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Why Yoga Is Both Awesome And Terrible, Part 2: Accepting Your Body
What does a panic attack and a yoga class have in common? If you’re anything like me, both panic and yoga can lead you to (uncomfortably) focus on the nuances of breathing. Yes, breathing — that thing...
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Does A Cluttered Workspace Paralyze You?
Here I sit at a very messy dining room table. I’ve been trying to get down to writing for about an hour now, but the distractions just keep piling up — and this time, most of those distractions are...
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‘The Onion’ Confirms What Facebook Leads Us To Believe: We’re In A Rut
Take a stroll — well, a scroll — through your Facebook news feed. Seriously — go. Go do it. If it looks anything like mine, it’s full of wedding engagements, photos of squeaky little babies, and old...
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Help! My Cold Meds Make Me Anxious. What Can I Do?
‘Tis the season, I suppose, for phlegm-y illnesses. Today, one of my most-read blog posts is this: “Cold Meds Got You Anxious? Know Your Ingredients!” It’s a must-read for those of you who: have an...
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Help! My Cold Meds Make Me Anxious. What ELSE Can I Do?
Feeling sick? You’re probably not alone. It’s that sneez-y, cough-y, mucus-y time of year. Delicious! So, if you’re anything like me, you have an anxiety disorder and you hate being sick. In fact,...
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Anxiety As A Big Fat Jerk: Letting Go Of The Rope
We live our lives through metaphor after metaphor. Now, don’t let the word “metaphor” scare you. It might sound familiar — perhaps from your high school English class — or maybe you’ve never heard it...
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The Post-Holiday Slump: The Presence Of An Absence
Some people find the holidays to be depressing. And I can easily see why — there’s plenty of “family” this, “family” that, and if you’ve lost a loved one recently, the holidays can sting. I, on the...
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Feeling Crappy About Winter, Part 1: Drowning In All The Messiness
I love my blog readers. (Hey, that’s you!) I read each and every one of your comments — even though I don’t always reply to each one. Your comments are very meaningful to me — I empathize with your...
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Feeling Crappy About Winter, Part 2: Grumble Along With Me
Yesterday, I wrote this: a post about how it’s okay to feel crummy sometimes. It’s okay to feel crummy and to write about feeling crummy. In a way, I was responding to commenter Reader547 when s/he...
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This Soothing Video Of Baby’s First Bath Will Calm Your Nerves
It’s the end of a long week, isn’t it? This week’s rap sheet includes sub-zero temperatures, frozen pipes, and a dead car battery. Dearest polar vortex: you’re drunk. Go home. But I’m not here to...
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Withdrawing From Celexa: Yeah, Um, That Didn’t Really Work
Years ago, before panic attacks became one of my defining characteristics, I decided I wanted to be one of those crunchy mothers-to-be who avoids all medication at all cost. I’d be growing a tiny human...
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Lift The Burden By Changing “Should” To “Want”
There’s a lot of guilt involved in having an anxiety disorder. (If you, reader, have an anxiety disorder, you know exactly what I mean, right?) For the rest of you, I’ll spell it out clearly: we feel...
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Video: Live Longer, Stay Healthier By Changing The Way You View Stress
How you think about stress matters — perhaps more than the stress itself. That’s what Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal says in her super-inspiring TED talk, “How to make stress your...
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Breathe Easy This Weekend With A Simple Web App
Have you ever noticed your respiration rate increase during periods of heightened anxiety? It’s okay if you have — it’s completely normal and part of the body’s fight-or-flight reaction. But what if...
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Zoloft and Klonopin Sing A Frustrating Lullaby
It’s no big secret or anything. Anxiety meds can make you sleepy. Like, really sleepy. From my bottle of Zoloft, an SSRI used to treat my panic disorder: “May cause drowsiness.” From my bottle of...
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Letter To A Panicker Whose World Is Quickly Shrinking
“Just…just do it,” she said, looking me straight in the eye. She wasn’t a Nike spokesperson: She was my therapist, circa 2004, warning me against the dangers of agoraphobia. “Even if you feel...
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How To Start Loving Your Unmotivated Self
This Valentine’s Day, I wanted to take a different approach to discussing love on this blog. A Redditor named Ryan from Canada made a post in /r/getmotivated several months back that has really, really...
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Low Blood Sugar And Panic Attacks: How Are They Related?
Suddenly, you feel sort of woozy in an nebulous way. Something feels “off”, but you can’t put your finger on it. Then, your heart starts beating faster, and you feel the need to sit down. Or sleep. Or...
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I Hate Quotes About ‘Success’ (Except For This One)
Generic platitudes tend to annoy me. You know the kind I’m talking about — right? Say you’ve just been through a bad breakup. It stings monumentally, and you keep hearing crap like this: “It’ll all...
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Adjust Your Posture This Weekend For A More Confident Monday
So, I own a pet bird. (That’s him on the left.) Actually, I hesitate to call my parrotlet a pet. He’s more like a little bird friend — a tiny little feathered dinosaur who talks. He’s a comical little...
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