Systematic desensitization versus anxiety (9)

We have previously analyzed the concept of systematic desensitization to treat anxiety. We explained that when a person confronts a particular situation, phobia or any circumstance that causes him what is known as an anxiety attack, he must learn to overcome that fear through a process where he will confront the object or event he fears, but gradually.

The process will be carried out in different stages until dominating the situation. Imagine, for example, that the person is afraid to cross the street. Maybe the first step would be to stand on the sidewalk, look at the road, watch cars pass by and analyze where the fear resides. The next step could be to cross the street accompanied by another person. The third stage would be to cross the road calmly while another person waits at the other side. The fourth would be to cross the street alone.

The most important thing in all of this is to have an action plan designed to act with a coordinated and efficient strategy so that we can win the battle against anxiety. Do not forget the simple exercise that we can carry out anytime we confront a situation that we are worried about: take several deep breaths, exhale slowly and visualize that we act in full control of ourselves. We can't succeed with only a couple of attempts if we want to be in control of our emotions. We need to plan and work on this project because the conditioning to the anxiety that we have become accustomed to over the years will not be eradicated in two or three days.

In the process of systematic desensitization, it is preferable to start working with an area that does not cause us too much anxiety. That way we do not get discouraged in the task since when we manage to overcome in a particular field, this will encourage us to continue working in other areas of our life.

With each experience we learn more, we will possibly have some failures, but we will not let this discourage us if we want to succeed. When we fail in the attempt, let us analyze why and this will help us to be more prepared next time. The most difficult part of this process is to determine what particular thing causes us stress, as this is somewhat confusing to define. However, we must do our best to find the causes of anxiety. The human being, under no circumstances, should stop to wonder why.

Overcoming anxiety is not a matter of logic. Each of us knows that there is no logic in those situations that paralyze us by fear. Anxiety can be overcome very effectively through the treatment we have analyzed: systematic desensitization.

Designing an action plan against anxiety (8)

We will further explain the concept of systematic desensitization through direct experience. For example, suppose that you are a shy person in your social environment, which causes you a high degree of anxiety. For direct confrontation, you must start dealing with a situation that gives you little anxiety and gradually you increase it until you overcome it.

Let's take for example a person who is anxious or afraid to relate with others, especially when they are unknown people. This situation is causing you severe limitations and suffering in his life and he wants to apply the gradual desensitization techniques to overcome the problem. In this case, to lose the fear of social interaction, he can design an action plan consisting of the following stages:

• Stage 1: Establish an insignificant conversation with a stranger. Maybe in the street, in a doctor's office, no matter the place, just has to be your own initiative. 
• Stage 2: Establish that same conversation like the previous stage, but this time should be something more extensive, say 1 or 2 minutes more.
• Stage 3: This stage will consist of establishing a casual conversation in a social activity, whether in a party, a class or the workplace and of course, also with someone unknown. 
• Stage 4: Here you should hold a conversation like the previous one, with an unknown person, but this time it should take several minutes.
• Stage 5: This stage will consist of sharing with a group of people formed by a mixture of known and unknown. You should actively talk and participate in the group.
• Stage 6: In this step, you must meet a new person and try to become his or her friend. After several meetings you should invite him to dinner, take him for a walk or visit him. Anything that causes more mutual contact in a friendly relationship.
• Stage 7: This would be the last stage and will consist of finding a group of unknown people anywhere, engaging in an active conversation and joining the group as a regular member. This stage could take you several meetings with this same group until you completely integrate as one of its members.

As you can see, there is a huge difference between the first stage of simply meeting a stranger engaging in a short conversation and the seventh which is the experience of being self-introduced to a group of completely unknown people and become one of its members. This plan will be much more effective and bearable if one combines each stage with the practice of systematic desensitization through the relaxation and visualization exercises. It would be very convenient, before carrying out any action, to previously practice it and mentally visualizing oneself in total control of the situation.

As we have explained in previous articles, if in the direct confrontation one feels paralyzed by anxiety at any stage, he should go back to the previous stage and don't continue. Do not go ahead if you are experiencing restlessness or panic and continue practicing the previous stage. Only when you manage to completely overcome one stage, then and only then, you can move on to the next stage.

