Emma,

I've tried the mindfulness approach, but I find some thoughts, or rather some feelings, are just so intense and unpleasant that I CAN'T accept them.

I do find mindfulness helpful for insomnia. If I wake up in the night and start thinking, "Sh**, I'm never going to get to sleep", and notice my stomach going tense, I find I can often just drift back to sleep and observe the tension in my stomach. One thing: to do this, I have to keep breathing slowly and steadily; it's like a kind of shallow meditation.

This doesn't work with my social phobia because with that my whole system is on red alert and breathing slowly is such an effort that I can't do it.

F