Eight-week Anxiety Camp addresses fears

Anxiety Camp is an eight-week psychoeducational program for anxiety sufferers, their partners, and family members. Its goal is to teach anxiety sufferers and their loved ones how to be their own therapist for issues such as fears, phobias, OCD, and panic. Adults and adolescents able to participate meaningfully in a group experience are welcome. A no-charge intake interview is required.
The group will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday nights for eight weeks starting July 8. Cost is $30 per session per family, with fee waivers possible. Attendance is limited to 12 people.
For more information or to join the group, call Rich Gallagher at (607) 527-0283 or e-mail info@anxietycamp.com.

Client-support volunteers needed

The Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes is seeking caring, compassionate individuals interested in supporting people with cancer. Positions are available during weekday hours at the downtown office and Cayuga Medical Center.
For more information call Sharon Kaplan, director of volunteer services, at (607) 277-0960 or e-mail sharon@crcfl.net.

American Red Cross releases first aid app

The American Red Cross has launched its official first aid app, putting free and simple lifesaving information in the hands of smartphone users.
This app gives instant access to information on how to handle the most common first aid situations, and includes videos and interactive quizzes. Users who take quizzes can earn badges they can share with friends through social media to show off their lifesaving knowledge.
The app is free and available for iPhone and Android users by searching for "American Red Cross."

Five-year-olds treated for depression and anxiety

 

Eight-year-old "Jack" has been seeing behavioural experts since he was 18 months old

Children as young as five are being referred for treatment for depression and anxiety, the BBC has found.

Figures showed mental health teams in Sussex are working with more than 1,000 under-18s while in the Solent 324 young people were referred for therapy.
Prescriptions for Fluoxetine, more commonly known as Prozac, have risen 26% in Oxfordshire and 13% in Berkshire from April to September last year.
MPs recently announced an extra £22m to tackle child mental health treatment.
Experts said children are coming under increasing stress because of unemployment, financial problems and substance abuse among their parents.
In February, the NHS Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Sussex estimated it was working with about 330 under-11s and about 830 12 to 18-year-olds with anxiety and/or depression.
While in Dorset, 212 young people were diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety disorder with 118 of them being under 16 at the date of referral.
Plastic animals With the approval of health professionals and his family, the BBC was given access to a therapy room in Sussex, where eight-year-old "Jack" was receiving treatment for anxiety.
Having developed a deep-seated fear of leaving his mother he has been seeing child behaviour experts since he was 18 months old.
"The anxieties, I think started probably very soon after he was born," said child psychologist Jo Russell.
"There were other difficulties in the family, some stresses around employment and finances, and then his parents separated when he was just a toddler."

 

During his therapy "Jack" dangles his toys from a window, 30ft from the ground

During his therapy, the BBC observed "Jack" wind up a large ball of sticky tape around his hand and tie up his toy plastic animals with string before dangling them out of the window, 30ft above the ground.
"In his mind he's putting that little creature in a position of insecurity," Ms Russell said.
"Will that little creature manage to get to the ground or not? Through that play, this little boy and I have been able to think and talk about how people cope with feeling very insecure."
Jack's mother "Joy" said she knew her son, who has thrown things at her and put holes through doors, was "different" from other children at a young age.
"He gets very like a spring, he gets wound up and explodes," she said.
"He can be very loving and caring and when it's like that it's absolutely amazing but you have the other side which goes along."
After several years of therapy, his mother said "Jack" had improved, but could still be "up and down."
NHS Solent, which covers Southampton and Portsmouth, saw 324 young people with a problem of depression referred to it between September 2010 and August 2011, the youngest of whom was five years old.
It also revealed 378 patients, aged 16 and under, were referred for a range of mental health therapies not just for depression, including cognitive behaviour therapy, anxiety management and art and play therapy.
'Entrenched problems' Its youngest patient, a two-year-old, was referred for specialist child psychotherapy.
Barbara Inkson, child clinical psychology at Solent NHS Trust, said it was seeing an annual rise of about 10% in referrals.
However, its database can only record a reason for referral and not subsequent diagnosis.
"What is clear is that levels of emotional disorders, including depression as well as anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders, are rising in line with other referrals to CAMHS here in the city," she said.