Of course, this has been just an example. You can design your own program to beat anxiety and apply it to any situation in life you want. The most important thing is to have an action plan designed to act and coordinate a strategy to win the battle against anxiety. And do not forget the simple exercise that we can do at any moment that we are confronted with a situation that worries us: several deep breaths, exhaling slowly, and moments of visualization in which we contemplate ourselves acting in total control of the situation.

This process of self-therapy requires strong will and a genuine desire to overcome that problem which causes us anxiety and affects our lives. We can achieve nothing with just a couple of attempts and then abandon the process. If we want to be in control of our emotions we need to plan and work on the project with perseverance, because the conditioning that has been affecting us and limiting our lives for so many years, is not supposed to be eradicated in two or three attempts.

As you persevere in the project and overcome different stages, you will feel great satisfaction to start mastering your own limitations and be in control of your life. That feeling of self-affirmation is extremely pleasant for anyone, but even more so for those who for years have suffered fears, panics and paralyzing experiences such as anxiety. The battle is well worth it.

A private session of self-therapy (7)

Once you have mastered the relaxation exercise, you will be prepared for a private session of self-therapy. When you reach the state of mental relaxation, imagine that you are confronted with that specific person or situation causing your anxiety. If at the time you perform this exercise you notice that you are getting a little anxious or restless, take a deep breath, forget the subject and return to your state of mental relaxation.

Remember, what you will be doing will be to visualize on the screen of your mind, while you keep your eyes closed and relaxed, the situation that causes you anxiety. At that moment you will observe yourself in that situation, but maintaining total control of your emotions, centered on yourself and without experiencing anxiety or discomfort of any kind.

This should be done only after performing the full relaxation exercise, which will take about 10 minutes. If you prefer, you can spend 5 to 10 minutes to the post-relaxation visualization exercise and both will help you feel calmer and prepare to face the situations you now fear. You can do this exercise daily or 2 or 3 times a week according to your free time.

Don't try to visualize more than one problem per session. It is recommended that you dedicate a minimum of 10 sessions to each specific situation before continuing with any other that you could have. Remember, first the relaxation exercise will take you about 10 minutes. Then, once the relaxation is assumed, you will project on the screen of your mind that specific situation that is causing you anxiety so you'll be confronted with it. If you begin to feel restless or anxious, then you just leave the exercise, take one or two deep breaths and try again at another time. When you'll do, you will visualize yourself involved in the specific situation, but in full control of it.

You'll notice how the next time you are confronted with circumstances that previously caused you anxiety, you will be more prepared to face them and you will feel calmer and more confident in yourself as your subconscious mind has been receiving the effect of the visualization exercises that you've been doing. If possible, try to combine your visualization exercise with getting into that specific situation in which you have been working. This will greatly help you in the process of systematic desensitization that we have explained.

It is also practical to consider that whenever you have to deal with anxious circumstances, give yourself a brief mental treatment a few minutes before. Simply take several deep breaths and exhale slowly, then for a moment visualize yourself confident and able to cope with the specific situation for which you are preparing.

It is quite possible to win the battle against anxiety, even though at this moment it seems like a huge mountain to move. Remember, to move mountains you have to start by moving the stones until all the work is completed. It will only take the genuine desire to improve and some effort on our side because everything in life requires effort to achieve it. In short, this is the method of desensitization or gradual deprogramming through visualization and confrontation with direct experiences.

Photo by Bill Strain

The origin of obesity. Adaptogens to the rescue.

It is known that 40% of the world population suffers from being overweight. This is 1.9 billion people or what is equal to the sum of the population of Brazil, China, and the United States. There is an infinite number of diets that have been created to solve this problem and all of them follow the same pattern that is: reducing food without concerning too much on the natural mechanisms that allow weight regulation in the human body. This causes that about 65% of people who finish a diet, regain back their initial weight or even get over it in a short period. This is known as the rebound effect.

