Saturday, July 28, 2007

Helpful Books.

Assertiveness – Alberti & Emmons

When perfect isn't good enough: Strategies for coping with perfectionism. M Antony & R Seinson (1998) Oakland: New Harbinger.

Mastering Stress: A new lifestyle approach. D Barlow & R Rapee (1997) Killara Australia: Lifestyle Press

The Relaxation Response – H Benson (1975) New York: William Morrow

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy – D Burns (1980) Melbourne, Australia Information Australia Group.

The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook – M Davis, E Eshelman & M McKay (1995) Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.


A New Guide to Rational Living – A Ellis & R Harper (1979) Hollywood CA: Wilshire Book Company.


Mind over Mood – D Greenberger & C Padesky (1995) New York: The Guildford Press.


The Assertive Option: Your Rights & Responsibilities – P Jakubowski & A Lange (1978) Champaign, ILL: Research Press Company.


Messages: The Communication Skills Book – M McKay, M Davis & P Fanning Oakland CA: New Harbinger.


Self-Esteem: A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques for Assessing, Improving and Maintaining Your Self-Esteem – M McKay & P Fanning (1987) Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.


Don't Panic! Overcoming Anxiety, Phobias and Tension – A Page (1993) Sydney, Australia: Gore Osment.


Overcoming Shyness & Social Phobia: A Step-by-step guide – R Rapee (1997) Killara, Australia: Lifestyle Press.

Managing Panic Disorder (Video) – R Rapee & L Lampe (1998) Available through Monkey See Productions (PO Box 3010 Waverley NSW 2024 Australia)

Beating the Blues – S Tanner & J Ball (1989) Sydney, Australia: Doubleday


Psycho Cybernetics – Maxwell Maltz


Shyness. What it is and what to do about it – Phillip Zimbardo



The Australian College of Recorded Education (ACRE) also have some helpful cassette tapes. Eg: Developing Confidence by Dr Lyn Barrow.

ACRE

25 Market Street Wollongong

PO Box 450 Wollongong East NSW 2520 Australia

Phone: (Australia) 02 4228 7924

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Net-based discussion and chat group for anxiety.

There is a net-based discussion/email group, along with a chat group for people suffering from anxiety and similar conditions (eg: bipolar, PTSD etc).

To join this group and/or the chat group, please go to http://groups.yahoo.com When this page loads, key in somebodylikeme (for the email group) or Somebodylikemechat (for the chat group).

That will take you to the page where it describes each group and from there you can sign up if you wish. If subscribing, you might care to take the daily digest as opposed to individual emails. This has the advantage of you receiving all 'posts' bundled up, rather than getting c 20 - 25 individual emails.

If you have any problems, please email me at brianjones678 @ yahoo.com

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

2nd site offering downloads.

www.cs.nsw.gov.au/mhealth

This is the site of the Sydney South West Area Health Service. The Mental Health Service is responsible for all public inpatient and community mental health service in their service area. It's target audience is the general public, people with a mental illness, their carers and other health professionals.

This site offers the following manuals and treatment guides for downloading, free in pdf format. Click on Consumer Information - on the left hand side of the page. This leads to the page with the following on it.

The What Is...series of brochures.
1) Anxiety
2) Bipolar
3) Depression
4) Eating Disorder
5) Panic Disorder Agoraphobia
6) Schizophrenia
Sourced from the Department of Health and Ageing.

Treatment Guidelines for Consumers and Carers.
1) Anorexia Nervosa
2) Bipolar
3) Depression
4) Schizophrenia
5) Self Harm
Sourced from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP).

If you have trouble downloading the above manuals/treatment guides, please email me at brianjones678 @ yahoo.com

Australian phone numbers for help with anxiety.

Phone numbers in Sydney NSW Australia.

1) 02 9113 4444 The Intake and Assessment Service. Based at St. George Public Hospital at Kogarah. This is designed for people as a 'first contact' service, when they're experiencing anxiety or other disorders.

2) 02 9350 2384 The Acute Community Care Team. Also based at St. George Hospital, this is an emergency type number, for advice in a crisis.

3) 1300 300 180 24 hour service for NSW callers.

4) 1800 636 825 Referral service for mental health calls.

5) 000 In an Emergency call 000 and ask for an Ambulance, alternatively, present to the Emergency Department of the nearest Public Hospital.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Explanations of some conditions.

These descriptions are from The Anxiety Disorders Clinic at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. (Thank you!).

What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy?
Although the details of treatment vary for different disorders, a number of features are common to most programs.

* Education about the nature and causes of anxiety and panic
* Techniques for managing the physical symptoms of anxiety and panic
* Techniques for managing anxious thoughts
* Graded exposure to previously feared or avoided situations

More detail about the different anxiety disorders and the structure of treatment programs is provided below.