 

 Child psychologist Jo Russell said difficulties within the family can cause stress in children

The charity, Young Minds, said it wants more treatments based in school and the community rather than in mental health units, which it says can be intimidating for children.
The government recently announced an extra £22m funding to tackle child mental health over three years, to expand state-of-the art psychological therapies and extend training for community workers.
Nationally, one in 10 children aged between five and 16 years old has a clinically diagnosable mental health problem and of adults with long-term mental health problems, half will have experienced their first symptoms before the age of 14.
Sarah Brennan, chief executive of Young Minds, said: "Intervening early when a child or young person starts struggling to cope is proven to reduce the likelihood of that young person developing much more severe and entrenched mental health problems.
"It is vital that we invest in children and young people's mental health in order to prevent a generation of children suffering entrenched mental health problems as adults."

Schizophrenia With Panic Disorder May Be a Distinct Subtype

By: MARY ANN MOON, Clinical Psychiatry News Digital Network

Schizophrenia with comorbid panic disorder, also known as panic psychosis, appears to be a distinct subtype of schizophrenia, according to a study published in Psychiatry Research.

Patients who have these two psychiatric disorders concomitantly show distinctive cognitive and neuropsychological features, and likely will prove to have a different prognosis and a different biology from that of other patients with schizophrenia, said Dr. Erica Kirsten Rapp of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and her associates.

Panic attacks have been reported in 7.1%-47.5% of patients with schizophrenia, depending on the population surveyed and the techniques used to assess them. Similarly, panic disorder has been reported in 4.2%-35%.

In research a decade ago, patients who had comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia appeared to have "a distinct set of clinical symptoms, neuropsychological features, and treatment responses, prompting researchers to suggest the existence of a ‘schizo-obsessive disorder.’ " To assess whether those with comorbid panic disorder and schizophrenia constitute a similar subtype, Dr. Rapp and her colleagues examined 255 inpatients using an extensive battery of cognitive and neuropsychological tests.

In all, 165 of these study subjects were diagnosed as having either schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder without any accompanying anxiety (the schizophrenia-only group), whereas 39 had comorbid panic disorder (the panic-schizophrenia group) and 51 had a nonpanic anxiety disorder (anxiety-schizophrenia group).

Previous investigators have found higher rates of paranoid schizophrenia among patients with comorbid panic symptoms, so Dr. Rapp and her associates specifically examined the prevalence of paranoia in their study subjects. This prevalence was comparable among the three study groups, with 33.9% of the schizophrenia-only group, 33.3% of the panic-schizophrenia group, and 27.5% of the anxiety-schizophrenia group having paranoia.

Thus, the study findings would not be confounded by a predominance of paranoia in any of the study groups.

The panic-schizophrenia group differed significantly from the schizophrenia-only group in numerous measures. They showed significantly higher IQs, higher verbal IQs, better recall after a delay, more efficient problem-solving and set-switching abilities, better attentional skills, and better verbal fluency. They also performed better than the anxiety-schizophrenia group in problem-solving, attentional skills, and verbal fluency.

"These results suggest that patients with panic and schizophrenia may be more cognitively intact . . . and are less likely to exhibit the level of deficits in executive functioning and overall intelligence that are often considered to be a core feature of schizophrenia," Dr. Rapp and her colleagues said (Psychiatr. Res. 2012 [doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2012.01.017]).

"It is likely that both the presence of panic symptoms and the better neuropsychological performance are precipitated by [the same] underlying neurobiological factor," they added.

One possible candidate for this underlying factor is dopamine, which is known to affect executive functioning, positive symptoms in schizophrenia, and panic symptoms.