In our previous article, we saw how leptin, a hormone produced by adipose tissue cells, travels carried by the blood and is detected by our brain serving as an indicator in the regulation of body weight. A lower leptin concentration in the blood tells the brain to store more fat in the form of adipose tissue and conversely, a higher concentration of leptin will stop fat production.

With age, the sensitivity of our brain to leptin decreases and we need higher concentrations of this hormone so that it can be detected. Those higher levels of leptin can only be produced by a greater amount of adipose tissue and that is why we gain weight more easily as we get older.

Achieving better control of our weight is only possible if we fight the three factors that hinder the sensitivity of our brain to leptin. These are the decrease of oxygen levels that reach our tissues, the conversion of the cellular medium into acid instead of alkaline and finally the greater concentration of free radicals in that cellular medium.

There are drugs in traditional medicine to fight these factors, but due to their frequent side effects, they mostly require the prescription of a doctor. Fortunately, we find plants in nature that allow us to achieve these same results and they are called adaptogens.

These plants have the capacity to adapt to our body's needs causing different beneficial effects for our health. They give the impression of being intelligent substances that according to the person's needs, allow him to reach a high level of physical and mental balance. What characteristics should a plant have to be classified as an adaptogen?

• It must have an immunomodulatory effect, increasing the body's defense capacity.
• It should not cause side effects
• Can not cause addiction
• It must help the body to achieve an optimal balance of internal energies
• It must have a bi-directional operation, that is, it must adapt to the specific needs of the person with a regulatory effect. For example, if you have high blood pressure an adaptogen should help lower it, but if you have low blood pressure it should help raising it

Adaptogens help fight those factors that make it difficult for leptin to be detected by our brain and therefore have a positive effect on our body's weight management. They are the ideal complement to any diet since among its characteristics are:

• They contribute eliminating the free radicals produced by the metabolism due to its great antioxidant effect
• They help the transport of oxygen to the cells allowing to use it more efficiently
• They have anabolic effects benefiting the formation of muscular tissue
• They improve the regulation of biological rhythms
• They fight the effects caused by stress

The extraordinary properties of these plants, capable of adapting to the specific needs of each organism, have caused skepticism among academics. However, studies have now been carried out to show that its medicinal properties are well-founded.

Among a large number of healing plants known today, only a very small number are considered adaptogens. In our next article, we will be treating the benefits of a plant considered the adaptogen par excellence: Ganoderma Lucidum, also known as reishi.

Relaxation Techniques (6)

You don't have to be an experienced guru to practice meditation and receive all its benefits.

Once we determined in which specific circumstances we develop anxiety, the first step in implementing our effective self-therapy solution is to learn to relax. Believe it or not, you can learn to relax quite easily. First of all, you should look for a comfortable seat, or lie on your back in your bed. It must be a place and a moment where there are as few distractions as possible. Whenever you do this, you should close your eyes and take a deep breath exhaling slowly.

Find a quiet place and take a comfortable position. Once you have achieved this, close your eyes and begin to take deep breaths exhaling slowly. Then you'll begin to repeat your own phrase: "I am completely relaxing" and you'll begin to focus your attention on each of the tension points of your body.

Starting from the scalp, eyelids, jaw, neck, nape, shoulders and so on, you'll go through all your body until you reach your toes. As you focus on each area you'll think: "At this moment I will relax the muscles of my face"; wait for an instant until you experience the relaxation of the muscles of your face, then do the same with each part of your body.

In this way and gradually, you will feel more and more deeply relaxed. Remember, you will concentrate on each muscle group in your body, on different organs, in each area where tension builds up starting from the skin that covers your head. If you have trouble getting it the first time, you can create tension on that specific part and then remove the tension to experience the relaxation.

For instance, you can contract the skin on your scalp, your face muscles, tighten your fist, contract your back, your abdomen and then release the contraction and experience the relaxing sensation. In the same order, you'll start with the skin that covers your head until gradually reach your feet. If you have trouble getting it the first time, practicing contraction of the different areas of the body will help you achieve relaxation. By the third or fourth time you do it, you'll simply mention every part of your body and you'll feel relaxed. You will become a master in the practice of physical relaxation and once you have reached the ideal state of relaxation, you will be prepared to hold a private session of self-therapy.

