Claire Weekes - self help for your nerves - anyone any advice please

[mumoftwo]

Hi,

As a last resort (meds still arnt working) ive bought this book. She is very clear and correct in all she writes and its very easy to read the book. To put it simply she says that we are full of the anxiety symptoms because of the adrenalin produced by our body because we are afraid of our symptoms, thus the vicious circle. She says that to lessen the adrenalin we need to feel our symptoms and accept them, then slowly out adrenalin will subside and with it our horrible anxiety symptoms.

Sounds easy doesnt it?

The question i would like answered is how the hell can you accept your symptoms when you are having the day from hell?

As i feel this is my last resort I would really appreciate anyone who has read this book and has had success from it.

Many thanks for reading

Mumoftwo

[diane07]

Dr Claire Weekes was a fabulous woman, she knew more about panic and anx in the sixties than most know today, i definately recommend you read her book and keep it, some people refer to it as their bible.

Its probably the best thing you have just bought.

best wishes

di xx

[Kerry B]

Hiya I am currently reading this book too its was my Grandma she brought it in 1962 so its very special to me, but the way my mind is I cannot sink in what I am reading. x

[sjr1969]

i have just bought the book too. i know what you mean, its hard to accept and not be scared of very scary feelings and symptoms and when you feel so ill its hard.

sarah x

[Primula]

I've read Claire Weekes, and she is amazing. Try to accept even your feelings of being scared, but don't make the mistake of expecting to feel better immediately because you wont. I don't think she is saying that you shouldn't be afraid of the feelings but rather to accept all your feelings even the scary ones. Just accept the days from hell, then over time you'll start to realise that you don't feel so bad, but it wont happen over night or even in a few days.

Another really good book that i have been using over the last month or so is The Mindfullness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety by John Forsythe. Don't be put off by the workbook part there is very little writing to do. When you first start it you think you are going nowhere fast, but the idea is to complete a chapter every week, and do the suggested exercises, in the order they say.
The improvements are very subtle, and I know that when you are in a state of high anxiety you just want it to end. But I really can see improvement in myself. I still get very jittery days, but on the whole I feel I am getting better slowly but surely.

It's similar to Claire Weekes, except I feel a little easier to get your head around the acceptance part. I still go back to reading Claire Weekes as she is so comforting, but the workbook has really helped me put things into practise. I think the two of these books together can really help. I have suffered with anxiety and health anxiety on and off for 20 years, and have tried all sorts to control it, but acceptance really is the only thing that has helped me. You have nothing to lose except a couple of quid, so give it a try. x

[mumoftwo]

thankyou all for your replies, its good to know that im not the only one who finds acceptance hard when the anxiety is constantly there, but i think it seems to be the only way forward so i will keep practising.

mumoftwo :wacko:

[Going home]

Alot of us oldies know these books very well, they were more or less the only ones around in the 80s and its a mark of their success that we're still here to tell the tale. If anxiety is part of our personality then maybe we have to accept that this will go on throughout our lives to some degree, but its our attitude to it that lies in the recovery from it. What I mean is that even if it never goes away completely we can say that that's ok, we know it cannot harm us so we kind of learn to live with it, and for those of us that have lived with it for many years and can help others who are fairly new to it are proof of that surely?

Anxiety cannot be erased from our lives altogether, that's impossible, because it's part of everyones life. So all Claire Weekes is saying really is that instead of fighting against it we should just learn to go with it and in doing that it will be less of a monster to us.

Her books have been an inspiration to many sufferers, and she was also a sufferer herself.

Anna xxx

[Typer]

Hi I am on my second read of the book.

I got the idea of floating through, but could not at first actually achieve it. I have never suffered with anxiety until, after some years of high stress, I got ectopic palpitations. These scared me, I got more palps, I got more scared, etc.

I am trying my best to float through episodes and am half way there, achieving it sometimes.

I have been able to examine what I am feeling (I think Claire Weeks calls this glimpsing) and what may have sparked off an attack. By doing this I have noticed several things. For example, I am used to needing to rush to the toilet in an attack...fear does that to some people. I had IBS for about 10 months or so, in fact I had that before the palps.

It got to the point that using the toilet (just ordinarily and daily) made me associate with anxiety... I observed, through glimpsing, that I was translating that feeling in my stomach to visit the loo as anxiety...then I actually became anxious and the rest is history. By glimpsing I have been able to (most times) stop that particular anxiety in its tracks.


I would say keep reading it and testing things out...no rush...recovery is a process. Often its two forward and one back. I continue to hope and to try this method