“Foolproof Ways to Battle Anxiety

Tuning out your worries and improving your state of mind is easier than it sounds.

Rebecca Ruiz- Forbes
1.20.09

If the Dow just closed after a dismal day of trading and a tightening sensation is beginning to spread through your chest, stop and try this exercise:

Instead of focusing on the money you’ve already lost or obsessing over future losses, try zeroing in on the present moment. Let go of distractions like a looming bill or the record unemployment rate and concentrate on your breath. Take in all the air you can, pause and then release.

“It’s actually totally boring concentrating on your breath,” says Dr. Michael J. Baime, director of the Penn Program for Stress Management at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “Lifting a barbell is totally boring too, but it’s exercising a muscle.” After 10 repetitions, he says, you should start to feel some degree of calm.

Though anxiety is the body’s natural response to a threat, that alarm system sometimes sounds unnecessarily, cluttering the mind with the chatter of negative thinking. The breathing exercise helps divert the mind’s attention elsewhere.

Controlled breathing isn’t the only strategy for anxiety relief, either. Others include engaging the brain and body, cognitive and behavioral adjustments and meditative techniques.

The Origins of Anxiety
If it’s difficult to understand why you are plagued by certain anxious thoughts, don’t take it personally–it’s a phenomenon that still eludes scientists. What is known, says Dr. Sonia Bishop, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, is that anxiety involves responses in two parts of the brain: the amygdala and the pre-frontal cortex.

The amygdala is responsible for the fight-or-flight response, while the pre-frontal cortex controls executive functions like decision-making and planning. A human foraging for berries, for example, would use the pre-frontal cortex to decide which berries to collect. If a predator suddenly jumped from the bushes, the amygdala would sound the alarm.

Scientists don’t fully understand why certain individuals are more prone to anxiety, but some theories suggest varying levels of neurotransmitters–the chemicals that relay signals between neurons and cells and affect how well the amygdala and pre-frontal cortex function–may play an important role.

What interests Bishop, however, is how the anxiety-ridden can reverse course regardless of pre-disposition. That’s why she recently conducted a brain-imaging study with 17 participants, some of whom had “high trait anxiety,” which was determined using a standardized measurement.

While being monitored by an MRI that tracks changes in brain activity, each participant had to engage the pre-frontal cortex by identifying certain letters and ignoring others. When the task increased in difficulty, both groups did well on recruiting that region of the brain. But when the task was easy, those with trait anxiety did a poor job. This was particularly telling, says Bishop, because the participants were not exposed to any anxiety-triggering threats.

The results have led her to believe that the anxiety-prone may have difficulty preventing the mind from lingering on distractions when performing easy, day-to-day tasks.

Though not yet tested by other scientists, Bishop’s conclusion seems to reflect what works well in other successful techniques for battling anxiety: meaningful distraction.

Overcoming Anxiety
You could try informally testing Bishop’s theory by doing a crossword puzzle instead of watching TV. More commonly accepted remedies for curbing anxiety include socializing and exercise, the latter of which can increase levels of dopamine, the body’s naturally occurring, mood-boosting chemical. Such distractions are most effective, though, when paired with a real effort to switch your focus.

In the simplest terms, that’s what Dr. Israel Liberzon,a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Michigan, tries to teach his patients. Using cognitive and behavioral techniques, Liberzon shows patients–many of whom suffer from anxiety disorders–how to change the way they deal with their worries.

Often he advocates for reconsidering what you associate with anxiety, trying to judge perceived threats using a more rational scale or creating an emotional distance from certain fears. In other words, putting things in perspective.

But since that reaction is hardly intuitive, Liberzon recommends seeking out professional help. In addition to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, a nonprofit organization that provides information on anxiety treatments, Liberzon says support groups and local universities with anxiety and stress research centers can serve as useful resources.

Like Dr. Bishop, Liberzon also recommends mindfulness meditation, a well-regarded technique that has been shown as effective in clinical settings. Mindfulness meditation emphasizes focusing on the present moment instead of dwelling on regrets or worries.

Dr. Baime, of the Penn Program for Stress Management, teaches dozens of these meditation techniques and says they can be learned by reading literature on the subject. He recommends Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness by pioneer of mindfulness meditation Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, which Baime uses as a textbook in his classes.