The panic-schizophrenia group also reported significantly more dysthymia when they were stabilized on medication than did either of the other study groups. This might be related to the fact that they also demonstrated significantly more insight into their illness than did the other patients, a finding that has been reported previously.

Given the superior cognitive performance and relatively intact executive functioning of the panic-schizophrenia group, this superior insight might indicate "a better capacity for metacognition and self-reflection. ... It may be that once their acute psychoses had resolved, they were more dysphoric about their experiences and prognosis," the researchers said. Still, their research contributes to the theory that patients with panic psychosis might "constitute a distinct group within those with schizophrenia."

This study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. No financial conflicts of interest were reported.

Anxieties of today fade by comparison

It is no secret that I have had some health issues the past year. It is no secret that along with other issues I was plagued with anxiety. Once I shared that I was having a problem with anxiety, I found many other people shared my plight. It helped to know I was not alone.
As I was having a quiet moment recently and contemplating the ups and downs of life I had visions of the women who came before us. I had visions of the women who were the settlers of our country. They didn’t have easy lives. They didn’t have the rights and the comforts we have.
These settler women often had to set up housekeeping on land that didn’t have a house or a home until their families settled there.
I wondered how they coped with anxiety in their times. People did not live as long as we do now. It was not unusual for people to die in their 30s and 40s. These women had to be strong women. They didn’t have indoor bathrooms, running water, electricity, cars, fancy houses or the medicine we have today.
How did these women cope with anxiety without the medication we have today? Did they know what anxiety was? Did their home remedies work? Did they tell anyone? Would their husbands and families understand or did they need to keep anxiety a secret if they were panicky?
I remember when I was younger and some relatives had problems with anxiety and depression, it was whispered. They would never have admitted it, and there were many jokes made about people being mentally unstable. It was not a kind world for those people having problems with depression and anxiety.
Perhaps in the olden days you did what you had to do and you didn’t obsess about it. Or perhaps you suffered in silence.
My mind wandered on to our lives today. I can’t imagine a settler woman walking into a house and proclaiming that the kitchen wasn’t up to par because it didn’t have granite countertops and the latest and greatest cooking appliances. I imagine settler women would have been happy to have running water. They had to pump water from wells and carry it inside. Today we can’t live with one bathroom, and when looking for a home double sinks are a must because it is too hard to share with our husbands.
Settler women didn’t have to worry that there weren’t enough cars to go around for the kids and that each kid had to have their own room. The kids were probably happy if they had their own bed. I remember my grandmother’s house on the farm with no running water, an outhouse and a wooden cook stove that heated the house. Seven kids grew up in that house, and I know there were not seven bedrooms. Actually there were only four rooms and the attic. You could have fit three of those rooms into my family room. Yet, my grandmother seemed happy.
I think about the things that I am anxious about and realize they fade in comparison to all the hard work my ancestor women did. I have it easy. Perhaps their anxiety was more about practical things that were important to stay alive.
I clutter up my life with insignificant things to worry about. Yes, I worry about my family and friends and world peace and more serious things, but I also worry about items that shouldn’t cause me anxiety. I can get caught up in not having the right apparel for an occasion or my nails not looking presentable. I can get caught up in anxiety if my newspaper doesn’t arrive on time or my computer breaks down. I can get caught up in anxiety if there are weeds in my yard.
Anxiety and depression are different for each one of us. It is a serious problem, and I don’t mean to make light of it. I just wondered what we would do without all the modern medicine, technology and self help that is available to us today. Would we survive? Are we strong enough? Or does my modern life cause my anxiety. Would my life have been simpler and less stressful if I had lived in the settler times? Would your life have been less stressful?
I will never know. I was just wondering.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.

