Why exercise is great for combating anxiety and depression

THE physical benefits of exercise — enhancing physical condition and fighting disease — have long been established, and physicians always encourage staying active and fit. Exercise is also crucial for maintaining mental fitness, and it can help fight stress. Research shows that exercise is very effective in enhancing brain functions, improving alertness, and boosting overall cognitive function. Exercise can be very helpful when stress is affecting your energy or capacity to concentrate. When it does, the rest of the body feels the effects as well.

Can You Beat Anxiety by Exercising?

As soon as you realize you're suffering from anxiety, you immediately seek out treatment. You may go to your doctor to talk about medicines. You may start searching for a therapist. You may try to take a more natural approach and use herbal remedies. You may try all of these things. But what you may not know is that there is a method of managing anxiety that is considered as powerful as some medicines. It's a method that is not only side effect free – it might even make you healthier. There is a method that you can easily integrate in your life right now, and the only thing you may need to buy for it is new shoes.

Depression and anxiety: Exercise eases symptoms

The word "exercise" may make you think of running laps around the gym. But exercise includes a wide range of activities that boost your activity level to help you feel better. Certainly running, lifting weights, playing basketball andother fitness activities that get your heart pumping can help. But so can gardening, washing your car, or strolling around the block and other less intense activities. Anything that gets you off the couch and moving is exercise that can help improve your mood. You don't have to do all your exercise at once either. Broaden how you think of exercise and find ways to fit activity into your routine.

Eat, Meditate, Exercise - Treating Anxiety Naturally

Exercise can reduce anxiety, according to a publication from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Evidence from six meta-analyses concluded that exercise was significantly correlated to reduction in anxiety. Although the Department of Health and Human Services recommends 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily, recent research from the University of Missouri-Columbia concluded that a high-intensity workout had a greater effect on reducing anxiety than a moderate or lower intensity exercise. Women especially benefited from the high-intensity routine. Please check with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine.

In summary, research indicates that you may eat, meditate and exercise your way to a calmer, more relaxed life.

Benefits of exercise

Regular aerobic exercise can bring remarkable changes not just to your body, your metabolism, and your heart, but also to your spirits, reports the February 2011 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch. Aerobic exercise is the key for your head, just as it is for your heart. It has a unique capacity to exhilarate and relax, to provide stimulation and calm, to counter depression and dissipate stress. Endurance athletes commonly experience the restorative power of exercise, and this has been verified in clinical trials that have used exercise to treat anxiety and depression.

Studies have shown time and time again that there’s a strong link between exercise and anxiety – one that could tip the scales towards enjoying a life that is free from any kind of worries.

Read more ...

Websites offering support for people with social anxiety

SOCIAL anxiety or social phobia is a feeling of worry, fear or discomfort centered on how we deal and interact with other people. It involves a worry with being looked down upon, evaluated, or judged negatively by other people. While social anxiety can often happen during the social exchange itself, it may also occur in anticipation of a social event or occasion, or afterward when we check on how we performed in a given situation.

Here are some links that will give you an idea on how the experts deal with social anxiety:

Social Anxiety Support

To provide support for those who suffer from social anxiety disorder (social phobia). Social Anxiety Support (SAS) went online in mid-2000. The website has changed significantly over the years and also has changed ownership twice. Despite these changes, the mission of the site has stayed the same. Much credit and many thanks go to the two previous owners who both worked to make SAS a welcoming and supportive community for people with social anxiety disorder (social phobia). SAS is currently owned and operated by Neowave Media, a Washington State LLC. Neowave Media is a small business that owns and operates a collection of websites.

About Mayo Clinic

Our mission is to empower people to manage their health. We accomplish this by providing useful and up-to-date information and tools that reflect the expertise and standard of excellence of Mayo Clinic. A team of Web professionals and medical experts working side by side produces this site. Through this unique collaboration, we give you access to the experience and knowledge of the more than 3,700 physicians, scientists and researchers of Mayo Clinic. This site is owned by Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, which is located at: 200 First St. S.W. Rochester, MN 55905

SAA Mission Statement

The Social Anxiety Association (SAA), a non-profit organization, was officially organized in 1997 to meet the growing needs of people throughout the world who have social phobia/social anxiety. Social anxiety disorder is a relatively new classification in the DSM, the psychiatric diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association, appearing for the first time in the early 1980's, and then more specifically defined in the 1987 version. Social anxiety is still nowhere near a "household" word --and it is a "problem area" not taught in many graduate schools of psychology. Thus, not only is the public ignorant of this major anxiety disorder, the vast majority of professional therapists are not aware of it either.