It will be at this point that we begin to address the problem of anxiety. We will use relaxation for the treatment of anxiety, although later we will mention other ideas of how to use this practice of physical and mental relaxation. We already know the first step, to assume a comfortable position in a place where we have the least possible distractions, close our eyes, take several deep breaths and begin to relax each part of the body from the skin that covers the head to the tip of the toes.

Physical and mental relaxation is a science on its own that has been practiced by Asian cultures since ancient times. Its regular practice has incredible benefits for our health. It achieves a state of peace where all the senses take part, so they use specific postures along with music, incense, etc.

Systematic Desensitization. (5) The most effective therapy against phobias, fears, and anxieties, ...and the hardest to spell...

Systematic desensitization is the most effective treatment to overcome phobias, fears, and anxiety. But the best of all is that you can have its huge benefits working on your own in autotherapy sessions.

In the previous article, we explain how pre-conditioned reactions have their origin in the past, often during childhood and are the product of a programming that inevitably makes us react anxiously when the same circumstances are repeated. Fortunately, we can overcome these situations and overcome the conditions that cause us anxiety.

In fact, the process is not so difficult if we do it the right way. A clinical procedure to eliminate conditioning that causes anxiety was conceived by Professor Joseph Wolpe, a psychiatrist who made use of the basic principles learned after years of research. It consists of gradually exposing the patient to a series of anxiety-generating conditions while he is in a state of induced relaxation.

This process is known by the name of systematic desensitization and is carried out effectively in many psychiatrists' offices, psychologists, and mental institutions. If carried out properly, it has proven its effectiveness in 90% of cases. By gradually exposing himself to stress generating situations, either in an imaginary (in vitro) or real (in vivo) way, the patient will maintain his state of relaxation until he exceeds the programming that induced him to stress. Exposure will be made gradually from the simpler situations to those who generate the more tension.

Let us take the case we pointed out earlier of someone who fears authority figures. In this case, the person will practice the process of desensitization exposing himself again to similar situations to those that conditioned the state of anxiety. The process will be carried out until he is able to overcome the anxiety that dominates him. It is not the logical reasoning part of therapy, but the gradual process of eradicating the sensibility to that original programming that was causing anxiety.

Although severe cases of phobias require the supervision of a professional during therapy sessions, the vast majority of people have certain areas generating fear or anxiety that can be eliminated through self-therapy.

It's advisable to analyze and write down under what specific circumstances we develop anxiety in each area of interest. That is, we need to be practical and analyze in what specific areas there is a previous programming that is hurting us. Once we have this list, we will take from the different situations, those with which we are most frequently confronted and that we wish to eliminate as soon as possible.

Among others, we found some common fears like having to talk to unfamiliar people or professionals, people with more academic background than ours, or perhaps the stress generated when the boss is present in the workplace or when he calls us to communicate something, or maybe when we have to read or say something in public. Any situation causing anxiety that we often are confronted with can be the subject or our self-therapy.

To be effective in our self-therapy sessions we have to master the art of relaxation and it is precisely what we will be dealing with in our next article.

For a detailed guide on how to implement systematic desensitization, I recommend this link from Dr. Tom G. Stevens: Self-Desensitization Instructions

Preconceived reactions. (4) Are we victims of our past behavior?

Most of the anxiety that people experience is due to what psychologists call preconceived or pre-conditioned reactions. To put it simply, it means that we associate isolated situations and events in such a way that we reproduce always the same behavior in similar circumstances.

The association of two events: if the event X produced fear, panic, nervousness, restlessness, anxiety; then every time the X event happens we react in the same way. That is to say that if we react with fear or with anxiety in the presence of a certain external stimulus, every time a similar stimulus takes place we will react the same way. The interesting thing here is that although there is no real danger and the circumstances are completely different if the same stimulus happens again, we will react in the same way because this has already been conditioned in us.

