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Are you tired of anxiety and panic attacks?  Would you like to know how to stop them?  I used to wake up in the morning fearing that I might have another one as soon as I set foot out of bed.  I was at the end of my rope with my heart pounding in my chest.  Was I having a heart attack?  Sometimes I couldn’t even feel my hands and feet.

Gladly, anxiety attacks are no longer a part of my life.  Follow this advice to move past panic attacks:

These are just some starting points.  Get a strong handle on these, and you can control your panic attacks. (more…)

It is worthy of note to articulate something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcoholism of another family member evidently do not comprehend. It seems to be that by shielding the alcohol dependent person with untruths and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in actual fact created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent individual to carry on and move forward with his or her unsafe, destructive existence.

Without a doubt, instead of helping the alcohol dependent person and themselves, these family members have essentially become enablers who have mistakenly helped deteriorate the alcohol addicted individual’s drinking problem even further.

Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol addicted person will continue drinking in a hazardous and excessive manner and suffer from different “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include serious financial problems, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DWIs), ill health, deteriorating relationships, diminished mental functioning, and employment difficulties.

The Possibility of a Relapse is Real

According to the research literature and statistics on alcohol dependency, another key alcoholism issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted individual has successfully undergone alcoholism treatment and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this predicament flies in the face of common sense and sounds so far-fetched that it forces one to question why anyone who has experienced the horrors of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol rehabilitation and in turn after reaching sobriety. There are, without a doubt, many conceivable reasons for this.

It should be mentioned, conversely that alcoholism research that has focused on the long-term effects of alcohol addiction has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcohol addicted person has quit his or her drinking, fundamental changes in the way in which the alcohol addicted person’s brain works are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol addicted person has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the modifications that have occurred in the brain is to engage in drinking again.

The Need for A Critical Lifestyle Modification

There are even more reasons why quite a few recovering alcoholics return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after achieving sobriety. According to the alcohol dependency research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol addicted individual needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more effectively with challenging alcohol-related situations that will take place.

Situations such as returning to the same alcohol addictive atmosphere or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the days when the alcohol dependent person was drinking abusively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations can bring about memories that can trigger psychological stress or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted individual to engage in hazardous drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these circumstances may not only counteract long lasting sobriety for the alcohol addicted individual but they can also result in relapse and therefore go against one’s sobriety.

The Good News: First-Class Help is Available Almost Everywhere

In an attempt to “protect” the family alcoholic, family members can in point of fact cause unplanned damage by enabling the unhealthy drinking behavior of the alcohol dependent person.

The substance abuse research literature demonstrates the fact that most individuals who effectively complete alcohol treatment experience at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get down in the dumps or stressed out when a relapse takes place.

Luckily, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up rehab and training have resulted in more effective, ongoing alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency therapeutic outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted persons accomplish lasting sobriety.

Denny is a fifteen-year-old youth who has eventually decided to go and see his doctor about his hazardous and careless drinking. At first, Denny thought he would be able to basically go online, look for some essential alcohol info and come to a decision whether or not he was an alcoholic.

Not surprisingly, he located more than a few websites that highlighted some of the usual alcoholism symptoms. That’s the positive news. The less positive news, sorry to say, was that Denny exhibited numerous of these alcoholism symptoms.

Alcoholism Symptoms: Some Illustrations

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I USED TO OFTEN FEEL SO GOB SMACKED WHEN GOING WITH MY SON TO THE PSYCHIATRIST

Another situation which arises is that, the person with the illness may be quite lucid during the interviews, so the doctor may have difficulty making any analysis at all of an illness until he views the  symptoms at a later date.  Sometimes it can be weeks, or sometimes months and years, before a true diagnosis can be made.

AND I can understand why.  I have sat in on psychiatrists appointments and thought to myself, "his is not the same son that I have living with me"!   He has conducted his conversations well, he has answered all the questions and done a good job. 

This in itself is a part of the illness, well not a 'part' of the illness, but something that happens at times.  At times when lucidity is needed at their discretion, it is possible that they can maintain a level of lucidity that makes it very difficult for doctors to diagnose exactly where the situation is at, or in fact, even IF there is an illness.  It is a bit like 'selective hearing'. 

Sometimes too, I used to think my son was lying (and he rarely ever does), but then I realised that what he was telling the doctors was exactly as he saw it.  He often didn't remember incidents that I wanted the doctor hear about, and often had quite a different view of what happened, or was said.

It was over time with him, and discussions with doctors that I realised that his world was so different from mine, even if we lived in the same house.  We just saw things totally differently.  Me from a carer's perspective, and him from his own view on the circumstances.

For more insights like these perhaps my ebook on   Managing Mental Illness – Coping Strategies For The Carer would help you a lot.

BEING A CARER IS NO FUN, BUT THESE INSIGHTS MIGHT HELP YOU

One of the problems a carer faces is trying to find out what type of mental illness they are dealing with.  It can often be a very long period of time before a mental illness is diagnosed because so many symptoms can present the same and sometimes a person can suffer from several symptoms of several illnesses. 

