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Understanding Anxiety
You are not alone. Over 24 million adults in America suffer from anxiety conditions. Anxiety can show up while driving, shopping, traveling, going to movies, flying on airplanes, public gatherings or even simply being alone.
You may fear losing control, going insane, having a stroke or heart attack, fainting or being embarrassed. You may avoid your fears by severely limiting your activities or even becoming house-bound. Or you may be living what appears to be a normal life in fearful anticipation. However you deal with your anxiety, the truth is, your fears have imprisoned you.
CHAANGE is a program designed to set you free.
WHAT EXACTLY IS SEVERE ANXIETY?
Severe anxiety describes the uncomfortable bodily sensations and frightening, negative thoughts you experience when imagining some future danger or misfortune. Categories of severe anxiety include generalized anxiety, social phobia, agoraphobia (with or without panic attacks) and post-trauma conditions.
Agoraphobia, taken from the Greek word that translates as "fear of open spaces," is used today by psychologists to mean the fear of having fearful feelings which sometimes leads to avoidance of certain situations or activities.
WHAT CAUSES SEVERE ANXIETY?
Most people who suffer from severe anxiety conditions have three forces working within them: (1) a biological sensitivity to anxiety; (2) learned behaviors or beliefs; and (3) stress. They also tend to be highly intelligent, sensitive people who often were raised to be perfectionists.
Once a reaction of severe anxiety is triggered, it typically develops into a cycle of fear. And from that point on, you'll do almost anything to avoid situations that cause that fear.
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Here's where we come in.
The CHAANGE program is based on the assumption that, with help, you can change the habits of thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors which have imprisoned you. This, in turn, will enable you to deal constructively with your anxious feelings and get control of your life again. And remember we are available to help you.
SOME COMMON SYMPTOMS OF SEVERE ANXIETY
Difficulty Breathing
Heart Palpitations
Chest Pain or Discomfort
Choking or Smothering Sensations
Dizziness
Unsteady Feelings
Numbness
Hot/Cold Flashes
Sweating
Fainting
Trembling
Social Phobias
"Racing" Thoughts
Feelings of Unreality
The LifeSkills Program for Children
Are you aware that 55% of
adults who suffer from agoraphobia and other severe anxiety conditions
experienced childhood anxiety conditions. Thirty-one percent of these began
before age 10.
Fortunately, the CHAANGE Family of Therapeutic Tools has an effective way to
treat children suffering from severe anxiety: The LifeSkills Program,
materials designed for application by the parent(s), the CHAANGE therapist,
or both.
This program was designed through the joint efforts of professionals from
education, social work, family therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. It
provides age appropriate materials for children from 6-15 years of age.
LifeSkills teaches new information that explains anxiety, helps the child
form more positive attitudes and beliefs, instructs the family in ways to be
constructive, and assists in the initiation and practice of new ways of
behaving in order to overcome feared situations.
The following is a message we recently received from a person who as a 12
year-old girl suffering from severe anxiety, followed the LifeSkills program
and is now a confident, anxiety free 21 year-old:
“Thank you so much for giving me the life skills I
needed to survive through anxiety at the age I am. So many issues I never
knew had to do with anxiety that had been holding me back. Although they are
still with me and they make me who I am, I know how to deal with them. Thank
you for being there!” -- H.M.
As we all know, life can be stressful not only for adults, but is
particularly problematic for children. The breakdown of the nuclear family,
violence in everyday life and in entertainment, terrorism, and both economic
and professional pressures on parent figures combine to create fertile
ground for severe anxiety in children.
As Dr. Paul Foxman points out in his book, Dancing With Fear, while there
were no reported suicides in children fifty years ago, now a child attempts
suicide every 78 seconds. Children as young as three years of age have tried
to kill themselves. The year 1999 will always be remembered for the alarming
incidence of school violence and death that occurred in that twelve-month
time. Areas of life once taken for granted as safe and secure have been
shattered, and new zones of calm and peace are hard to find.
As can be seen in the written contributions of past CHAANGE participants in
Dr. John R. Pullen’s book, Transcending Anxiety & Achieving Inner Peace:
Firsthand accounts of success by men and women over fearful feelings , it is
clear that severe anxiety is a condition that not only has its roots in
childhood, its symptoms frequently appear during childhood and go untreated.
One reason why childhood anxiety conditions go unrecognized and untreated is
that there are normal fears that all children experience. The normal newborn
exhibits fear when feeling a loss of physical support or hearing loud
noises. From age one on until school age, children fear separation from
parenting figures. Most people remember being afraid of the dark or monsters
in the closet or under the bed. Children are commonly afraid of thunder,
lightening, and "bad people". The list goes on and on.
