Three Ways to Overcome Anxiety

Panic attacks are no picnic. You can be walking along and pushing your shopping trolley at the supermarket and then boom! Your heart starts racing, and your chest tightens up, and you feel like you can't breathe, and your palms get sweaty, and you feel like you need to run and disappear somewhere. Learn right now how you can make them evaporate for good.

Anxiety is also a very distressing state of mind; if you are experiencing frequent panic attacks, this can be an indicator of burnout related to chronic stress. Seek help from your medical practitioner, who can refer you to counselling and support you in removing anxiety from your life.

1. Give yourself extra time to do things to prevent panic attacks.

When you are rushing around, you can be more prone to panic attacks. Start your day at least 15 minutes earlier, and spend some time quietly by yourself in the morning. This will give you more time to be quiet and relaxed, so you will be able to be more at peace with yourself and not feel as though you have to be pressured so much. Practice mindfulness, and make sure that you get yourself somewhere safe, and remember to breathe. If you need to exit from public, try to call a friend to come and assist you if you need it.

2. When you are in the middle of a panic attack:

Get control of your breathing. Breathe deeply by forcing the air swiftly and deeply; you will then breathe the air back in, and do this several times over. Stop quietly, and then give use one hand to massage the other, and give yourself deep pressure in each of your hands. Breathe again, and keep massaging each of your hands until you regain calm. You can also squeeze your hands together tightly and hold them for seven seconds, and then repeat. Practice mindfulness, and make sure that you get yourself somewhere safe, and remember to breathe. If you need to exit from public, try to call a friend to come and assist you if you need it.

3. Implement lifestyle changes to prevent panic attacks in the long term:

Clean up your diet, eat as much unprocessed food as you can, and as many fruit and vegetables as you can reasonably manage. Reduce your caffeine intake, give away alcohol and also give away nicotine. Talk to a counsellor about your personal problems, and also do what you can to alleviate stress from your life. Try to see things in perspective, and don't sweat the small stuff. Let go of perfectionism, and set yourself realistic goals, not unachievable goals. Spend more time in nature, and quiet contemplation. Spending time in nature reinforces human's natural need for being in the outdoors (a phenomenon referred to as biophilia, or love of nature). Join a social support circle, so that you have others to rely on to help relieve some of your mental burdens. Engage in creative pursuits, and make sure that you are not always working, and ensure you get adequate rest.
Using these three simple steps, you can let go of stress, and reduce your proneness to anxiety and panic attacks, and have a life that is calm and peaceful and full of joy.

The Dreaded "S" Word - Suicide

The common myth is that suicide is the most selfish act someone can commit. That's nonsense. People typically don't commit suicide until the pain of living becomes greater than the pain of dying, and nothing they've tried has worked. In fact, it generally makes perfect sense when viewed from their life perspective.
So let's take the unhelpful judgment out of it and look seriously at the factors involved in suicide. Much can be said about the risk factors and common means; this is just an overview.
First, let's look at some risk factors of suicide. Naturally, not all will apply in every situation. (**VERY Important; *Especially in the elderly)

• History of suicide attempts
• Talking about suicide or leaving a suicide note
• Planning for suicide (e.g., making a will, giving away their things, saying their goodbyes)
• Being depressed (Caution: suicide rates increase when someone appears to be coming out of a deep depression, and in summer)
• Chronic, unresolved grief
• Poverty
• Unemployment, especially in young men
• Feelings of powerlessness, shame, guilt, low self-esteem
• Poor physical health
• Social isolation
• Being single
• Family history of suicide
• Use of alcohol or other drugs
• Having a personality disorder
• Poor sleep
• Bereavement
• Access to firearms
• Being elderly &/or male
• Major holidays and birthdays
• First week following discharge from the hospital
• Just before or after a major diagnosis
• Before or during disciplinary proceedings

The most common means of suicide include:

• Intentional drug overdose, often accompanied by alcohol
• Jumping from a height
• Gun or knife
• Cutting
• Hanging
• Burning
• Asphyxiation
• Intentional self-neglect, especially in the elderly

What can you do if you suspect someone in your life has become suicidal? Here are a few ideas:

1. Take it seriously.
2. Talk about it. Ask about the depression and any suicidal feelings and behaviors.
3. Listen. Listen for the feelings beneath the words. Listen for the pain that has led up to this moment.
4. Don't argue. Don't offer platitudes.
5. Assist the person with getting professional help-even offer to make the appointment and go with him/her to the first visit.
6. Offer to help create a safe environment (remove weapons, drugs, razors, scissors, etc), or offer to spend the night on their couch so s/he isn't alone.
7. Try to get him/her to call a crisis hotline.
8. Don't minimize or deny his/her pain.
9. If suicide seems imminent, don't leave the person alone.
10. If someone is telling you about feeling suicidal, don't agree to keep it a secret-get help.

If someone completes suicide, what can you expect to experience in the aftermath? Typically, survivors will feel an increased sense of rejection, responsibility, various grief reactions, shame, guilt, or even copycat behavior. Some may develop personality disorders.
In summary, suicide is a very complex issue and judgment isn't helpful. After all, we're not walking their path. But it can shake your own foundation to the core, so don't feel like you need to handle this difficult challenge alone. Get support for yourself before you develop complications from the pain and confusion.