Anxiety social net -The first anxiety social network

Anxiety Social Net is a meeting place for persons afflicted with anxiety disorders, as well as those who have managed to overcome them. If you have helplessly watched a family member grapple anxiety disorders, you are encouraged to join too. As an ongoing anxiety sufferer, you may find explanations to some of the sensations you often feel, but cannot easily put into words. You may even get answers to questions you haven’t been able to frame, because you don’t understand your symptoms well enough. For past sufferers who emerged victorious, in being able to control their symptoms instead of allowing their symptoms to control them, you know exactly how it feels.



There are hundreds of other sites on the web where you can learn more about social anxiety and the new methods being used by the experts to tackle this problem.

Read more ...

The Fear Of Going Outside Isnt The Same As The Fear Of People

There are numerous anxiety disorders somebody may develop. What they all have in common is that the subject can feel extremely panicky, stressed and worried in certain situations. Within the same main group of anxiety disorders are phobias, which similarly cause intense fear, worry and anxiety in reaction to certain circumstances. Agoraphobia is one such fear somebody could have, and it is one of the most frequently treated phobias in the world. Its symptoms are serious enough that therapy is almost always required.

THE IRRATIONAL FEAR OF PLACES

Far more than simply a case of feeling shy or reserved, agoraphobia is an overwhelming anxiety of leaving the safety of home and going into the world outside. It can sometimes found in combination with other phobias, such as social anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder. Its symptoms include feeling out of control, trapped and outside of the zone in which people feel safe and comfortable. Sometimes, the feelings of agoraphobia can be so intense that people suffering from it feel incapable of leaving their home due to the fear of anxiety and panic they can experience when leaving their home.

THE TRIGGER FOR AGORAPHOBIA ISNT A FEAR OF PEOPLE

There are many misunderstandings regarding people suffering from agoraphobia. Firstly, agoraphobia is not a fear of open spaces, nor is it a fear of being in a crowd of people. But agoraphobia is actually about feeling that you are too far away from your safety zone, which for afflicted individuals is their home. It is not to do with fearing people. Many people with agoraphobia welcome guests into their house, even if they themselves do not leave. They just dont want to leave and be in a place where they feel they can't handle the situation.

THERE ISN'T A GENETIC CODE FOR AGORAPHOBIA

There are no social or genetic features that can suggest whether somebody will develop agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is about twice as widespread among women than among men, however. The oncoming of agoraphobia can be foreseen, however, if someone is affected with a more generalised form of anxiety disorder, panic attack or phobia, such as social phobia . The good thing is, treatment is available. The best treatment is a combination of gradual exposure and medication so that the subject can become more used to being outside their home and rewire themselves not to worry about it.

As part of the treatment, people suffering from agoraphobia can be counselled at home by therapists. Hypnosis is another form of treatment that has been effective for many former agoraphobics. A lot of people have also found cognitive behavioural therapy to be useful in replacing the uncomfortable thought processes that can cause anxiety or panic when not in their comfort zone.

PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE CAN HELP YOU OVERCOME BOTH ANXIETY DISORDERS

Even celebrities have dealt with agoraphobia in the past, including celebrity chef Paula Dean, actress Kim Basinger, director Woody Allen, and Nobel laureate for literature Elfriede Jelinek. The key is to understand that there is hope. If you suffer from agoraphobia, the first step is to ask for help from your family, friends or doctor to begin the recovery process.

Social anxiety may be developed in conjunction with agoraphobia. Like agoraphobia, it is also not unusual for a person with social anxiety disorder to try to self medicate it using illegal drugs or alcohol. This is not a sensible way to take care of agoraphobia or social phobia. The best and healthiest way is to go to your doctor for a diagnosis and professional advice. Therapy and medication can help you work through either disorder so that you may live a social and fulfilling life.

Read more ...