Another alternative is to find local practitioners. While there is no certification process required to teach these methods, Baime says consumers can weed out potential snake-oil salesmen by asking to speak to previous students and inquiring about where the instructor learned the methods and how many students he or she has taught.

With the right tools, says Baime, mindfulness meditation can help the anxious reclaim their lives.

“When you learn to bring your attention into the present moment in a balanced way,” he says, “you learn to undo those negative predictions for the future.”"

9 Foolproof Ways To Deal With Anxiety (originally posted in Forbes)

“Try a Breathing Exercise

Instead of focusing on a looming bill or the record unemployment rate, take a moment to concentrate on your breath. Take in all the air you can, pause and then release. After 10 repetitions, you should start to feel some degree of calm, says Dr. Michael J. Baime, director of the Penn Program for Stress Management at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation emphasizes focusing on the present moment instead of dwelling on regrets or worries. To learn more about it, try reading Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the pioneer of the subject. You can also find a local practitioner in your community, but be sure to speak to previous students and inquire about where the instructor learned the methods and how many students he or she has taught.

Engage Your Brain

The brain processes anxiety in two separate regions. The amygdala emits a fight-or-flight response while the pre-frontal cortex handles executive tasks like decision-making. A recent brain-imaging study showed that those prone to anxiety may have difficulty mediating their worries if not engaged in a task that requires diverting attention from the amygdala to the pre-frontal cortex. Though not yet replicated by other scientists, the findings reflect what works well in other successful techniques: high-quality distraction.

Socializing

Spending time with friends and family is not only a diversion from obsessing over the unknown, it can also improve your mood by forcing you to laugh or gain perspective on your fears and worries. During these rough times, socializing can also mean commiserating with your peers. But instead of collectively dwelling on the negative, try discussing positive developments.

Physical Activity

Exercise is another great diversion tactic. At a vigorous-enough pace, exercise can help produce increased amounts of the body’s naturally occurring, mood-boosting chemical dopamine. Getting active also gives people a sense of control and accomplishment, which can eclipse feelings of doubt and anxiety. There is one thing to remember, though: Be sure to focus on the task at hand instead of letting the mind wander.

Preventive Care

Anxiety is a powerful emotion that can overwhelm those who experience it. But instead of turning to alcohol, fatty food or television, try following the basic rules of good health and preventive care: stay physically active, eat well and get plenty of rest. Also avoid chemical substances like caffeine and nicotine, which can worsen anxiety, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Cognitive and Behavioral Techniques

Dr. Israel Iberzon,a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Michigan, uses cognitive and behavioral techniques to help his patients overcome anxiety. These include “changing the narrative” associated with the anxiety, creating emotional distance and assessing the threat with a new perspective. Since these reactions are hardly intuitive, Iberzon recommends seeking out professional help to better understand them.

Psychotherapy

Therapy can be an effective tool for those who want to learn more about cognitive and behavioral coping techniques, but it may also be necessary for those who have a clinical disorder. Anxiety disorders, according to the nonprofit organization Anxiety Disorders Association of America, are the most common illnesses in the U.S. A psychotherapist can make an official diagnosis and provide support and treatment.

Anti-anxiety and Anti-depressant Medications

Prescription medicine can alleviate symptoms of a clinical anxiety disorder. For short-term relief, patients can take benzodiazepines, which work as sedatives. Anti-depressants like duloxetine (Cymbalta) and fluoxetine (Prozac) have also been used to treat anxiety disorders, according to the Mayo Clinic. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the anti-depressant Lexapro was very effective in treating adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder over the age of 60.”

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I find this theory very interesting. I have a severe phobia of needles, which is odd given my profession as a nurse, but have managed to get three small tattoos that mean a lot to me. I also have nine piercings, seven in my ears (although I only wear one in each ear, remnants from my younger days), one in my tongue, and one, well only certain people know of that one. I have never felt anything but fear, pain and maybe a sense of pride for going through with it from a piercing or tattoo. I have never tried acupuncture and don’t know if I would have the nerve but I hear nothing but good things about it. If all it would take to relieve panic attacks was a properly placed piercing I believe we would have a lot of people lining up for this. I hope that further investigation reveals this to be the truth so more people can find the relief they so desperately need.

