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Anxiety Recovery: Float or Swim?
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David Carbonell, Ph.D.
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Aug 31, 2006 08:06 PDT
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THE ANXIETY COACH®
Helping People Thrive in an Anxious World
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Volume 7, Issue 8
IN THIS ISSUE
Dr. Carbonell considers the issue of how actively one should
work to bring anxiety to an end.
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INDEX
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1. Dave's Note
2. Anxiety Recovery - Float or Swim?
3. About The Anxiety Coach®
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Dave's Note
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August 31, 2006
Dear Reader,
This month's article addresses the issue of how actively one
should work to bring anxiety to an end. It's a reprint of
an article which was first published in October of 2003.
If you're a professional looking for some good workshops in
the area of cognitive behavioral therapy, look no further
than the annual conference of the Association for Behavioral
and Cognitive Therapies, which will be in Chicago Nov.16-19.
For information, visit http://www.aabt.org/.
And if you're looking for my "Panic Attacks Workbook", you
can purchase it at: http://www.anxietycoach.com/book.htm
See you next month!
Dave Carbonell
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Anxiety Recovery - Float or Swim?
by
David A. Carbonell, Ph.D.
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Do you remember learning to swim?
It's complicated. You have to coordinate the movement of
your arms, legs, and head to propel yourself through the
water. You also have to breathe without taking in large
quantities of water.
If you're like most people, it took a lot of practice to
learn to swim, because there are so many things you have
to make happen, and so many techniques to master.
How about learning to float, do you remember that?
Actually, you didn't really have to learn to float. A block
of wood can float, and so can a person.
The block of wood doesn't have to make it happen, it just
floats, as long as it's in water. People will float too,
if they just lay down on the water.
But people, unlike blocks of wood, often find it hard to
"let go" and trust in their body's natural ability to float.
Their mistrust and apprehension will lead them to "do things"
to try and stay afloat.
That's not floating, that's sinking! To teach someone to
float, you have to give them a few instructions - lay back,
lay your head on the water, lay your arms and legs out, lie
still - but the most important part of the "technique" of
floating is...do nothing, let go, and let time pass.
I'm thinking about floating and swimming today because they
represent two ways of thinking about the recovery process.
When a client comes to see me in my office for a chronic
anxiety problem, they usually expect that I will offer them
the swimming kind of help: lots of specific instruction
about what to do, and many techniques to keep them "afloat".
But what they really need is more the floating kind of help.
They need to learn to let go, rather than to make something
happen, or prevent something from happening.
Floating was the primary metaphor in Dr. Claire Weekes's
approach to anxiety and panic. An Australian physician, she
was *the* pioneer in this field, and wrote a series of self
help books that are still some of the best material available
today. That's saying a lot, because there's been a flood of
such books in the last 20 years.
What did she mean by floating? First and foremost, she
meant to convey the opposite of fighting. The way to regain
a sense of calm is to go along with the sensations of anxiety
and panic, rather than oppose them.
She described floating as "masterly inactivity", and said
this meant:
to stop holding tensely onto yourself,
trying to control your fear, trying 'to
do something about it' while subjecting
yourself to constant self-analysis.
That's a tough sell! She knew that, of course, and wrote:
The average person, tense with battling,
has an innate aversion to ...letting go.
He vaguely thinks that were he to do this,
he would lose control over the last vestige
of his will power and his house of cards
would tumble.
This is part of the panic "trick" that I describe on the
website. It's the idea that a person is just barely
holding himself together, and that if he relaxes his grip
even a little, he will fall apart. In fact, it's his
struggling to keep a grip that maintains the anxiety!
What I like best about the notion of floating is that it
avoids two common misperceptions about overcoming anxiety.
The first one is the idea that you have to struggle against
anxiety, fight it, and overcome it. And the second, related
to the first, is that you have to arm yourself with all kinds
of techniques and objects in order to enter the fray and
confront anxiety.
In reality, you'll make much better progress when you let
yourself float through the anxiety, not striving to overcome
anything, not struggling to employ techniques, but simply
allowing the sensations to pass over time.
The best kind of help, in my opinion, is the floating kind.
It's help that assists you to rediscover your own natural
abilities to cope with whatever comes, rather than arming
you against potential adversity.
If you're not familiar with the writings of Claire Weekes,
it would be worth your while to read some of her work,
including Hope and Health for Your Nerves, and Peace from
Nervous Suffering. While some of her material, particularly
the sections about medications and hospital treatment, is
quite outdated, her self help material is still remarkably
fresh and to the point.
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THE ANXIETY COACH®
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The Anxiety Coach® is a publication of the Anxiety
Treatment Center, Ltd. The Center is a small group of
clinical psychologists who specialize in the treatment of
anxiety problems. The Center has offices in Chicago and
several nearby suburbs.
Dr. Carbonell, a licensed psychologist, is the founder and
director of the Anxiety Treatment Center.
The information contained in this publication is not a
substitute for consultation with healthcare professionals.
Each individual's health concerns should be evaluated by a
qualified professional.
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SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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If you received this copy from a friend or colleague and
want your own (free) subscription, you can subscribe at
http://www.anxietycoach.com/newsletter.htm.
If you would like to see past issues of our newsletter,
you will find them in the archive at:
http://www.topica.com/lists/anxietycoach/read.
To unsubscribe, follow the link at the very end of this
newsletter.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
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David A. Carbonell, Ph.D.
Anxiety Treatment Center, Ltd.
E-mail: dire-@anxietycoach.com
Web: http://www.anxietycoach.com
1340 Remington Road, Suite D
Schaumburg, IL 60173
847.605.0453
© 2006, Anxiety Treatment Center, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Anxiety Coach® is a registered mark of Anxiety Treatment
Center, Ltd.
Distribution Rights: The above material is copyrighted,
but you may retransmit or distribute it to whomever you
wish as long as not a single word is changed, added or
deleted, including the contact information. However, you
may not copy it to a web site without prior permission.
Reprint permission will be freely granted, upon request,
to periodicals and non-profit educational and service
organizations.
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