By Dr. R. E. Freedman

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it”
Ambrose Redmoon

Question:
I’ve been very busy working hard the past few months. I know I’ve taken on more than I should and even though I’m capable of doing the work, I have been worried and fearful about what these long hours might do to me. In fact, for the past 3 weeks I’ve been plagued with anxiety and now this strange and scary feeling of unreality. It’s making me close to crazy trying to figure out how this happened and what to do. I blame myself for taking on too much work, but now other thoughts are racing through my mind such as the time I got high with friends back in college, or the short time I took a med for anxiety that made me feel awful. I can’t stop blaming myself and I know something must be wrong because this is not going away. Is there hope for me?
signed,
Confused and Scared

Answer:
Dear Confused,

Everything you describe is actually normal in the circumstance. I know this might be difficult to believe, but nonetheless true.

Remember, every symptom connected with anxiety and/or depersonalization has a logical explanation and can be reversed. This is no different. Nothing you described is unusual or out of the ordinary.

It doesn’t matter how long one works, thinks or hunkers down on a project until the wee small hours of the morning. The mind will tire to a small degree but not in the same way it does when fear enters the picture. This is a different kind of fatigue. A mind that is fatigued due to the constant stream of fearful thinking is far more exhausted. Fear being the culprit. Oh yes, far more than you can imagine.

It’s the fear that tires. It’s the fear that drains both mind and body. When the element of fear is eliminated from the thought process, the mind quickly refreshes. Fear has become your habit. It can easily occur when one does not understand what is happening and the brain tries to find closure, grasping at any explanation available. Self-blame enters the picture, even when there is no basis for this stream of thinking.

Once you learn to catch the habit of fearful thinking and learn to interrupt it effectively, you are home free. You retrain the brain or tame an overactive mind. You learn to effectively talk back to the brain. The mind will rapidly rejuvenate and refresh. Do not think you have to sleep more or cut back on work. This is not so. The mind is not fatigued from lack of sleep but rather from fearful thinking from the time you open your eyes in the morning until you go to sleep at night. This is the habit that must be interrupted in a correct manner.

You have the power to do this without the aid of medication or any other chemical support system. You have been going around in circles trying to solve the unsolvable problem when the answer is within your own grasp.

The combination of learning to think correctly, along with the proper food plan (to naturally boost serotonin in the brain and maintain balanced blood sugar levels) will resolve this issue in an accelerated fashion. You will succeed in creating a less reactive mind and body, one that handles stress effectively rather than overreacting to it. You are no longer victim to life’s stresses. The only thing required of you is your full cooperation to use the techniques and the patience to realize you are not ill.

Taking a sabbatical from work is not necessary. Becoming bedridden is out of the question. Following a simple yet effective way of thinking and eating will remove the fogginess and restore full clarity. Don’t for one minute believe we are unaware of the intensity and frustration you are experiencing. This is understood. It is also understood that with the proper approach you will rapidly recover and the correct recovery will save you from future events concerning both interfering anxiety and depersonalization.

Best wishes,

Dr. R. E. Freedman