“Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination,” said the 19th century writer Christian Nevell Bovee. As everyone who has ever experienced a panic attack knows, there is nothing imaginary about the way you feel. I have tried to convince my husband on countless occasions, in...
Two and half years ago, I experienced a terrible case of insomnia. I took the sleeping drug Lunesta, which afforded me a few wonderful nights’ sleep, until I realized it substantially increased my anxiety during the day. Within a week on the drug, I became addicted, experiencing more and more withdrawal (anxiety) symptoms. Other sleep aids had...
We all have them–fears, phobias, anxieties—that shorten our breath, quicken our heartbeats, and sometimes can outright disable us. Some of us shut our eyes and hold our breath as we ride the elevator to the tenth floor of an office building, while others pray the Rosary inside that coffin-like enclosure when getting an MRI. I am afraid...
For anyone with an inclination to use food as comfort—which basically includes all of us—the two months between Halloween and New Years provide one temptation after another. For me it starts the hour the trick-or-treaters have left and I assess the supply of tootsie rolls, Kit Kats, and Reese’s Cups that did not make it...
It happens every year. As I watch the first golden leaves fall from the oak tree outside our house and listen to the sound of the cicadas ushering in autumn, my anxiety spikes. I used to think I was relapsing into depression, but having been through this year after year (and documenting it in my...
