Anxiety Cure or Prevention

What makes a huge difference is Books; I can lose myself in the world of words, disappear into the life of fantasy and forget life for a while.  The mood boosters or mood busters as I call them provided in the local library; a program created by The Reading Agency; they helped me function and see a brighter side of life providing me rest, escapism and relaxation.



I don’t want to think that I have been sent this depression for nothing, so I am re-training myself as a Counsellor; currently in the final stages of Level 3 with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, ready to embark onto Level IV in September.




I attended a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) group via Therapy for You in October last year and found that at the end of six weeks very condensed CBT Program a lot of the attendees and people that needed help, yearned for more stability; the Friday meet became a rock of us.  Some of these attendees were very upset; they felt they had been given a lifeline of hope only for it to be pulled away.




I was one of the more vocal individuals on the course, so SEPT suggested I run a support group and yep… you guessed it, every Friday members meet at my house.  We eat freshly cooked cake, drink tea and coffee and we try to self resolve our issues by being open about our problems.  We don’t just sit and discuss problems, we talk about holidays, family, money, anything that anyone wants to talk about; nothing is taboo.




On our Friday meet we may check out a book which is relevant to the group, for example.  Our group has specifically been working of anxiety and how to overcome it.  The book called The Anxiety Cure, author, Robert L Dupont,  Elizabeth Dupont and Caroline Du Pont – wow that keeps it in the family!  On page 11 it states "...

Life a full normal life without restrictions because of anxiety disorders.  The realistic goal of treatment is not the elimination of the painful, anxious thoughts and feelings.  Getting well from an anxiety disorder means letting go of the wish not to have the uncomfortable feelings and panic.  Getting well means accepting that the symptoms can come back at any time.”

I agree with this statement, I have dealt with depression since the age of 16; it disappeared for some years and returned when I had a major illness in 2007; I am unable to shake the depression off – therefore it is managed by my lifestyle and medication.




It’s all about self awareness I believe, so ensure you know yourself, understand what triggers your anxiety and face it head on when you are ready; and if you are not ready – do not attempt it.
Remember not everyone’s solution is the same; the methods I use may be totally disastrous for you and vice versa.  It’s okay to get things wrong – that’s how we learn to manage in the future.




All Books on Prescription are available at the Library; they’re proving to be popular so you may have to wait for a copy – worth it though!  If you want to see state of the art - visit The Forum, Southend Library - not only do they have books, audio, magazines, papers, maps, pcs - they have an art gallery too!  The staff are lovely and always ready to help.



Love Bernie