More than 870,000 Britons suffer from anxiety, a condition that triggers unnecessary feelings of uneasiness and worry.
Increasingly,
mindfulness – a psychological therapy with roots in Buddhist meditation
– is being used by the NHS to help alleviate the symptoms.
Here, in the final extract from his book The Mindful Manifesto, DR JONTY HEAVERSEDGE explains how it can help.
- Before directing your mind
towards the anxiety you are experiencing, focus on your breathing – the
sensation of air slowly flowing into your nostrils, streaming down the
back of your throat and into your lungs. Feel the beating of your heart
and imagine how it pumps oxygenated blood around your body. Continue
until you’re ready to meditate.
- Now,
shift your attention to your anxious thoughts. What thoughts are
present in your mind right now? Are there many moving quickly or does
each one remain for a while? Consider the thoughts objectively rather
than reacting to them emotionally.
- There’s
a myth that when you meditate, you should have a blank mind. But
thoughts are not the enemy and trying to stop them will only lead to
more struggle. Treat the thoughts during meditation like having a radio
on in the background – you can hear it, but your main focus is
elsewhere. In mindfulness, you’re paying attention to the fact that you
have a thought but you are not buying into what it is saying. Try not to
judge the thought as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Cultivate an attitude of
equanimity to whatever goes through your mind. Watch your thoughts with
curiosity and kindness and they will become easier to bear.
- Whenever
you notice your mind is wandering, acknowledge that it has meandered
and gently bring your attention back to observing your thoughts.
- Continue
working with your worries in this way for the period of time you have
chosen. Working mindfully can be challenging, so it’s good to practise
for short periods at first.
- You
may feel dizzy when you start but that’s because you’ve suddenly
stopped spinning around in circles. In the stillness of meditation, it
can also seem as if you have more thoughts than usual but this is not
so: it is just that you are becoming more aware of them. The more you
practise, the more your mind can deal with worries in a less panicked
way.
Most of us think
childhood to be a time associated with a fun, carefree way of life.
However, most children these days are being affected by problems like
anxiety and depression. Increased competition that has increased
performance anxiety and stress has been held responsible for this by the doctors.
To mark the ongoing mental health week, city branches of the Indian medical Association and Indian Psychiatric Society organized a conference to discuss the most prevalent mental health issues. Anxiety and depression among children was one of these topics.
"In the last two decades, there has been a tremendous
rise in psychological problems in children. This is mainly because
increased parental and personal expectations because of the competitive
environment. Now-a-days, a child is not satisfied by topping the class
through his hard work. He has to top the state or the country to be
really happy about his achievement as there is globalization of
competition too," said psychiatrist Dr Kausar Abbasi, adding "Teachers
and the education system have become very demanding."
Dr Nilesh Shah, professor and head of the psychiatry department of Sion Hospital,
Mumbai, believes that more than depression, anxiety has become a common
affliction among children. "In every class, one or two children can be
found who suffer from over-anxiety.
These children get worked up about
small things specially before important events like examinations or
outings, keep seeking reassurances, lose temper easily and can't sleep
well. Relaxation techniques like yoga, meditation, aroma therapy can be used to help them relax when anxiety is triggered," he said.
Some of the other types of anxiety which are not very common include school phobia, separation anxiety disorder
when a child does not wish to separate from a parent for the smallest
amount of time, social anxiety disorder where social situations and
selective mutism where certain special circumstances or people trigger
anxiety in the child, he informed.
One of the reasons that the
children are suffering from such problems is the comparatively easy life
they have. "The frustration tolerance and tolerance limits of children
are very low these days as they are getting all they want from a very
early age. Anxiety in children can also manifest through behavioral
problems like bed wetting and parents should be on the watch out for
them," said psychiatrist Dr Rajiv Palsodkar.
source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Anxiety-and-depression-big-problems-among-children/articleshow/16716332.cms
