Sitting at the dentist or hairdressers, in the cinema or theatre, or in a restaurant.

You can also ask someone else to read it to you or record it. Your fingertips will move back together as you do this. The turning point came when I realised that the therapist had the confidence that I would make progress. But being so scared it would be discovered I found that I had to keep going to it to make sure it was there, to make sure that I had actually hidden it. At the time there were some concerns around my blood pressure and I was feeling quite anxious about it. Big or small? You may still feel that you havent really got time for yourself, but as a part of your recovery from Anxiety you need to find some time every day for yourself. Once you have worked through this book you will have the skills you need to prevent relapses. This is part of your involuntary nervous system which as weve already seen also controls many bodily functions. Ive done guided imagery with my therapist but didnt find it so relaxing. During the crisis, the chemicals that are circulating in your body are designed to get you through. And, it is twice as common in women as it is in men. In many ways Anxiety takes us back to childhood, and anxious fears often have the same irrational nightmarish quality of childhood fears. You may not even see them as thoughts, instead you may identify them as feelings or physical sensations. For instance, if you feel that you cant make time for a recovery programme because your OCD is so time consuming, then your challenge is to find the time - even five minutes a day will help. If your anxiety is in anyway focused on animals, dont undertake this, although you might want to set goals around it during your recovery. When you do leave, you find that you start to feel better quite quickly, so youll tend to think that escaping makes Anxiety go away. Fear of fear leads to avoidance and is the chief maintenance factor for panic, agoraphobia and social phobia. Think about all the things that used to give you pleasure before you had Anxiety. It can make you feel excessively afraid in situations that are not stressful or threatening to most people. Many Anxiety sufferers lose the habit of taking exercise, and some become extremely inactive.