For example, a person who during his childhood had some kind of negative experience with authority figures such as a police officer, a school principal or someone he considered worthy of respect, perhaps now as an adult he feels anxious if he is driving and sees a police officer approaching or stopping him in the way. In fact, he will experience anxiety when any figure of authority confronts him directly. Among the immediate symptoms that the person will experience are muscle tension, cold sweats, stomach pain, wanting to go to the bathroom, stuttering, fast heart beating, etc.

Everything is due to pre-conditioned reactions that have their origin in the past, frequently during childhood. Many of our emotions are the product of preconditioning. That is why logical reasoning can not be part of the treatment, because the person may realize that it is no big deal what has happened, but in spite of that he can not control himself. If you explain all this to that person from the logical point of view and what is happening, he will fully agree with you. If you have experienced a state of anxiety in any specific situation, you will know that I am right on this point.

Although logic tells you that there is nothing to fear, it is an over-reaction, you will not have the ability to control the situation. We need to understand that the individual under a state of anxiety is not reacting to a specific situation, but to a previous programming due to events that happened in the past. This is the reason why the person who says to himself: I will do my part, the next time this happens I will control the situation, soon realizes that despite his good intentions, he can not face things as he planned. Once again, anxiety overcame him.

If this is so, what can we do? Will we be caught up in our past programming being victims of anxiety? Fortunately, we can overcome these situations and overcome the conditionings that are causing the anxiety. In a psychological analysis, after understanding the problem, it is necessary to design a work plan and set goals to reach our final aim. In our next articles, we will be dealing with those methods.

Anxiety spicing our lives (3)

We may consider anxiety to be the great enemy of modern man, and we must admit it is partly true. Anxiety is like pain, we prefer not to have to experience it, but at the same time, it can warn us of dangerous situations. Some moderate anxiety motivates us to plan for the future and also to improve our ability to face stressful situations when they occur. For example, a person in a state of fear considerably increases their physical strength, others are more effective in their activities when they operate under a certain degree of tension. Anxiety is problematic only when it becomes excessive and we must learn to handle it in the most effective way.

Anxiety is like salt and pepper, it serves moderately, but if you put too much, the taste of food is not very pleasant. A life without emotions, including anxiety, would be quite monotonous, however, intense emotional experiences often debilitate people. Excessive anxiety defeats us and creates inhibitions. We have all experienced the sensation of being paralyzed by fear of having to speak to a group of people or perform an activity in front of others. In this case, we could become paralyzed, we have created inhibitions.

Sometimes we can administer ourselves small doses of anxiety to feel exalted because we need some stimulation in our life. An example of this is when going to an amusement park and we experience the excitement of riding a roller coaster, or when we practice an exciting sport. We also experience it when we venture to take some risk or to accept some challenge in our lives. Usually, whenever we accept to take some risk, either for fun or for overcoming a goal, we try to ensure that the situation is within our control or otherwise we would experience unpleasant and destructive consequences.

Because anxiety is an unavoidable reality in our lives, we have to do more than simply learn to live with it. We have to learn to transform it into positive energy that works for us rather than against us. It will take some training to achieve this self-control, but it's perfectly achievable by a normal individual. That's what we will be covering in our next articles.

The origin of obesity. Why do current diets fail?

In the 1990s it was shown that adipose tissue is not an inactive tissue with the sole function of storing fat, but also acts as an endocrine organ capable of producing different substances that modulate fat deposits. Among these substances is leptin, which is the hormone responsible for communicating to the brain the amount of fat present in the body. These findings provide a metabolic explanation for the origin of obesity.

How does the process work? Adipocytes are cells that form adipose tissue and produce several hormones, including leptin. It travels in the blood throughout the body reaching the brain that perceives the amount of leptin as a measure of how much adipose tissue the body has. The more adipose tissue, the greater leptin concentration in the blood and therefore the brain will receive the message that there is enough stored energy and can consume it. By expending such energy, the adipose tissue decreases and with it the leptin concentration in the blood. The person experiences a greater appetite and consequently will eat more,  absorbing nutrients which cause a weight gain. This cycle is intended to balance leptin levels in the body and with it the quantity of adipose tissue we have.

