The Anxiety-Free Child Review

One of the saddest and most unsettling things I discovered while researching anxiety disorders is that upwards of 13% of American kids suffer from childhood anxiety disorder. And in all that time searching for answers, I never saw one program designed specifically for children. That has now changed, with the introduction of The Anxiety-Free Child by Rich Presta.

With the lack of any help - or even understanding - for kids with anxiety and panic issues, most of the children with these problems carry them through their teen years and into adulthood. This is exactly what happened in Rich Presta's case and it's the reason he decided to develop his latest program.

About The Author

Rich had already produced some of the most renowned programs available on the Internet for adult anxiety disorders: The Panic Puzzle, The Anxiety Lie, The Driving Fear Program and The Take Off Today Program (for fear of flying). But knowing that un-treated childhood anxiety invariably leads to debilitating and devastating adult anxiety, as it did in his own case, he decided to take on the project of producing a program that parents can use to stop this progression before it destroys their child's life.

Now, before I tell you about the program, I want to tell you a little more about Rich Presta and his qualifications. He and his work have been featured in the likes of Psychology Today and Natural Health magazines, as well as on Discovery Health channel, MSNBC and CNN. He's a member of The International Society for Mental Health Online and the National Alliance On Mental Illness. As I mentioned, he's a survivor of both childhood and adult anxiety disorders and he's also a parent.

Like many other authors of programs to help anxiety and panic sufferers, Rich takes pride in the fact he's helping people to do as he did: Cure their disorders and get their lives back. He cares.

And the same can be said of the person writing this page. I want as many sufferers as possible to get out of the dark clouds of anxiety and into the sunshine of a happier life.

About The Anxiety-Free Child Program

Before I get into the details of what's in this program, I want to make something perfectly clear: This is not something you can just give to your child and expect magic to happen; The Anxiety-Free Child Program requires the participation of at least one parent.

But the upside of this is that your relationship with your child (or adolescent) will dramatically improve and if you have any anxiety issues yourself, you'll see an improvement there as well. And face it, living with a happy child is a far better life than living with one who is suffering from anxiety, fears and unfounded worries.

What's included in the package:

• A full program manual, in both written and audio formats, to guide you through the entire process of helping your child overcome their anxiety, worries, and fears and replace those limiting thoughts and feelings with peace of mind and confidence.
• An audio system Presta calls C.A.R.I.S. that teaches your child how to rapidly relax, quiet their anxious, negative and worried mind, and let go of physical tension. The intent of this part of the program is to accelerate the development of the new skills your child will need to make this a life-long success.
• Recorded interviews with psychologists, internationally recognized university researchers and professors, physicians, and best selling authors. Presta conducted these interviews to help parents understand the anxious child better. As a bonus, the written transcripts of all these interviews are included.
• As another bonus, C.A.R.I.S. Volume II is included. Like the original C.A.R.I.S. Audio, Volume II of the system will guide your child through practicing their new skills of inducing relaxation and tranquility in themselves that they'll be learning as the core of the Anxiety-Free Child Program. The addition of this audio will double the amount of tools to help the child overcome anxiety, fears and worries.

My Recommendation Rating: Two Thumbs Up

If you have a child with any symptoms of anxiety or panic disorders (for a list of symptoms and anxiety-related issues read my article on Childhood Anxiety Disorder or go to the home page for The Anxiety-Free Child Program ) I highly recommend this program. My reasons are:

1. As I said at the beginning of this article, it's sad to know so many kids suffer from these disorders - most in silence, with no understanding from parents and teachers - and children with anxiety issues usually carry these into adulthood.
2. There is a terrible shortage of help available for anxious kids and their families. Most cases of childhood anxiety disorder go unrecognized, untreated or are misdiagnosed as ADD or something else.
3. I trust Rich Presta to produce a program that will actually help, as evidenced by the fact that thousands upon thousands of adults have found relief using his products.

To learn more about this unique program go to the home page for The Anxiety-Free Child Program now. It's a very informative page, but a bit long. So if you'd rather not read through the whole thing, just scroll down to where it says "Click To Order Now" and you'll be on your way to helping rescue your child from a living hell.

