Microsoft Word - At Last A Life Final Copy 16-03-09 Read Free

how far you think you may have
    sunk. Your body is waiting to recover, it wants to recover and all of
    these stages can be reversed, until eventually you become the
    person you once were.
    Anxiety is not an illness; it is a condition, brought on mainly by long
    term stress or worry and is your body’s way of telling you that it is
    overworked. Your body is like a car that needs looking after in order
    to run properly. It also has its own limits on how far it can be pushed.
    I am contacted by more business men/women and people in the
    medical field than any other profession. These are people that tend
    to be under a great deal of stress at work. They don’t listen to their
    body and they overdo things, which leads to anxiety. Think of it like
    this. It I went out and bought a blender that had a maximum running
    speed of 1000 rpm, but I was not happy with this and wanted it to go
    faster, so I tweak it up and make it go at double that speed. What
    would happen? The motor would burn out and it would quickly
    break down as it was never designed to go at this speed. I have
    overworked it!
    Well, it is exactly the same with your body and this is why you feel
    anxious. Your nerves have become bad through over use and the

    - 12 -

    stress and worry you have been piling on has taken its toll. That is
    why it is so important to take your symptoms with a pinch of salt and
    not get stressed or worry about them. If you allow yourself to worry
    and get stressed, you are working your body far too hard, a body
    that is crying out to be left alone. Let me explain……
    You may have reached the point of suffering through too much
    stress or worry. That makes sense. But why does it continue? The
    answer is anxiety has then become your new problem and you now
    have something else to worry about. Just when your body needs a
    rest, it takes on more worrying thoughts and more stress about how
    you are feeling. ‘What is wrong with me?’, ‘Why do I feel like this?’
    You may become bewildered and lost, and each day becomes a
    battle as you try to think and fight your way out of this hell. This extra
    stress and worry makes you feel worse, so you worry more and you
    fight more. Anxiety may be the last thing you think of at night and the
    first thing on your mind when you wake. Anxiety has become you. I
    am sure many people can relate to this.

    Do you see now why we stay in the cycle? This is the reason people
    find themselves going around in circles and getting nowhere, falling
    deeper into the condition, because they do the opposite of
    everything they should do. But with such a lack of information and
    help out there, what else can we do but fight this condition? In your
    desperation to get better, you have actually created the opposite
    effect and done everything your body wanted you not to do.

    - 13 -

Chapter 3
THE BREAKTHROUGH

    We can all experience anxiety at some point in our lives. There is a
    whole new range of stresses on society today. Finding the money to
    pay the mortgage, stress at work, an up and coming event - all of
    these things can contribute towards making us feel anxious and
    stressed.

    A certain amount of stress is only natural. The problems arise when
    it is continuous and our mind and body never get a rest from this
    endless onslaught of worry, which in turn can cause our nerves to
    become sensitised. Sensitisation of your nerves means that they
    become easily triggered and the slightest thing - something as
    simple as a door slamming - may bring a sweep of panic. The
    weeks/months of worry and stress have caused your nerves to
    constantly vibrate or become ‘bad’ and this can create feelings of
    anxiety for no real reason.

    Now you must be wondering how I managed to discover the key to
    recovery, the key that, had I known about it all those years ago,
    would have helped me to get better so much earlier.

    The day came after ten years of suffering. It came as I was seeing
    yet another therapist at my local