The Anxious P. Profile Many people who experience states of high anxiety share a number of personality traits which set them apart from the "average" person. Some of the most positive qualities are: * You’re very sensitive. You are sensitive to environmental stimuli such as temperature, light, smells, and sounds. You are also sensitive to other people and their feelings. Many of you are very intuitive. * You most likely have an above average IQ. * You are creative. Being intelligent and creative, you have the best of both worlds. You have a rich and vivid imagination, which we will harness in this group to help you reduce your fears. * You have intense emotions and often a high degree of emotional reactivity. This is usually an inborn trait, and makes your experience of life more vivid and poignant. * Many famous people have struggled with high states of anxiety, including Johnny Carson, Barbara Streisand, Carly Simon, and Bob Dylan. Some other personality traits can work against you, and these are the qualities we will be addressing in this group: * You may experience a lot of negative thinking - particularly worry, and anticipating the worst. * You may be compulsive and/or perfectionistic: you may never be satisfied with what you have done or how things turn out. * You may procrastinate - put things off which are unpleasant or stressful. * Many high anxiety individuals are "people pleasers", very concerned what others think of them, and not confortable talking about their problems. These less positive traits are learned, and can therefore be unlearned and replaced with more positive patterns of thought or behavior. /TABLE 1:1 Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (third edition-revised) Motor Tension 1. trembling, twitching, or feeling shaky 2. muscle tension, aches, or soreness 3. restlessness 4. easy fatigability Autonomic Hyperactivity 5. shortness of breath or smothering sensations 6. palpitations or accelerated heart rate (tachycardia) 7. sweating, or cold clammy hands 8 dry mouth 9. dizziness or lightheadedness 10. nausea, diarrhea, or other abdominal distress 11. flushes (hot flashes) or chills 12, frequent urination 13. troubling swallowing or “lump in throat” Vigilance and Scanning 14, feeling keyed up or on edge 15. exaggerated startle response 16. difficulty concentrating or “mind going blank” because of anxiety 17. trouble falling or staying asleep 18. irritabilityjominal, in Abdominal breathing means breathing fully from your abdomen or from the bottom of your lungs. It is exactly the opposite of the way you breathe when you're anxious or tense, which is typically shallow and high in your chest. If you're breathing from your abdomen, you can place your hand on your stomach and see it actually rise each time you inhale. To practice abdominal breathing, observe the following steps: 2 1. Place on hand on your abdomen right beneath your rib cage. 2. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose into the bottom of your lungs. Your chest should move only slightly, while your stomach rises, pushing your hand up. 3. When you've inhaled fully, pause for a moment and then exhale fully through your mouth. As you exhale, just let yourself go and imagine your entire body going loose and limp. 4, In order to fully relax, take and release ten abdominal breaths. Try to keep your breathing smooth and regular throughout, without gulping in a big breath or exhaling suddenly. If you start to feel light-headed while practicing abdominal breathing, stop for 30 seconds, and then start up again. You'll find that abdominal breathing will help to slow you down any time you feel symptoms of anxiety or panic coming on. Three minutes or more of abdominal breathing can abort a panic attack if you initiate it before the panic has gained momentum. Abdominal breathing will also counteract hyperventilation symptoms, which can be mistaken for symptoms of panic.