“Body piercing as therapy
Surprising side effects can be good or bad, some say

By Aimee Heckel
Tuesday, December 2, 2008

It could just be a coincidence. There’s no hard evidence. But the correlation has local acupuncturists and body piercers intrigued — and baffled.

Granted, it’s only been three months. But if you’re a victim of chronic anxiety — paralyzing panic attacks several times a week, usually for no reason — three months feels like a new life. Like coming up for breath after 29 years under water.

It was September, and I had an especially rough attack. In a daze, I ended up at K&K Piercing on University Hill in Boulder. I walked in and impulsively asked the workers to pierce my chest with a vertical bar in between my breasts along the middle of my body. This was out of character; I’m not a big fan of piercings, and I didn’t know anyone with one. Maybe I thought it would be a good distraction.

It did not hurt. In fact, it felt tingly. Odd.

Several weeks later, I was at my acupuncturist. I told him about my piecing. I asked him if the rod through my chest could affect the flow of my energy, or “chi” in Eastern medicine. If sticking tiny acupuncture needles into your body can transform you, what about a more permanent puncture?

He looked at where I was pierced and smiled.

“You pieced two exact acupuncture points,” he said. “The anxiety points.”

Acupuncturists place needles there to reduce panic attacks, insomnia and anxiety. The increased blood flow and changed direction of the energy there often eliminates panic attacks, he said. I had never talked to him about my struggles with anxiety.

Which is when I realized I have not had an attack since I got the piercing.

Still haven’t.

I didn’t even know what I was doing when I got the piercing. Could I have subconsciously “fixed” myself? I consulted the experts for an answer.

More than a pretty jewel

Jeanette Barrie says maybe.

Barrie, of Boulder, is an integrative wellness counselor with a background in Ayurveda, an alternative medicine with roots in India.

Piecing the ears and nose is an extension of traditional Indian acupuncture, Barrie says — “not just for beauty, but to trigger the vital energy points in the system.”

Ayurveda tells women to piece their left nostrils with a gold post. That is supposed to ease childbirth and menstrual pain by giving a warming, energetic balance to the cooling right (”lunar”) side of the brain, which rules the left side of the body.

Michelle Backus agrees; piercings affect your body beyond simple aesthetics.

Backus is the owner of the Ayurveda-based Alaya Yoga Spa in Louisville, and she does marma point massage. Marma points are similar to acupressure points, although they don’t directly overlap in location or size.

Initially, Backus says, “You get a euphoric rush when you get a tattoo or piercing at the physical level, and the mind and emotions are usually in a particular state before you get the work done, then afterward your mind and emotions have shifted.”

A tattoo on a marma point, such as the palm of the hand, or a piercing at a marma point, such as the “Nabhi Marma” (navel) serves a similar function as marma massage or acupuncture, Backus says.

But, she adds, the energy change is not long-term — positively or negatively. The energy of marmas will eventually redistribute around the piercing.

Unlike the deeper needling in Chinese acupuncture, Japanese acupuncture uses more superficial stimuli. And throughout history, people have tattooed their bodies on specific points to “re-regulate nerves,” according to Japanese acupuncturist Dann.

Europe’s oldest natural human mummy, found frozen in the Alps, sported 57 tattoo marks on his body on the acupuncture points for osteo-arthritis. An X-ray found he had arthritis, suggesting he had been tattooed for medical reasons.

“There’s enough history that shows certain types of piercings and tattoos have been used to enhance energy flows,” Dann says.

And in Africa, scarification — a sort of mix between tattoos and piercing — was believed to open up spiritual and physiological energies, Dann says. For example, scarification on the chest would open up the home of the spirit.

The ears are especially packed with acupuncture points.In fact, acupuncturists consider the ears a “microsystem,” with a point for everywhere on the body.

Note that ears look (sort of) like an upside-down fetus, with the lobe representing the head. Some representations of the Buddha depict him with massive earlobes, signifying wisdom. Throughout history, Buddhists have pierced the center of their earlobes to connect with their “third eye,” to enhance their inner vision, according to Jeffrey Dann, a Boulder-based acupuncturist and medical anthropologist.