Medications You Can Safely Take for Your Anxiety Disorders

I have recently discovered two medications you can safely take to give you some relief from anxiety symptoms and to calm down your anxious reactions. When I say "safely" what I mean is, they're not benzos, they're not addictive and you don't have to worry about serious withdrawals if and when you stop taking them. They also won't take over your mind or your moods or make you numb to the world. Does that sound like something you'd like to know about? I thought so.

Let me give you a little background before I tell you about these meds. I work in a residential drug and alcohol treatment center and part of my job is supervising the patients when they take both over-the-counter meds and prescriptions. So I see what they're taking and often we get into conversations about their prescription medications, what they're for and how well they're working.

I realize the average person wouldn't be aware of how many people in treatment centers experience anxiety symptoms, but suffice it to say, it's a healthy percentage. They come in three varieties:

1. People who (like me) were abusing drugs or alcohol to self-medicate anxiety and/or panic disorders and became seriously addicted to one or the other, or both.
2. People who develop anxiety symptoms (or symptoms that are nearly identical) as part of their withdrawal process.
3. People who are addicted to anti-anxiety medicines prescribed to them by a doctor or doctors for anxiety and panic disorders.

Consequently, I'm exposed to a lot of people with anxiety disorder or symptoms and many of them are taking medications for them. Keep in mind, we don't allow patients to continue taking any addictive drugs, like benzos - even Xanax - so they, with the help of our nursing staff, have to find alternatives. And those are what I want to talk about here.

Vistaril or Atarax- Generic Name: hydroxyzine hydrochloride

Vistaril is actually an antihistamine that's particularly effective at calming the nervous system. It's even sometimes used before and after general anesthesia to keep a surgery patient calm. Side effects are similar to other antihistamines such as benadryl: dry mouth and possible drowsiness. You'd want to find out how you react to it before driving a car, etc.

Vistaril is the most common anxiety control prescription taken where I work and most of the patients I've talked to who take it are satisfied with the results. Some have found it does make them drowsy (just like benadryl) and simply take it at night before going to bed.

Neurontin - Generic Name: gabapentin

Neurontin was first used as an anticonvulsant for controlling epileptic seizures. It's also commonly used to treat neuropathic pain such as damaged nerves, phantom limb syndrome and restless leg syndrome. I've seen a lot of diabetics taking it for neuropathy that's common with their condition.

Using gabapentin for anxiety or panic disorder is actually "off-label" which means it hasn't actually been approved by the FDA for that purpose. But more and more doctors are prescribing it and patients are reporting good results. I've personally only talked to one patient whose psychiatrist prescribed Neurontin for his anxiety so was surprised to hear about it and then to learn how common this use is.

Side effects of gabapentin are generally mild and it's rare that a patient will find them disruptive to their life, enough to discontinue using it. Quitting gabapentin suddenly could cause some mild withdrawals, however. You'd want to taper off it according to your doctor's directions.

These two prescription medications are probably the most common in the med cabinets at the treatment center. Although most who are taking gabapentin aren't taking it for anxiety.

A Third Safe Anxiety Medication: Beta Blockers

When I first developed sudden and severe anxiety symptoms, including hand tremors, my doctor prescribed Metoprolol, a beta blocker usually prescribed for lowering blood pressure. Beta blockers work by blocking the release of adrenaline, the nasty stuff that causes anxiety symptoms. It worked for me, for a while, and I was able to continue my work as a hairstylist. It also brought my normally healthy blood pressure back down to where it had always been.

Notice I said, "for a while". I'm not quite sure why the Metoprolol didn't continue to keep my symptoms calmed down, but remember, I was going through severe anxiety at the time; it may be that it just wasn't enough once my body got used to it. And to be honest, that was so many years ago I don't remember all the details. But I suspect a person with generalized anxiety might just find that a beta blocker will keep their symptoms under some semblance of control.

I've also read that a beta blocker is often prescribed for a person with social anxiety - especially fear of public speaking or performing onstage - to be taken before an anxiety-causing event.

Are These Meds the Answer?

