-anxiety medication, once the human system has gotten used to it, can provide some relief from anxiety, side effects from withdrawals if we have to for some reason stop taking the drug for a period of time have caused many anxiety medication patients to suffer terribly.
However, due to the fact that they feel they need to have something to temper their anxiety, they find themselves between an anxiety rock and a prescription drug hard place - Do I take the drug and hope for no side effects? Or do I suffer through my anxiety on a daily basis? The dilemma itself can cause many anxious moments.
So instead of looking outward for an answer to our anxiety, possibly the answer can be found on the inside -inside our own chosen and particular pattern of life.
With Earth Day just behind us, and our attempt to align ourselves more with it, we can take a lesson from every living species we see - from the simplest blade of grass, to the mighty oak tree.
Now, take a moment from your anxious day and watch the oak tree for a moment.
What do you see? Do you see it moving fast or trying to grow faster? What about that blade of grass? How does it spend its day? Trying to grow faster than the grass on the other side? No! They act in accordance with their own unique design and individual function in life.
There is no anxiety or stress related diseases that affect plants and animals are there? Why? Because due to their inability to "know any better" they stay within their area of expertise - they are what they are, they grow as fast as they individually grow and no faster or no slower.
They don't count the minutes, they don't try to maximize the hours in the day to get as much growing done as possible - they just grow.
We are not ever going to accomplish everything our little brains say we can in one 24 hour day.
We have to remember that for the most part - the tasks that we try to achieve, are far too many to start off with.
We need to stop and smell the..
..
well, smell whatever is growing at its own pace and take a lesson from it.
Most of our anxiety is based on what we HAVE NOT accomplished.
However, if we turn that anxiety to something positive, we can focus on what we HAVE accomplished in one day, in most cases, you will be amazed at just how much you can accomplish just by taking your time, setting reasonable goals and taking a deep breath before beginning the day.
So tomorrow, when you wake up...
take a minute or two to think about what is the most important thing that you need to do...
then think about it again...
what would happen if you actually didn't complete that tasklist today? Are there some things that you REALLY don't need to accomplish today that can wait until tomorrow? What would happen if you did the best you could and saved the rest until tomorrow? Would the world fall apart? I doubt it and then...
and only then..
..
maybe you can really take a minute to sit and enjoy that oak tree..
and maybe even sit on a bunch of blades of grass and...
for the sake of yourself and others...
slow down.
Then to compound those five worries, each time the phone rang, or I received an email, the list seemed to grow exponentially - so by the time I had brushed my teeth, I had at least 10 things I was anxious about, before I even got dressed! Sound familiar? So with that scenario, no wonder we race out of the house like it is on fire - we have to get 10 things done BEFORE we learn about the other 10 things we will undoubtedly come across that need to be done TODAY.
So the race begins! The RACE to where? Just think for a moment - we all have the same number of hours in a day to complete any given number of tasks.
So why do we feel that if we RACE faster than the next guy or gal - that our Anxiety Angel will select us as the fortunate one to complete their tasks and win the RACE.
Again, RACE to where and to what? We have become so misguided about how we spend our time, that we don't even remember spending a "normal" (what is that?) 24 hours actually taking TIME to accomplish each task WELL - not before anyone else does.
Every day, I see at least 5 potential car accidents - Why? 100 percent of those accidents would be caused by someone rushing to get ahead of someone else; someone trying to get to the "Yield" sign before the next car does so that the "next car" will be doing all the Yielding and we will be making our mad dash to the next TASK - hmm.
Let's review this situation.
Think about the most frustrating situation you could possibly face when you are in a hurry.
The Numero Uno enemy to our RACE to the accomplishment finish line is -Traffic Jams, right? OK -now let's analyze What causes those traffic jams?According to Craig Davis, Physicist at the University of Michigan, "If everyone would be good citizens and move over when the signs tell you to, traffic would move more quickly," said Davis.
"It's the science of complexity.
In large group dynamics special things happen because each individual is trying to maximize their own benefit.
" Of course, though, no one likes slowing down, it is not a natural instinct in this world of haste.
Slowing down is perceived as losing time, losing the ability to accomplish our goals, and just being behind everyone else in the Race.
But is that actually true? Of course not.
Slowing down is a way to gain more control of your day.
