Complete Idiot's Guide to Conquering Fear and Anxiety

Relaxation techniques and drugs, though helpful in reducing defensiveness, don't eliminate this state. Although you may feel less irritated by noxious stimuli, you will stillfind loud noise or bright lights or strong odors or tags in your clothing vexing and hard to ignore. Consequently, in spite of all your efforts, it's hard to find your comfortzone.Here are some suggestions to help reduce sensory defensiveness:Identify what sensations in your environment bother you: noise, bright lights, odors, the taste or feel of certain foods, open space, heights, rough textures on yourskin, light or unexpected touch, crowds or violation of your space. Make every effort to avoid or at least minimize exposure to annoying stimuli.Create the most nurturing sensory work environment that you can. For instance, if overhead fluorescent lights bother you, buy a desk lamp with a full spectrum lightbulb for your workspace.Create a pleasing and nurturing sensory home environment to which you can take refuge.Set aside a quiet, dark place for your relaxation exercises and add pleasant sensory stimulation, such as burning incense, aromatherapy, candlelight, and soft music.Learn what sensory integrative interventions reduce sensory defensiveness and, in some cases, eliminate it altogether. For more information, contact SensoryIntegration International (see Appendix B).Watch Out for Adrenal ExhaustionIf you are under constant stress, your adrenal glands work overtime to keep you ready to fight all your perceived enemies. Prolonged stress on the adrenal glandsresults in a state of chronic under­functioning or exhaustion, a condition developed over a series of stages as described by Hans Selye.In the first stage of combating stress, the adrenal glands tend to hyperfunction, producing high amounts of adrenaline and noradrenalin, as well as steroid hormonessuch as cortisol.As stress becomes prolonged, the glands become overtaxed and go into a state of temporary under­functioning. If you are relatively healthy, the glands will try tocompensate, actually rebuilding themselves to the point of hypertrophy (growing larger).If high levels of stress continue, the glands will eventually exhaust themselves again and then remain in a chronic state of underfunctioning. At this stage, theyoverproduce adrenaline some of the time, causing anxiety or mood swings, while under producing adrenaline the rest of the time. With insufficient adrenalPage 242