Complete Idiot's Guide to Conquering Fear and Anxiety

off the plane at a stop halfway to his destination, and has never flown since. Instead, he travels the country turtle style in his specially equipped luxury bus, donated forhis use by Greyhound.Page 4Napoleon Bonaparte was obsessive­compulsive, Edgar Allen Poe and Frederick the Great were both phobic. John Madden is phobic as well. He has aviophobia,better known as fear of flying.He is not alone in feeling uncontrollable and incapacitating panic, anxiety, and abnormal fear at some time. In fact, anxiety disorders are considered the number onemental health problem in America; thirteen percent of the general population alone suffer from some kind of phobia, the most common anxiety disorder.Age of AnxietyWhy is our society so fearful? We live in extremely stressful times; times that have been called the "Age of Anxiety." And as such, stress plays a key role in thedevelopment of our fears.When we lived in caves, real dangers, like hungry sabre­toothed tigers, were all around. Upon perceiving danger, the brain activated the sympathetic nervous system(SNS), which is part of our involuntary autonomic nervous system, to give us the energy we need to fight the danger or to flee from it. In this "fight­or­flight" response,which you may recognize from your own experience, hormones are released and the SNS sends signals to various parts of the body to produce the following changes:The heart starts pumping, which rushes fuel (oxygen­laden blood) to every cell.Breathing comes in quick spurts. Nostrils and air passages in the lungs open wider to get air more quickly.Blood rushes away from the abdomen to the legs to allow us to run faster (thus the sinking feeling in our stomach when we are afraid).We begin to sweat to cool ourselves down.Blood clotting ability increases, to prepare us for possible injury.To conserve energy, digestion and other bodily functions grind to a halt.The liver releases sugar to provide quick energy.Pupils dilate to increase visual acuity.Saliva production decreases, causing a dry mouth.Sphincter muscles contract to close the openings of the bowel and bladder.Immune responses decrease, which is useful in the short term to allow massive response to immediate threat, but can become harmful over a long period.