Social Phobia
People with Social Phobia experience anxiety in a wide range of social situations, including talking to people in groups, talking to people in authority, meeting new people, and public speaking. The person with Social Phobia usually worries about appearing anxious, looking incompetent, or being seen to be inadequate in some way. Typically the person also worries that their physical symptoms of anxiety are visible (e.g. shaking, blushing, sweating) and that others will judge them harshly as a result.

The Social Phobia program is conducted in groups of 6 to 8 people and involves seven half-day (9am to 1pm) sessions over seven weeks, followed by one-month and three-month follow-ups.


Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia
Panic Disorder is characterised by intense overwhelming episodes of anxiety commonly referred to as panic attacks. During these attacks the person can experience a wide range of physical symptoms such as dizziness, pounding heart, breathlessness, sweating, shaking and nausea. The main feature of both Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia is a fear of these attacks, and a belief that during these attacks they are going to die, collapse, lose control or go crazy.Agoraphobia is also characterised by an avoidance of places and situations where panic attacks might occur.

The Panic Disorder program and the Agoraphobia program run for six and eight weeks, respectively, in groups of six to eight people. Both groups also have a follow-up session one month after treatment.


Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
People with OCD typically experience intrusive and unwanted thoughts, images or impulses which cause anxiety and distress (obsessions). These obsessions most commonly centre on themes of harm to oneself or others through contamination, negligence (e.g. forgetting to turn off the stove) or violence (e.g. images of killing a loved one).In response to these obsessions most sufferers develop compulsions which are designed to lessen their anxiety and prevent the dreaded event from occurring (e.g. washing, checking, counting and repeating actions or words).

The OCD treatment program involves ten to fifteen individual sessions, with additional follow-up sessions. Each session lasts 30 minutes to one hour.


Generalised Anxiety Disorder
People with GAD experience long-standing and excessive worry about day-to-day concerns such as family, finances, work or illness. The person finds these worries very difficult to control and fears that they may not be able to cope if something goes wrong. The worry leads to a number of physical symptoms of anxiety including muscle tension, irritability, tiredness, disturbed sleep or concentration, and an inability to relax.

The GAD treatment program is conducted in groups and involves nine half-day sessions over nine weeks, with a follow-up session one and six months after treatment.


Body Dysmorphic Disorder
People with Body Dysmorphic Disorder experience anxiety and distress about a particular aspect of their appearance which they believe to be abnormal or unattractive. As a result of these concerns they often repeatedly check their appearance, ask others for reassurance, seek surgical interventions or attempt to camouflage the area so that others will not notice.

The Clinic conducts Body Dysmorphic Disorder treatment programs individually with weekly sessions for 15 weeks, and a follow-up session one month after treatment.


Suggested Reading

* Marks, I.M. (1978). Living With Fear. London: McGraw Hill.
* Andrews, G., Creamer M., Crino, R., Hunt, C., Lampe, L. & Page, A. (2002). The Treatment of Anxiety Disorders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Andrews, G. & Moran, C. (1988). Exposure treatment of agoraphobia with panic attacks: Are drugs essential? In I Hand and H-U Wittchen (Eds.), Panic and Phobias II. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, pp. 89-99.
* Mattick, R.P., Peters, L. & Clarke, J.C. (1989). Exposure and cognitive restructuring for social phobia. Behavior Therapy, 20, 3-23.
* The Quality Assurance Project. (1985). Treatment outlines for the management of (a) anxiety states and (b) obsessive compulsive disorders. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 19, 138-151, 240-253.
* March, J.S. (1990). The nosology of post traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 4, 61-82.

Monday, July 2, 2007

CRUFAD & Treatment Manuals for Downloading.

CRUFAD - www.crufad.com - is the Clinical Research Unit For Anxiety And Depression, based in Sydney, NSW, Australia. CRUFAD is a joint facility of St Vincent's Hospital Ltd and the University of New South Wales. The Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, is a group of researchers and clinicians concerned with anxiety and depression. The WHO Collaborating Center is concerned with epidemiology and health policy and the UNSW School of Psychiatry, of which we are part, has strong research interests in anxiety and depression.

The following treatment manuals can be downloaded free and in pdf format. They explain the condition and offer treatment options. To access the manuals, go to www.crufad.com When this site loads, click on Clinician Support on the right hand side. Then click on Free Manuals on the left hand side. Finally, click on the relevant treatment manual.

1) Panic (Anxiety) Disorder - 163kb.
2) Specific Phobias - 104kb.
3) Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - 147kb.
4) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - 55kb.
5) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - 16kb.
6) Social Phobia - 181kb.

If you have any trouble downloading any of these manuals, please email me at brianjones678 @ yahoo.com

Anxiety.

This is a site designed to give information on resources available on dealing with anxiety. It isn't designed to replace medical care, however is designed to allow people easier access to net-based resources and other resources.