As is true with any medication taken for anxiety or panic disorders, they will only treat the symptoms, they will never cure your disorder. And there is absolutely no reason why you should have to continue to suffer from anxiety disorder or take medications or powerful, mind-numbing, energy-sapping psychotropic drugs the rest of your life. Not when the meds discussed in this post can prudently be used to help keep the symptoms under control, while freeing you to work on a real cure.

Yes, I said CURE. There is a way out, and it's right there in your brain, the same place where the problem is. You just need to re-train it! And a great way to do that is with the Easy Calm Video Coaching Series - check it out!

To Your Recovery,
Owen

The News And Your Anxiety

Do you watch the news on TV, listen to it on the radio or habitually read the newspaper? If you have an Anxiety Disorder of any kind, be it Generalized Anxiety, Chronic Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Hypochondria, Agoraphobia or OCD, you probably should break the news habit. Why? Because watching what media outlets decide is newsworthy will cause your anxiety problem to worsen!

Think about what's on the front page of the paper, on your local or national news broadcasts - and even what's on NPR. Is it good news? Is it about happy events? Are there any personal interest stories in the first 20 minutes of the local news program? Not very often, right?

So what are they feeding you? Crime, death, war, bad economy, epidemics and in winter, deadly snow storms. That's right, even on the weather channels and in the brief weather reports on the local and national news, they don't bother telling you how wonderful the weather is in Key West, they only mention Key West when there's a hurricane there.

And notice how when they're going to tell you there's a slight chance of snow in your area they start off the news show by getting (and keeping) your attention with "Snow possible tonight!" Be honest, how many times when they've done that, has it actually snowed an appreciable amount?

News media have one purpose, and that's to make money for the station or network, or the paper. And their decisions as to what's newsworthy have nothing to do with what you want to see, only with what they want you to see. In other words, what sells.

What Sells Commercial Airtime and Why Should You Care?

Apparently the media have done their homework and found long ago that what brings in the most money is keeping you glued to the TV. And that what keeps Americans (and I'm sure anyone else anywhere in the world) glued to the TV is fear, plain and simple. High drama. Things that make you think: "Oh! How awful!"

Even though what they're showing you on the TV or the front page of the paper probably isn't happening to you, it's affecting you. Because you're not involved in what's happening, you can't do anything about it and you have no power to resolve the conflict you're absorbing. And this causes you tension and stress. And anxiety.

How About Sports?

Of course, something that brings in the big bucks for the TV networks is sports. Pretty fun stuff, right? I mean, it beats war and famine. But guess what? If you have a favorite team - YOUR team - watching them on TV can cause you worse problems than the news!

Don't believe me? I used to be a huge sports nut but found out years ago that watching my Seattle teams lose made my anxiety symptoms terrible - after I quit drinking. In fact, the last time I tried to watch the Seahawks play was at the end of their best season ever, in the Super Bowl. I should be happy and excited, right? But what I witnessed was the officials embarrassing the entire NFL by doing anything they could think of - no matter how obvious - to steal the game from the Hawks and hand it to the Steelers. Hey, ESPN polls showed that most of the country saw the same thing. Anyway back to the anxiety: I had to quit watching my team playing in the Super Bowl because I started having a panic attack!

How About Regular Programs and Movies?

Back when I used to watch some TV, the most popular shows were police and crime dramas, what my dad used to call "shoot-em-ups". Again, these create unresolved conflict that you internalize, leading to higher stress levels and anxiety. And really, if you want an example of unresolved conflict, the soap operas are BUILT on it! Day after day of no resolution.

The same can be said about a lot of dramatic movies, by the way. Have you ever watched a scary movie, the kind that keeps you on the edge of the couch waiting to find out if the hero is going to get killed? Bad news if you suffer from anxiety disorder. And even after the movie ends, you're still stressed out and nervous, right?

When you get right down to it, about the only thing on TV that's safe for anxiety sufferers to watch is comedy and the educational cable channels, like Discovery and Animal Planet. But now that I think about it, isn't most TV comedy an insult to your intelligence? :-)

Let's face it: Watching network television isn't good for your mental health and if you have anxiety disorder, your physical health, either. You'd be better off spending your time reading this blog.

To your health,

Owen