No Stress Ever

Depression Busters for Caregivers

The majority of visitors to this blog don’t come in the front door. They bypass all of my content and go straight to the 5% or so that my wife Anna wrote. Her content receives more than half of all traffic.

Why?

She would say my writing is lousy. I think it’s because she writes from the perspective of a carer. Some of her posts have struck a chord with other carers, of which there are an awful lot, and gone viral. Well, mini-viral.

Looking after yourself as a carer is a big, often unacknowledged issue. Depending on the source, somewhere between 1/5 and 1/3 of carers for people with chronic illnesses have mild to severe depression. I have no doubt that the range is higher for carers of mentally ill folk.

There is a good set of slides on Beliefnet written by Therese Borchard, called 12 Depression Busters for Caregivers . If you are caring for someone I recommend it as an easy, humorous and very helpful read.

Here is an excerpt from “Secure Your Own Oxygen Mask”:
It always goes back to the ten-second spiel you get right before your plane takes off. “In the event of an emergency, an oxygen mask will drop from the compartment above you. Please fasten your own mask before assisting others.” Or, on Southwest airlines, they say, “Now would be a good time to choose your favorite kid.”

Click to read more of 12 Depression Busters for Caregivers .

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Relaxation Technique 2: Calming Music
First off, I want to apologize for the lack of posts lately. First my internet went down and I had to replace my modem and router and I went through a few days of serious internet withdrawals. Now my husband has been sick with strep throat and possibly the swine flu-ahh! Tonight is the first time I feel like I have some time to relax and actually think. So my relaxation hasn’t been where I have wanted it to be so far this month, thats for sure. I have made the deep breathing techniques one of the first things I do when I start to panic so I am glad that I have already been able to incorporate that into my normal routine.

Awhile back I used to have a player on the site that had some music that I found to help me to relax. Music has a way of lifting depressed moods and touching souls.

Edmund J. Bourne says, “Whether you use music while driving, as a background while at work, or in the foreground when you want to take time out to relax, it is one of the most powerful and time-honored methods for letting go of anxiety or worry. If you use the music to assuage anxiety, be sure to select pieces that are genuinely relaxing rather than stimulating or emotionally evocative” (bold and italics added)

I grew up playing the piano and used to teach lessons. I have always found that playing the piano and listening to piano music really helps me to get lost from my daily worries and really feel at peace.

A couple of my favorite piano musicians are John Schmidt and Jim Brickman. I feel a little vulnerable sharing this with you for some reason. I think its just because its so special to me, and its a part of me, a part of my heart, and I don’t want people to think its stupid. But I’ll take the risk because I think the following is worth it.

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SPOILER ALERT! Giveaway coming really soon!
A Special Heads Up: Monday morning I will be announcing another giveaway. And this time there will be THREE WINNERS! It’s only going to last for one week, so be sure to check back so you can enter to win! There will be more than one way to enter, and they are SuPeR easy.

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Relaxation Technique 1: Abdominal Breathing

One of the easiest and very effective things you can do to get into a deep state of relaxation quickly is to take deep breaths.
 
What is abdominal breathing?
Abdominal breathing is a way to breathe from your stomach area (abdomen) to fill your entire lungs with air. Your lungs are like balloons that should fill up and empty all the way. Your body gets the most benefit when you use your entire lungs. Many people who are under stress breathe in short and shallow breath from the chest. This is not the best way to breathe because it only uses the upper parts of the lung. Breathing from your chest can increase muscle tension. -www.seattlechildrens.org

How to Breathe From Your Abdomen and Not Your Chest:
Place your hand on your abdomen. Breathe in deeply from your nose, slowly pulling in as much air as you can. Keeping your hand on your abdomen, slowly release the air through your mouth. Make sure you release the air from your abdomen area. You should feel your hand depress slightly as this happens. -ehow.com

The Calming Breath Exercise:

1. At least once a day either when you are anxious or just when you have a time that you can sit and focus, breathing from your abdomen inhale through your nose slowly to a count of 5.
2. Then HOLD YOUR BREATH for a count of 5.
3. Release the breath slowly from your nose or mouth, counting to 5 again (or counting backwards from 5 to 1, whichever you prefer). Make sure to exhale fully.
4. Take two breaths in your normal rythm and then repeat steps 1-3 for 3-5 minutes, or until you reach a 0 on your anxiety scale.

Some other breathing exercises include:

• Watch your breath. This is called mindfulness. Sit or lie in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. Focus your attention on your breathing, and do not try to change it. Watch it go in and out. If it changes, keep being aware of it, almost like you are watching someone else. This is a way to relax and balance your body and mind. This method can also work to decrease pain. --www.seattlechildrens.org

• Focus on breathing out. Keep watching your breath, and do not try to change it. Think only of breathing out. When you push more air out, you will automatically take more air in. Breathe deeply and feel yourself relax. --www.seattlechildrens.org

Warning:
There are not too many down sides to abdominal breathing exercises. Just be careful not to overdo it. If you do too much at once, you could pull a muscle that isn’t used to being worked very hard or, at the very least, make yourself feel a little lightheaded. Take your time standing up from the prone position. -ehow.com

Time Frame:

Abdominal breathing exercises only take a few minutes every day. Spending 10 minutes a day or every other day can make you healthier. Use these relaxing breathing techniques before you go to bed or first thing in the morning. You’ll feel relaxed and rejuvenated. -ehow.com

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I am going to be in SELF Magazine!
In January’s Edition of Self Magazine, they are having an article on how you may think that you have insomnia, but it may actually be something else. I don’t know how much of it will be contributing to anxiety, but I have been talking with editors from the magazine and they want to put my story in! They may or may not mention the blog, but I am super excited, and super nervous too! When I told my sister she said she was jealous of my 15 min. of fame and I said, “Oh yeah, I’ll be famous for having a mental illness, real glamorous!” lol

In the past I have posted about my experiences with insomnia and anxiety if you are interested in the topic.