 

Tips for Protecting Yourself Financially

If someone called you and said they were from your credit card company or bank, and they had a problem to discuss, would you give them confidential, personal information over the phone?
Don't be too quick to think it couldn't happen to you. One type of scam involves imposters posing as bank reps who call targeted victims about "problems" with their credit cards. They read off a list of phony charges made on the person's credit card to gain the card member's attention and card information. The person naturally gets upset and isn't thinking clearly so they give the caller their credit card numbers to help resolve the problem.

If the caller sounds especially friendly, convincing and kind, that may be the all it takes to separate that person from his or her hard-earned savings. Even the savviest person isn't immune to these scams because fraudulent cat and mouse games are always changing. Many scams purposely target seniors who have been known to be sympathetic to scammers.

This is one of the more common financial frauds aimed at grandparents. After listening to a sad tale on the phone about their "grandchild," the grandparent withdraws a large amount of cash from their bank and wires it to the bogus "granddaughter" or "grandson" who is "stranded" abroad in need of money. The grandchild has supposedly lost their wallet or passport abroad or they have been robbed of everything including their plane ticket. This is also a common email scam.

Unfortunately, even though some frauds have been around for years, there is always someone who is vulnerable to talking to a nice-sounding caller from a well-known company like a bank, credit card company, insurance agency or government organization who isn't who he says he is. But that caller has only one goal in mind: to gain access to your social security number and/or financial information.

How and Why Seniors are Targeted

Crooks use a variety of financial theft strategies. Here are some ways they get seniors and others to trust them.

• They purchase databases like direct mail focused on older adults or they buy lists of higher priced retirement communities or wealthy neighborhoods. They visit senior centers or health care centers where wealthy donors may be recognized on a wall or plaque to gain names of people who might be good targets.
• After a natural disaster, people are targeted to give money to a "fake" charity. Some scammers gain access to records of who has contributed to charities in the past. After the historic floods in Colorado in September, some telemarketers called people asking for credit card numbers to charge a donation. These callers were not usually legitimate.
• Unfortunately, seniors are often targets of scams because they may easily get confused and they want to trust the person they are talking to.
• People who live alone and are lonely may often be targets of fraudulent callers because they are known to respond to "nice-sounding" people.
• Many scams are Medicare or health-based. Because seniors have more medical issues it may seem natural to them to get calls about their health and the caller requests personal information.
• They want to make sure their bills get paid so when in doubt they give out confidential information when they shouldn't.

Tips for Protecting Yourself

• First off, never give personal banking anyone on the phone. Most banks only ask for personal information when absolutely necessary such as when you are opening or changing an account. The do not ask for personal information over the phone or by email because they recognize that both forms of communication are not completely not secure.
• Remember, financial institutions will not ask for non-public information by phone, e-mail or through a Web site. When in doubt, call your bank and ask if they've contacted you. Chances are they haven't.
• If an offer sounds good don't quickly react. Tell the caller to send it to you in writing.
• Don't reply to phone or email messages that don't seem quite right to you. If everyone did that, you would put the crooks out of business. From their perspective, it just wouldn't pay to keep doing what they're doing.
• If you want to make a donation to a charity, don't make the donation with a credit card or give out financial information over the phone.
• Stay up-to-date on your financial matters. Monitor your credit card and bank statements on a regular basis.

Keeping Elderly Parents & Friends Financially Safe

• Make regular in-person visits. Spend time with senior family members and friends. Make sure they are not lonely. You can do this by phone if you live out of the area, but in-person, open communication, is even better.
• Sit down with elderly parents and talk about how financial scams can occur. Let them know you are available to discuss any great "opportunity" they may have heard about.
• Put notes by the phones that say "Never Give Personal Banking Information to ANYONE."
• If a senior doesn't have close friends or family members close by they trust, suggest that they get an attorney to act as power of attorney as needed.
• Set up an annual or monthly budget for donations the person has an interest in. The senior has final say over their money but through a series of limited donations they can enjoy giving back to their community but just not over the phone to potential scammers.

Even though you are aware of how important it is to stay ahead of financial scams, fraudulent activity is gaining momentum. If no one was responding to requests for personal financial information, the scams would stop. Stay sharp, stay aware. Don't be tempted to give scammers valuable information and the opportunity to take what they want.

Natural Therapy To Relieve Stress And Anxiety

Natural therapy has been in use since time immemorial. It was only overshadowed for a brief period by the rapid development in medicine. This branch of health sciences is based on the principle that there is a vital energy controlling body functions and that the body has the ability to recover or restore itself. Hence, such natural therapies try to attain physical, mental, spiritual and emotional wellbeing without or through minimal use of invasive treatments, drugs and medications.

Stress has become so commonplace that every second person experiences it to a certain degree. If left managed, it could prove detrimental to one's health. So, in this section we shall discuss a few natural techniques to relieve stress and anxiety.

1. Give a vent to your emotions

Purging yourself of the negative emotions becomes important when you want to reduce the burden of stress. There are different ways to do so. First, socialize. A great option to alleviate anxiety is to share your problems with a friend or family member. Second, take a break from the daily grind of life. Laughing and crying are also therapeutic activities. They cleanse the pent up tension and emotions.