The cycle works perfectly during the younger years. Young people can usually eat without measure and do not get fat. At that age, the brain is perfectly sensitive to leptin levels and the balance remains almost unchanged. However, over the years the person eats much less than he ate before and on the contrary, fattens quickly. What happens is that over time brain receptors that detect the amount of leptin in the body no longer work as before. Our brain tends to lose the sensitivity to leptin that it had in its youth and we fatten easily. Now a higher concentration of leptin in the blood is needed for our brain to detect it. To produce higher amounts of leptin more adipose tissue is needed. The cycle that in our younger years helped us to avoid obesity now acts against us favoring it.

There are several facts that accelerate the process of brain deterioration to detect leptin. One of them is the decrease of oxygen levels in the organism. Second is the fact that the cellular medium in our body becomes acid rather than alkaline; we experience a transformation towards acidity. The third factor is that our cells, which are now part of a several years old body, produce more substances known as free radicals, which are the end residual of our metabolism. So-called antioxidants are precisely those substances that counteract the presence of free radicals in the body and its consumption is highly recommended.

Today the effect of insensitivity to leptin has accelerated its appearance and this anomaly is appreciated now in earlier ages. What we know as fast food and the so-called cafeteria diet make people consume genetically altered foods and other substances that modify the way our body works from the endocrine point of view. This causes a higher incidence of the three factors that alter our sensitivity to leptin.

Today there is an industry dedicated to weight control that makes profits that exceed hundreds of billions of dollars a year. A large number of weight loss diets are promoted in the media and they are designed for all preferences. 95% of these diets work the same way: they all focus on controlling the daily amount of calories the individual consumes. However, that same percentage does not take into account the endocrine point of view on weight management.

When a person follows a diet, his endocrine system will continue working as usual and while food decreases, the message that reaches the brain is yelling that we need to eat more to store more energy. Some diets even use drugs to lower appetite and that way they manage to control this natural reaction of our body. Given the inability to receive more food, the logic that our brain will follow is to reduce energy expenditure as much as possible, leaving the existing reserves to ensure the vital functions of the body. People who undergo one of these diets usually experience weakness and debilitation. They usually talk softly, have sweatings and their appearance is flaccid and hypotonic. There is great suffering on the organism internal behavior and even from a psychological point of view.

Many "successful" diets nowadays are designed to achieve weight goals in a short time. However, it happens that once the desired weight goal is reached, the individual begins to eat normally but the brain does not react as fast and maintains a decreased energy expenditure, resulting in a storage of that excess energy in the form of fat. People in a short time end up with even greater weight than they had when they started the diet. This is known as the rebound effect.

If we want to be successful in managing our weight, in addition to decreasing the intake of calories, we must also help our brain to regain its sensitivity to leptin. This is only possible by fighting the three factors that difficult leptin's detection: bad oxygenation, high levels of acidity and high concentration of free radicals in the body. This way we will be able to maintain our normal energy consumption levels and thus avoid the rebound effect. Fortunately, there are substances in nature called adaptogens that allow these objectives to be achieved. We will be referring to them in our next article.

Defining anxiety (part 2)

As anxiety is a very broad term, it would be useful to define certain concepts that help us to understand this important area of human experience. All people have problems, difficulties; we all have some psychological complex or weakness, some area where we are not so effective. This idea is simply a reality and not a pessimistic view of human existence.

Psychologists tend to differ in using terms and concepts depending on their theories about personality and their psychotherapy systems. This happens in the case of anxiety. The definition depends heavily on the psychological school which we are dealing with.

Although there is no specific definition for the concept of anxiety, we can define it as a reaction to a circumstance in which we believe we are in danger or threatened in some way. We may think that our physical safety is in danger, that our success at work is threatened, that our personal esteem may be weakened, or we may be concerned about what might happen to a loved one. When it's said: So-and-so is nervous, they are often referring to an anxious state. People use the word nervous to define depression or anxiety.

Stress translates into anxiety due to a specific situation in which we are involved. Fear can be categorized as an intense state of anxiety in reaction to a specific threat. There is another type of anxiety that is known as phobia. A phobia is a great fear that literally paralyzes the person and is always related to a specific object or situation. All humans have some kind of phobia, whether it could be of traveling by plane, of snakes, blood, etc. Specific names had been given to different types of phobia. For example claustrophobia (fear of closed places), acrophobia (fear of heights), hydrophobia (fear of water) and so on. There is an endless list of the different types of phobia.