Think about it - when everyone is rushing to finish their own personal RACE, everyone of course increases their speed, and cars end up traveling like bunches of anxious grapes, driving too close together.
They don't call it a "Rat Race" for nothing.
The faster one driver goes, the faster the others around him or her will go, not even knowing why they all are running in the first place, or more importantly, what is just ahead of them.
Then, if a car in front does something unusual or unforeseen, drivers have torespond by hitting the brakes.
That in turn makes the next driver brake.
Soon, a wave of commuters are flashing red brake lights, which causes the gridlock.
Physicists think of traffic jams like water turning to ice.
This is because just like when water freezes, it cannot flow smoothly, frozen water, like a traffic jam, takes time to "unfreeze" which increases the amount of time that everyone spends on the road, and decreases the ability to get where we are going quickly.
So in our effort to be "hasty", we end up defeating the purpose and slowing ourselves down by rushing, which also causes anxiety about the loss of time.
So instead of the fast track we intended to be on we are on the anxiety track, with no real source of relief.
Thus, we have allowed anxiety into our lives, and have in essence lost the control we sought.
Yes, a never ending cycle of anxiety.
But you may ask, what harm can a little anxiety cause? Isn't being anxious a part of living in this fast paced world? Well the choice is really up to you, but consider some facts.
Anxiety and stress are linked to heart attack, stroke, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, and some forms of cancer and other illnesses.
Even if we avoid those things, what about those anti-anxiety drugs that the commercials go on and on about as being the best hope for a calm anxiety free day? Well though they run through the list of "side effects" very hastily at the end of the commercial as they portray anxiety free people tip toeing through the tulips, the side effects can make the anxiety we would suffer without the drugs a viable alternative.
With such symptoms as "brain shivers" (where the feeling that patients describe as feeling like their brain is experiencing an earthquake in their head) migraine headaches, depression, lengthy dark nightmares, just to name a few, should cause us to pause and consider an alternative.
While anti-anxiety medication, once the human system has gotten used to it, can provide some relief from anxiety, side effects from withdrawals if we have to for some reason stop taking the drug for a period of time have caused many anxiety medication patients to suffer terribly.
However, due to the fact that they feel they need to have something to temper their anxiety, they find themselves between an anxiety rock and a prescription drug hard place - Do I take the drug and hope for no side effects? Or do I suffer through my anxiety on a daily basis? The dilemma itself can cause many anxious moments.
So instead of looking outward for an answer to our anxiety, possibly the answer can be found on the inside -inside our own chosen and particular pattern of life.
With Earth Day just behind us, and our attempt to align ourselves more with it, we can take a lesson from every living species we see - from the simplest blade of grass, to the mighty oak tree.
Now, take a moment from your anxious day and watch the oak tree for a moment.
What do you see? Do you see it moving fast or trying to grow faster? What about that blade of grass? How does it spend its day? Trying to grow faster than the grass on the other side? No! They act in accordance with their own unique design and individual function in life.
There is no anxiety or stress related diseases that affect plants and animals are there? Why? Because due to their inability to "know any better" they stay within their area of expertise - they are what they are, they grow as fast as they individually grow and no faster or no slower.
They don't count the minutes, they don't try to maximize the hours in the day to get as much growing done as possible - they just grow.
We are not ever going to accomplish everything our little brains say we can in one 24 hour day.
We have to remember that for the most part - the tasks that we try to achieve, are far too many to start off with.
We need to stop and smell the..
..
well, smell whatever is growing at its own pace and take a lesson from it.
Most of our anxiety is based on what we HAVE NOT accomplished.
However, if we turn that anxiety to something positive, we can focus on what we HAVE accomplished in one day, in most cases, you will be amazed at just how much you can accomplish just by taking your time, setting reasonable goals and taking a deep breath before beginning the day.
So tomorrow, when you wake up...
take a minute or two to think about what is the most important thing that you need to do...
then think about it again...
what would happen if you actually didn't complete that tasklist today? Are there some things that you REALLY don't need to accomplish today that can wait until tomorrow? What would happen if you did the best you could and saved the rest until tomorrow? Would the world fall apart? I doubt it and then...
and only then..
..
maybe you can really take a minute to sit and enjoy that oak tree..
and maybe even sit on a bunch of blades of grass and...
for the sake of yourself and others...
slow down.