Ten Signs Your Child Might Have An Anxiety Disorder

 
As part of our series on National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week (May 6-12) we’ve been posting interviews and information about children and mental health. Today, we’re posting a brief interview on anxiety in children with Jerome Bubrick, PhD, of the Child Mind Institute.
Dr. Bubrick is a nationally renowned cognitive and behavioral psychologist who’s a dedicated advocate for children and their families, Dr. Bubrick is a significant public voice educating parents and teachers about the fear at the roots of anxiety—and how it’s effectively treated.
Welcome, Dr. Bubrick.  How do anxiety disorders affect children differently than adults?
Sometimes the symptoms of an anxiety disorder are the same, but they might affect children and adults in different ways. For example, adults are more likely to understand and articulate their anxiety, while younger children often lack that insight.
Their anxiety might make them do certain things, like line things up in a superstitious way, but they won’t know why. Kids also tend to have more disruptive behavior because of their anxiety. Teens and adults are more likely to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.
Have the incidents of anxiety disorders in children increased in the past 20-30 years or have the reporting/diagnosis improved?
We know much more now. As an example, the field of OCD is a relatively new one, and most of the research and studies come from the last 20 years. Before that, on a professional level we were able to recognize certain interesting behaviors, but we didn’t understand them. Now we can diagnosis these behaviors as OCD and explain why.
So, yes, because of continuing education and dissemination of information about empirically based treatments, we are able to diagnose and treat more people, and this continues to improve via new research.
The stigma of psychiatric disorders has also decreased, which helps. We are seeing kids at much younger ages, and treating at the age of the onset of symptoms. With some disorders people used to have symptoms for 7 years before seeking treatment. Now that time has decreased to two years.
What lies at the root of anxiety disorders in children? Can they be prevented? How? What can parents do?
Parents often ask for a meaning behind a child’s anxiety. The answer is that it has to do with how your child’s brain is wired and how they have learned coping skills. An anxiety disorder has nothing to do with unresolved issues and it is no one’s fault.
Parents should be educated in what anxiety disorders are and be proactive about getting good help as soon as they see a problem. A good first step is discussing your concerns with a pediatrician. If the pediatrician isn’t helpful, find a mental health professional. Don’t wait to see if your child will outgrow it. What you’re noticing might be temporary, but it is always best to make sure.
Please share with us some of the latest treatment approaches you use in the treatment of anxiety disorders in children. Any case story interests our readers.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the gold standard of treatment for anxiety disorders. It is a skill-based approach–we give children the skills and strategies they need to make different decisions and do different things.  A good example of this is Exposure with Response Prevention, or ERP. ERP exposes kids to their fears in a carefully controlled way. This helps them confront and eventually beat their fears.
We also use cognitive triad, which is made up of “think,” “feel,” and “do.” If we can change just one of those points, we change the entire anxiety cycle.
For many people, generally speaking, 2-3 months of CBT will bring 60-80 percent of reductions of symptoms. Symptoms melt away and kids feel so much better.
What should parents look for in general?
If your child’s anxiety seems: unrealistic, out of proportion, overly self-conscious, unwanted and uncontrollable, doesn’t go away, leads to avoidance.
What are possible signs that your kid might be “forming” or might have an anxiety disorder?

They often won’t want to be social.

They’ll want to stay at home more.

They will be clingy with parents.

They’ll have more headaches and stomachaches and may spend more time in nurses office and they won’t want to go to school.

They are more irritable and have lower frustration tolerations.

They may have difficult sleeping, staying asleep, or changes in appetite.

They seem edgy.

They don’t want to go to practice.

They need lots of reassurance.

Homework takes longer than it should.

Any one of these things may not be a big deal, but the more you see, the more concerned you should be.
Thanks, Dr. Bubrick

How I Learned Not to Take My Panic Attacks Personally

The first time I spotted my memoir in the self-help section of a bookstore, I was taken aback. I’d meditated my way out of a panic disorder. But weren’t the people in this category required to be doctors or - at the very least - people with advanced degrees? Hadn’t they all developed theories, ten-step programs, self-hypnosis tapes, podcasts, videos and huge followings on twitter, facebook, television and radio?
“I’m just a Jewish girl from Rhode Island,” I told my childhood friend Meredith Vieira recently when we discussed my experience healing from the overwhelming anxiety I’d battled for decades.