This could have interesting implications for the growing number of Americans stretching their lobes with ear gauges. Based on these beliefs, could the plugs open or stretch the mind?

Others stories say lobe piercing came from pirates or sailors, who thought stimulating that area would improve eyesight and help them see land at far distances.

Then there is the tragus, the bump of cartilage in front of the ear canal — and the acupuncture point for metabolism. Local piercers report they regularly see people getting their tragus pieced to help with losing weight.

In fact, tragus piecing has turned into a business in and of itself: “ear stapling.” It’s been big in the South for years, and fans say it’s just now taking off in Colorado.

Annette Cutter, of Littleton, runs Ear Stapling of Colorado (www.earstaplingofcolorado.com), the only certified ear-stapling business in the state.

Cutter has been stapling ears for about a year. She uses an “acu-locator,” which reads energy levels, to locate the precise trigger point and inserts a surgical steel staple into each tragus. She says the $75 piercing sparks weight loss, appetite reduction, increased energy and better sleep 80 to 90 percent of the time. She says it also makes food taste different.

It worked for her, she claims. Cutter says she lost 20 pounds in 2½ months after her first staple.

Cutter is not an acupuncturist. And she says she doesn’t exactly understand why it works. But using acupuncture principles, she says, the changes that people feel are hard to deny.

The argument against

Unless, of course, you’re talking about the placebo effect. That’s how Tracy Akers explains the tragus-weight connection.

“If people think it will work, then it will,” says Akers, a piercer at Tribal Rites. “Sometimes it does simply because the person believes so.”

Josh Wood, also a piercer at Tribal Rites in Boulder, agrees. Wood has piercings, and he gets acupuncture.

“They are two completely separate things,” he says. “An acupuncture needle is more like a screw. They don’t jab it into you. They gently twist it into the skin, and it releases, well, whatever it does.”

He thinks piercings and tattoos are mainly aesthetic.

“We can pierce any part of the body, and when we hit the meridian points, nothing happens. You don’t get joy or excitement from the piercing,” Wood says.

He adds with a laugh, “I wish you got joy from tattoos.”

Take your belly-button ring out. That’s the first advice Amy Dickinson offers her patients with fertility problems. The navel intersects with what acupuncturists, like Dickinson, call the “conception vessel,” or the middle meridian up the body, which connects with the uterus.

“A belly ring impedes the flow of energy to the conception vessel, and could have an effect on fertility in some people,” she says.

Dickinson, of Boulder, is the vice president of the Acupuncture Association of Colorado. And she says she cannot imagine a positive reason to get a piercing.

“The entire body conducts electricity and has an innate wisdom about where the energy should flow,” she says.

In traditional Chinese acupuncture, most piercings are frowned upon, according to acupuncturist Dann. Piercings can interrupt the flow of energy, especially along the middle meridian, where the navel is located. A piecing in one of the energy lines can weaken an entire organ or system. Others believe that metal disturbs the energy flow.

This has created a conundrum for Kirsten Hamilton. The local woman has multiple piercings in her nose. She also has chronic sinus infections. Her acupuncturist says her metal is creating the problem. But she says she loves her rings, and does not want to take them out.

“Everyone’s energy is different and resonates with different types of metal, images and other types of jewelry,” Hamilton says. “Everyone is different. There are only good and bad places on a specific individual.”

Molly Plann, of Louisville, says she began having digestive problems after she pierced her nipples. She eventually removed the piercings because she got pregnant. Since then, her problems are gone, but she says she doesn’t know whether it was the pregnancy, the piercings or coincidence. Nipples are on the stomach meridian and can relate to digestion — although some acupuncturists say they would never needle a nipple.

So assuming there’s a connection, how can you know whether a piercing might help (such as Indian women and nostril piercings) or hurt (such as stories about fertility and the navel)?

“You can’t, really,” says acupuncturist Dann. “It could go either way: block or stimulate the point. You don’t know.”

Take a cleavage piercing, between the breasts. This is a “huge” acupuncture point, he says, “the master point of the upper body, for heart and lungs.”

He says he needles this point to help with anxiety, insomnia and panic attacks.

“If someone had a lot of those problems,” he says, “it’d sure be interesting to have it pierced and see what it does.”

Hmm. You don’t say?”

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