Overcoming Anxiety and Phobias: When to Seek Professional Help

Drinking alcohol can lead to failure. Men often use alcohol to relieve anxiety and find relief. However, this can have devastating consequences. The American Anxiety Imbalance Association in Rockwell, Maryland, estimates that one-third of Americans with anxiety disorders resort to binge drinking. Dr. Taylor says, "Once the numbing effect of alcohol wears off, the anxiety returns. In fact, drinking to drown one's sorrows only makes them worse. The biggest problem we encounter in our clinic is that many men, especially middle-aged men, rely on binge drinking to escape anxiety. This is a terrible thing."

Removing the coffee pot and drinking coffee before bed, leading to prolonged sleep deprivation, is not a good idea. Dr. Peter Byrne, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle, says, "This is a common way people deal with anxiety, but it's also the least effective method." Caffeine stimulates your nerves, making you more tense. Prolonged sleep deprivation will only make it harder to cope with what's causing your anxiety.

Talk about your anxiety and tension with family, friends, or a doctor.

When to seek help

When anxiety affects your normal life, you need to seek help from an experienced therapist to help you treat your anxiety imbalance. Anxiety of any degree can be relieved through treatment or medication.

Dr. Taylor said that through treatment and medication, 70% of patients have returned to normal life and experience little or no fear.

Fun Facts

Phobias: Fear of losing control

In the 1970s, Jim Stafford sang in his hit song, "I hate spiders and snakes." Most people felt the same way. But for some, the hatred escalated to an extreme, irrational fear.

Dr. Linda Welsh, an education specialist, describes the difference between fear and apprehension this way: "When you feel afraid or anxious, you have an uncomfortable feeling, but not to the point of wanting to avoid it. If you have serpentophobia, you wouldn't want to go into the woods because there are snakes. If you're just worried or afraid, you'll go in, just extra careful. The difference is that they affect your life differently. If it develops to the point of avoidance, you may have a phobia."

There are as many phobias as there are things that frighten people. The most common is claustrophobia, also known as fear of being in enclosed environments like elevators. Another is acrophobia. Dr. Welsh believes that aerophobia is also one of the most common phobias. However, some patients are afraid of many things such as crowds, bridges, tunnels, open fields, roads, and dogs. These symptoms can all be categorized as "single phobias" because they all involve a fear of a specific object or thing.

One of the strangest phobias Dr. Welsh encountered was a woman who was terrified of taking the shower. She said, "The thought of showering and the water jets terrifies me." Dr. Welsh also encountered patients who had phobias of vomiting or germs.

Dr. Welsh said, "Bacteriophage phobia is quite common; it's similar to an excessive obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, these patients are often reluctant to seek medical attention."

If your fear of spiders, snakes, or other things develops into a deep-seated phobia, don't panic. With the help of experts, you will learn to face your fears instead of running away. There are many ways to treat phobias. In addition to proper breathing techniques and relaxation skills, placing patients in uncomfortable environments can help them gradually adapt and build resilience, thus reducing hypersensitivity and enabling them to cope with such environments.

It's also possible that, even after treatment, you still won't be able to like spiders and snakes, but you'll no longer be afraid of them and can freely go camping in the wild or playing in the woods.

arthritis

How to relieve your pain

Many of us have accidentally smashed our fingers with a hammer. It's an extremely painful feeling and experience. But after a scream, a flurry of jumping around, and a few curses, the pain begins to subside. Before long, you can get back to work.

However, if that excruciating pain occurs every day, and you wake up every morning with a hammering pain in your knuckles, knees, elbows, ankles, and hips, then the door to your suffering has been opened, and a persistent pain will always accompany you.

This sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, "The Pain That Never Fades." But that's exactly what arthritis is like. In the United States, approximately 40 million people suffer from arthritis, though the degree of pain varies: some experience only mild pain, while others experience the devastating, hammer-like pain of true suffering.

However, arthritis is not invincible, and there are many ways to manage it. Early diagnosis and treatment, combined with regular physical exercise, can eventually help you eliminate arthritis, although this will be a long-term process.

Dr. Gary Gilkson, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, says, "The earlier you take action and the more comprehensive your physical activity, the better you'll be able to manage arthritis pain. If your muscles are weak and you don't exercise, then you'll just have to endure the pain."

Main types of arthritis

There are more than 100 types of arthritis. Among them, rheumatoid arthritis has the greatest impact on patients. In the United States, approximately 600,000 people suffer from this type of arthritis.

Dr. David Pisetzky, one of the two directors of the Duke University Arthritis Medical Center, said that the main symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are joint swelling and inflammation. Other symptoms include fever, weight loss, anemia, and joint knots.

Dr. Pisetzky said, "The main symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include swelling, muscle softening, redness, and a burning sensation. Patients may experience difficulty moving, especially in the morning, and their bodies may become stiff. Rheumatoid arthritis can affect the joints of the fingers, wrists, elbows, neck, hips, ankles, knees, and small joints in the feet."

Pain begins when the lining of a joint, or synovium, becomes inflamed. Inflammation of the lining can lead to damage to the bone and cartilage.

We don't yet fully understand the causes of rheumatoid arthritis. But if left untreated, it can destroy all the joints in your body, eventually confining you to bed or a wheelchair. Fortunately, this only happens in about 10% of cases. Another aspect is that 10% of rheumatoid arthritis patients recover within the first year.

Another, more common, and prevalent type of arthritis is osteoarthritis. Approximately 16 to 35 million people suffer from this type of arthritis. Dr. Richard Pope, director of the Arthritis and Connective Tissue Disease Center at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, says, "Osteoarthritis is less severe than rheumatoid arthritis, and it typically affects only one joint."

Dr. Pope says that the male-to-female ratio of rheumatoid arthritis patients is roughly equal.

Arthritis can cause damage to the cartilage, which plays a vital role as a cushion at the ends of bones. When the cartilage is damaged, the fluid-filled, lubricating synovial membrane becomes inflamed, causing pain.

If you strained a ligament or damaged cartilage while running home during high school, you are likely to develop arthritis. Arthritis often targets the injured joint, especially the knee.

Sports injuries are not the only cause of osteoarthritis. Dr. Gilkerson warns that genetics is also a significant factor. He says, "If your father has osteoarthritis due to genetics, then your chances of developing the disease are about one in four, depending on the strength of your cartilage."

However, this disease is a different story for older adults. Dr. Popper says, "Most of us develop osteoarthritis in our 60s or 70s because as we age, the cartilage's ability to regenerate decreases."