Author: Bruce Hooke

Today the peer-support leaders led the group through reflection of common symptoms of anxiety disorders.  We learned that we each experienced our anxiety in different ways. For example, symptoms of panic attack could be immobilizing, and particularly bad if you had one while driving your car … a thing to “worry” about if you do get panic attacks. It was a busy day as the group reviewed a menu of 50 goal ideas (ideas) for holistic health. The point was that anxiety needs to be managed on multiple fronts, and looking into a menu for managing physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and… Continue Reading

Yesterday, a guest group-support leader took a group of a dozen of us through a story of his experiences leading groups and a 20 minute breathing session.   The session included varied patterns of breathing with rising intensity (accompanied with and paced by drum music).  The breathing included a focus on somatic awareness (body awareness) to “feel” the breathing as it flows into the abdomen and then up into the chest before before exhaling.  The trainer stressed his preference for breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, and drew a parallel with the power of breath control (including… Continue Reading

Yesterday at the group support meeting, we talked about the “wave of anxiety.” Our anxiety peer group support leader talked about his experience in traffic. The frustration being delayed getting to an important meeting was his trigger. The longer the delay the greater the anxiety. The physical symptoms of the anxiety become intense. Now he realizes he is able to call in ahead of the appointment and explain his situation, and this brings relief. The group shared experiences navigating traffic and about ways that they try to feel a sense of control in a situation that they cannot directly control…. Continue Reading

Yesterday, the anxiety support group explored a worksheet from MyleMarks to get a conversation going about our different anxiety triggers and our responses to them.  The worksheet took a few long minutes for each of us to navigate, and it wasn’t an entirely plesant trip.  It is probably not a surprise to learn that some of us were asking ourselves “Oh, should I have been anxious about that too?”  This was a source of a bit of humor.  Trying to analyze our triggers pulled our triggers out of ourselves (a bit) and allowed us to look at them at arm’s… Continue Reading