I am thinking it will be in newsstands at the beginning of December, but I don’t know for sure. Be sure to check it out and let me know what you think!

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Monthly Challenge: November 2009- Relax!

“If you have an especially stressful life, your sympathetic nervous system may always be poised to react to a crisis, putting you in a state of constant tension. In this mode, you tend to react to small stresses the same way you would react to real emergencies. The energy that accumulates in the body to meet this “emergency” must be discharged in order to bring your body back into balance. Repeated episodes of the fight or flight reaction deplete your energy reserves and, if they continue, cause a downward spiral that can lead to emotional burnout and eventually complete exhaustion.” -www.healthy.net

“Regular practice of deep relaxation for 20 to 30 minutes on a daily basis can produce, over time, a generalization of relaxation to the rest of your life. That is, after several weeks of practicing deep relaxation once per day, you will tend to feel more relaxed all the time.” -Edmund J. Bourne

• reduction of general anxiety
• preventing stress from accumulating
• increased energy level and productivity
• improved concentration and memory
• reduction of insomnia and fatigue
• increased self confidence

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 6: The Cortex
The thinking part of the brain is a thick covering called the Cortex. It deals with social information: thinking about thinking and emotions, as well as thinking about what others are thinking and feeling.The following parts of the cortex are good to know about in relation to anxiety:

• The anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), the filter and amplifier of information
• The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the place where working memory is held
• The prefrontal cortex (PFC), the CEO where all information is ultimately received, analyzed, and responded to

The Anterior Cingulate Gyrus (ACG)



This area of the cortex organizes information. It gathers data from the limbic system and the hippocampus and puts it into a contex that your Prefrontal cortex can understand and analyze. 


“When the ACG does not have a good balance of neurotransmitters, it can get stuck on negative feelings and be unable to shift them forward, thereby making it less efficient at sending analysis back onto the amygdala. If your ACG gets stuck, qualities you may see and feel are worry and rumination on negative thoughts, oppositional behavior, or inflexibility about trying new options or responses to situations.” -The Ten Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

 

The Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC)


This area commands the process called working memory, or short term storage. It holds pieces of information just long enough to complete tasks of everyday mental functioning. When this part of the cortex is working properly, people have good impulse control, making decisions based on information. 


When the neurotransmitters in the OFC are in balance, you feel optimistic and hopeful. This is important so that you can control your fears with optimistic, problem solving activity.

“Anxiety management techniques aim to control your anxious symptoms primarily through the left brain, using words, analysis, and decision making to control the rest of your brain and your body.Psychotherapy methods that activate other parts of the brain are certainly available, and neccesarily so, because difficult problems such as resolving long-standing trauma, changing the impact of childhood experiences, or altering dark moods such as despair, require different work than just anxiety management techniques. If your anxiety stems from a history of trauma, than you will likely need psychotherapy to to release the impact of that trauma. Your anxiety may be hard to diminish or it may repeatedly return if deeper therapeutic work is not done.” -The Ten Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

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Anxiety and Our Brains- Part 5: The Basal Ganglia

“A ganglia is a concentrated group of neurons. The basal ganglia (BG) are several ganglia that work together to induce motivation, create energy to meet goals, and even coordinate physical movement with the emotion. The basal ganglia are located under the cortex (covering) of the brain, where you do your thinking, and cover the limbic area. One part of the BG, called nucleus accumbens, is specialized to interpret pleasure when it receives the messenger dopamine. When you do something that stimulates dopamine and it flows through to this part, you feel good. This makes you want to repeat whatever you were doing that made you feel good. For this reason, the BG strongly affect motivation and energy.

A person with a good supply of dopamine in the BG will feel motivated and full of energy or high drive, but if the GABA is not working effectively, then the energy can get too high and result in tension. Additionally, even for no real reason but just out-of-the-blue because GABA” (a neurotransmitter responsible for slowing down activity in the brain so that you can stop brain cells from firing off messages) “is not working as it should, over excited activity in the neurons of the BG can trigger panic attacks. In the case of BG energy, some is good, a lot can give you drive but make you tense, and too much can flip over into panic.” -The 10 Best- Ever Anxiety Management Techniques by Margaret Wehrenberg.

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Minimalism and Tyranny of the Urgent

I’ve been MIA for a while, but back now and straight onto my hobby-horses. Minimizing and prioritizing.

There is a book from way back called “Tyranny of the Urgent”. I haven’t read it myself, but about 20 years ago I read a series of companion studies. The lessons have stuck with me. I am constantly sizing up the urgent and comparing with the important.

This year I’ve enjoyed throwing out, culling and recycling, in the first major purge of my life. I’m amazed at how much I appreciate the things that I’ve kept, now that I can see them.

An interesting post on Becoming Minimalist draws a parallel to our priorities. Being minimalist is more than removing physical belongings. It includes deciding what is important and takes priority every day, and decluttering the urgent distractions.

Read the full post here.

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I am going to be on TV online!!!
For those that are interested, I am going to be on a live tv show that airs on the internet at http://www.healthyplace.com/. You can check out the preview here. The show airs tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th at 7pm CST. The topic is living with Social Anxiety Disorder. And with it being live, this may be a chance for you to see me anxious in real life! Talk about a hundred reasons to be nervous about this! But I want to get the word out and help those who are struggling so I’ll do it.

Wish me luck!!!

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