There is another type of anxiety known as unconscious, which refers to a condition created by something unknown. This is called free floating anxiety. It is a term that can mean many things and usually describes a situation of intense anxiety that can unexpectedly attack the individual when he least expects it. The person suddenly begins to feel under high stress, but can't connect a specific situation or event to such a condition. It seems that to experience floating anxiety there is no need for a specific condition to triggers such a state.

Another type of anxiety is known as panic and it's a feeling in which the anxiety has become so great that the person completely loses control of himself and of the situation. Many people with emotional misadjustments seem to live in a constant state of panic. With these people, it takes a lot of patience and a great willingness to help them, although it is possible to make great strides.

Symptoms of Anxiety (part 1)

Anxiety is a condition that can be experienced practically in any situation or place and is something that anybody can experiment. This is the first of a series of articles where I will analyze the symptoms of anxiety, its possible causes, and the different techniques developed by psychotherapists to fight it and live in a more creative way.

                                                                                                

Anxiety is a very widespread and broad term that brings together a wide range of different symptoms. Problems frequently arise when we try to adequately define the concept of anxiety. A person tells us that he feels anxious and his opinion will be based on a subjective feeling that is trying to explain to us. It is something he feels and he is defining it as he feels it. Perhaps their external behavior reflects such a condition.

If we continue inquiring that person we'll find that he is full of worries, fears, and ideas that torment him continuously, but at the same time, he is experiencing some physical symptoms associated with the condition.  That is why we say that emotional anxiety is a subjective condition, but often also manifests itself in the person's external behavior.

Common symptoms of anxiety may be muscle tension, nausea, stiff neck, rapid heartbeat, breathing problems, physical pain in different parts of the body, dry mouth, fever, chills, cold sweats especially in the hands, excessive urination, stomach problems, excessive or diminished appetite, sleeping problems either little or too much sleep.

An example of a typical situation of anxiety occurs in a student, who despite being prepared for the exam, gets completely blocked when he has the paper in front of him. By the time the exam is over and he leaves, the tension has gone from him and he realizes that he remembers everything, that indeed in his preconscious was the memory of everything he had studied. In this case the most advisable would have been to stop concentrating on the exam, take a couple of deep breaths, relax or go out for water, to walk for a couple of minutes if this were possible.

If a person shows some of the symptoms we have mentioned, we could say that he is an anxious person. Like this simple example of the student, the same solution would serve for other circumstances generating anxiety. Getting out of the problem we are focused on could be a great help, but we do not always have the ability to do it.

Anxiety is a condition that can be experienced practically in any situation or place and is something that all we have suffered at some moment during our lives. Excessive anxiety is considered one of the main symptoms of neurosis. Some clinicians have speculated that human behavior tends to neurotic behavior. This concept has its origin in the idea that man lives cornered by the pressures of his environment and therefore experiences a continuous state of anxiety. Without being so pessimistic about the reality of human behavior, we could say that we all have some neurotic feature in our character.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

Ganoderma; revolutionizing the weight management industry

Products based on ganoderma lucidum are getting more attention in nutritionist and dietitians circles. Recently this year ORGANO launched its new line of weight management products all based on this miraculous mushroom.

OGX FENIX is the new brand's name of shakes that mix milk whey protein and organic ganoderma. Unlike similar products in the market, these have great delicate taste and can be combined with other ingredients in a variety of recipes.

Because of Ganoderma's adaptogenic qualities acting on leptin's cycle, they not only constitute a comfortable way of weight loss but they also guarantee there will be no rebound effect after one gets its weight goal. At the same time, you'll get all the benefits of Ganoderma over your health.

For more information on this new line of products for weight management, you can refer to

Ganoderma; everything you need to know about OGX

Here, I leave you with the promotional video for the new line:

Ganoderma Story - History, Life & Benefits

This is a great introductory video about ganoderma with a great manufacture.

Enjoy it !