 

I had no idea that the healing regimen I’d concocted would actually work. But the therapists, teachers, mystics, monks and healers I met worked wonders, helping me mend my frayed nerves and rewire my anxious brain. 

Here’s a list of the ten things I learned about myself when I wrote a self-help book.
1. I’m not alone in my suffering
For decades I thought no one else had a defective central nervous system that erupted out of the blue. Now I know that 6 million Americans suffer from a panic disorder, 40 million from an anxiety disorder. Readers have contacted me, movingly describing their own battles with anxiety. If each of us could help one other person feel less alone and more empowered, imagine how much less suffering there would be in the world.
2. I’m capable of sitting still
Every time I panicked, my heart pounded, my lungs galloped, my hands shook and my body trembled. But Yongey MIngyur Rinpoche, a monk who’d suffered panic attacks himself, taught me not to judge myself harshly. “Good meditation is okay, bad meditation is okay,” he assured me. “Just try your best to meditate.” I started off squirming, with a wandering mind but an open heart. I now love meditating every single day.
3. My anxiety masked a lot of sadness
Once I was able to sit still, I was able to examine my past. Therapies like Somatic Experiencing and EMDR allowed me to process the disturbing physical symptoms of anxiety that had haunted me for decades, and access the sadness that had existed inside me from a young age, as I watched the people around me suffer with mental illness and unhappiness. The flip side of panic is often depression. I had to feel, accept, and understand that in order to heal.
4. I can be my own holistic physician
“Neurotic, heal thyself!” became my mantra, as I figured out that alcohol made me anxious, that caffeine and sugar made me nervous, and that restorative yoga, meditation, and eating well calmed me down. I learned which powerful therapies spoke to me, which activities comforted me, and that meditation always leads me to a better place.
5. Mental illness is not contagious; I can cultivate mental wellness
The mental illness I saw around me as a child frightened me. But the demons that haunted many of my family members were less threatening to me once I learned that unhappiness, suffering and sadness are part of life for every human being. Cultivating happiness is hard work, but an essential component to healing and thriving.
6. It's not selfish for me to seek happiness
Sharon Salzberg and Sylvia Boorstein, two wise Buddhist teachers, taught me lovingkindness meditation. “May I be safe,” I whispered to myself. “May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease.” Then I wished the same for others, including loved ones and strangers. Cultivating compassion is my daily practice now. But I can only do that by understanding my own suffering, and the lessons I’ve learned about how to achieve happiness, wholeness and peace.
7. My family history is not my entire history
I’ve come to understand my past in a new way. I haven’t walked away from it, but I’ve sat with it long enough so that it’s become just that – my past. I have compassion for the suffering others around me endured, but live in the present much more successfully now, thanks to my meditation practice, where I try to take life one moment at a time.
8. I’m stronger than I thought I was
Belleruth Naparstek, a psychologist and guided imagery specialist, taught me that “Panic is essentially an overactive survival response,” and I now view myself as a true survivor. I’ve learned techniques that help me to self-regulate. I feel confident, less frightened, and empowered. I can calm myself down, knowing that life will throw me curveballs and that my nerves will rev themselves up again. But the healing tools I’ve learned will always be effective.
9. I can be a teacher as well as a student
I’m constantly learning more about the roots of anxiety and healing modalities. Readers have thanked me for sharing my story and shared their own healing resources. I once heard Sylvia Boorstein say “Sometimes I think of this planet as a flying hospital.” Life can be difficult and painful, but I believe that we are all patients, doctors and nurses. One of my favorite Buddhist teachings says “May I be the doctor, the medicine, and may I be the nurse for all sick beings in the world until everyone is healed…”
10. Everything is not about me
Hooray! Writing a self-help book has made me realize that what I’ve experienced is not all that unique. I’ve felt alone and isolated, but now I feel humbled and connected to the universe. My suffering is not as unique or exotic as I once imagined it to be. I’m just one more person on the planet trying to live a happy life and help others. I just happened to write a book along the way.

Panic Away