Also, there are other issues, such as the person that is ill may not, at the time of assessment, be able to communicate that well and therefore the doctor cannot get a clear picture of what is happening. Because of this it may take several psychiatrist visits, or hospitalisations, to fully understand what exactly is happening.   

LEARN TO LOOK FOR THE SIGNS

Being a carer for a person with a mental illness is difficult to deal with at the best of times, but when you don’t know what you are dealing with then it is even harder.  Sometimes it is years before a person is given a diagnosis in regards to a mental illness they may be suffering.

There are many reasons why this happens and we will be looking at them in the next few weeks, but if you would like more help as a carer of a mentally ill person, strategies have been set out in our ebook Managing Mental Illness – Coping Strategies For The Carer 

When you are coping with an undiagnosed illness, life can be very difficult.  You often don't know what to do for the best. 

Like learning how to do anything, time will teach you.  Keep trying new strategies until you can get a firm diagnosis.  

BRAVE WORDS AREN'T THEY?

I know there was one stage when I nearly did give up hope that my son would ever lead an OK sort of life again.  He had been in hospital for a year, was having a week out and then had a fit similar to an epileptic fit.  The long and short of it seemed to be his intolerance to the higher dose of medicine.

Any rate, this just knocked me for a sixer, and I thought, "this is it, he is never going to get well".

As it turned out that was actually a turning point.  From that day on he moved forward and has never looked back.  He had his slower moments in recovery, but essentially he just kept getting better.

The funny thing is, a friend of mine's daughter also was admitted the same week (she had not been in hospital for a while at that point), and that was her turning point too.  She is now out talking to carers, school students, and facilitating meetings about mental health. 

In fact, I have acknowledged her in my ebook Managing Mental Illness – Coping Strategies For The Carer because she took a course on 'Hearing Voices' which I talk about in the ebook.  Great stuff.

I would love to hear from any carers about their experiences.  Please comment on this blog.

CHRISTMAS IS A TIME THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE GET STRESSED.

It is a time when the pressures of work, families, friends, the should's and should not's, all add up to extra pressure.  Plus of course, that bit extra that we tend to drink during the celebration times.

It is a well know fact that mentally ill people react to stress.  At Christmas they feel that there are extra expectations on them and unfortunately this can often bring on an episode. 

In managing as a carer it does help if you acknowledge this fact, even talk it over with your loved one, and try and maintain an equalibrium around them as much as you can. 

It took me quite a few years to live without 'expectations' of my son.  In other words, the things that I wanted to happen, I kept to myself or close family, but I tried not to express these expectations on him, and theyby not add extra pressure to his life.

Also, I found that if I did not have the expectations, then I did not have those roller coaster rides of emotions with having my hope dashed all the time. This was a bit step for me in having a much more smooth running life.  AND so many less arguments and angry moments.

This did not mean that I did not want certain things for him, I did, and still do, but I learnt not to keep pressuring him with MY DESIRES!

I learnt to calmly put my ideas across, but not keep nagging.

Managing Mental Illness – Coping Strategies For The Carer has lots of these tips in it.  It is not ebook about our lives per se, but discussion on methods of coping.

THIS IS SUCH A HARD TASK, AND OFTEN A VERY FRUSTRATING ONE

So often I hear a carer say, "I just can't get XXX to do anything".  You yourself can see so many jobs that need doing that you could run yourself raggard trying to keep everything spic and span.

When my son was really ill, something that I found worked well, was to say,"if I wash these dishes, how about you come and dry them".  I found that many times it was not that he did not want to do the job, but more that the idea of completing the task was just too much to consider.  I guess, the fact that he had company whilst doing it, made a difference too.

This technique can work with washing clothes, going for a walk, shopping and other chores that a mentally ill person finds it hard to get the motivation to start.

For a lot of other positive tips for carers you could go to

http://ebooksnowonline.com/family/mental-illness-coping-strategies/ where you can purchase our ebook,

Mental Illness – Coping Strategies For The Carer. 

LOOKING FOR SIGNS DEPRESSION IN TEENAGERS

This is not an easy task at all.  Teenagers have so many hormones raging around their body, that we, as parents, are not at all sure of what we are dealing with during the teenagers years.  Unfortunately, this is a time when your children are susceptible to becoming depressed. 

 They have pressures from school, family, peer groups, sports coaches, social groups etc.  It is no wonder that they suffer.  It is a time when a parent really needs to try and stay connected with their children.  Which is not an easy task when they are also trying to implement discipline.

A person can feel depressed because of a certain event, but those symptoms may go away with time, but if someone is clinically depressed they will need help in dealing with the situation.  If you have concerns, do not delay, speak to a doctor sooner, rather than later.

There is help for carers in our ebook Mental Illness – Coping Strategies For The Carer , as depression is a form of mental illness.  All mental illnesses are best treated as soon as possible.