Adolescence brings with it more fears: fear of rejection, fear of failure --
socially, academically, economically -- fear of natural and political
cataclysms. The empathic parent recognizes these fears as normal, and
learning to deal with them as necessary to maturation.
Sometimes, a child or adolescent may have a genetic endowment that makes
them sensitive, particularly if their life experience has also included more
than average disruption and uncertainty. Anxiety symptoms may appear that go
beyond routine, normal childhood fears. Professional help is needed in order
to prevent the child from growing into an adult crippled by severe anxiety.
Even kind and loving parents sometimes find that their child exhibiting
problem behaviors, such as, refusing to go to school, doesn't want to go to
summer camp with friends, frequently feels ill, and seems to require
constant reassurance. These children may avoid eye contact, be irritable,
and avoid performance situations or any new experience. Any of these
symptoms that endure over time is a signal that more than good parenting is
called for.
There is Help: A Sound Approach
Remediating anxiety in children is possible. In fact, this population is
extremely amenable to help because of their general compliance and the
extent of their pain and embarrassment.
The LifeSkills Team was a group of professionals who came together from the
various disciplines of education, social work, family-therapy and
cognitive-behavioral therapy. This team designed a program using
empirically-based and clinically tested methods to help children deal with
anxiety quickly and efficiently so that they may get on with their lives
again.
The program is conceptualized in four parts:
I. Education assistance – New information that de-myths anxiety.
II. Cognitive assistance – Identifying and changing fearful, negative self
talk.
III. Family systems assistance – Working with the family system and seeing
the child’s symptoms in context.
IV. Behavioral assistance – Teaching and encouraging new ways of behaving,
including in vivo desensitization.
A Timely Solution: The LifeSkills Program
Our process teaches basic mental health skills and allows children to work
their way out of anxiety to lead normal productive lives. It’s called the
LifeSkills Program, and it gets results. The program consists of twelve
audio tapes, a Skillbuilder™ workbook and a Parent/Professional manual. Ten
of the tapes focus on lessons about stress, anger, mind/boy connection,
relaxation theory, assertiveness, self-talk, imagery, risk taking, self
esteem building and other skills. These tapes are weekly session tapes that
are to be used in sequence as a therapy process. The other two tapes are
relaxation tapes which differ slightly giving the child a choice of method
and gender on the tapes.
The Lifeskills Program can be used nearly anywhere.
It is effective whether it is used in the home, the classroom, guidance
office, or as reinforcement to the therapy given by a professional counselor
or therapist. There is also a Therapist’s Supplement available for the
clinician who wishes to have assessment tools, interview questions, more
precise differential diagnosis information, a model of the biochemical,
learning and stress components in the etiology of childhood anxiety disorder
and more.
The Lifeskills Team is dedicated to bringing relief to the anxious child in
his environment with minimal cost and disruption and maximum effect and
efficiency. There are millions of children who are suffering right and their
families are suffering along with them.
LifeSkills – An Overview
The LifeSkills program is an audio taped learning process designed for the
anxious young person, aged 6 to 15. LifeSkills can be used by a professional
therapist or can be used in the home or classroom, monitored by a parent,
teacher or youth worker. LifeSkills is fun and it works in two ways: (1) It
gives the young person mental health skills that will prevent adult problems
(2) It remedies anxiety.
LifeSkills consists of 12 tapes or cds. Two are relaxation tapes/cds for the
young person to use daily through the program and beyond. The other 10
tapes/cds are narrative of each session covered in the Skillbuilder™
workbook.
Session I: Relaxation – The systematic method of teaching oneself the
opposite of anxiety.
Session II: Stress – The norm for young people in our society who have a
perceived lack of control over events in their lives.
Session III: Body Sensations & Emotions – The anxious child lacks an
understanding of the connection between the mind and the body and therefore
experience fear of the body’s response to anxiety.
Session IV: Worry – A learned habit of thought and behavior that generates
and sustains anxiety.
Session V: Self Esteem – The personality characteristics common to anxious
children often reduce self-esteem.
Session VI: Self-Talk – The popular phrase for an important new approach to
changing ones feelings.
Session VII: Positive Movie Making – The skills of imagery desensitization
is one that integrates relaxation and self-talk with visual cues.
Session VIII: Anger – A universal human emotion that, properly handled, can
aid in a productive life.
Session IX: Assertive Living – A skill to change the young person’s
assumptions about power and self-worth relative to other individuals.
Session X: Living Fearlessly – To become free of anxiety, worry,
anticipation and distress, one must take risks in new situation using
carefully applied techniques.
Order this affordable and powerful program now! Please
click here to order and to prevent your child from living years in the
shadow of a debilitating severe anxiety disorder.
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