“Ask Dr Neuman” Advice Column
Freud made popular the idea that various objects, by virtue of their appearance and function, could stand symbolically for other objects, usually sexual. When a woman dreamed about cleaning her house, for instance, she might be expressing feelings she had about her...
The treatment of a worry In order for human beings to manage their lives, they have to accommodate to constantly changing circumstances. They have to adapt to the demands of daily life. So constant is this process that it goes unnoticed unless something goes wrong....
Remnants of a Phobia For a panic disorder to disappear entirely, only two things need to be learned: that it is possible to escape from all those places where phobics typically feel trapped, including stuck elevators, and that the panic attack, no matter how extreme,...
Chicken Phobias and other matters of concern A demand for quick thinking. The Anxiety and Phobia Clinic that I direct has seen over four thousand patients during the forty-three years of its existence. There are individuals with a specific phobia, such as snakes or...
Start off with this idea: certain fears are reasonable, others are exaggerated. In both cases it is a sensible strategy to confront those fears. When a fear is justified, confronting it may suggest some way of lessening the risk. Someone who is afraid of developing...
I grew up in Manhattan, and I do not remember anyone ever discussing the weather unless there was a hurricane coming—or a blizzard. In fact, I remember once, during a hurricane, going downstairs to buy a newspaper. I went for a piano lesson during a blizzard. Day to...
2. Try to get panicky! In a way this is what you have been doing all along. By entering into phobic situations, getting panicky, and remaining to deal with those feelings, you counter the basic causes of the phobia: the fear of being overwhelmed and the urge to...
1. Do not avoid any places or set of circumstances because of the phobia. A panic attack will not incapacitate you no matter what you are doing, no matter where you happen to be. A very few endeavors will suffer from extreme anxiety-a musical performance or an...
One of the elements of agoraphobia is the fear of becoming panicky while in a situation from which it is impossible to escape. It is the fear of being trapped; but when someone speaks of being trapped, it is not always clear exactly what is meant. Sometimes the...
A personal history of passing out. A cardinal symptom of panic disorder is the sudden, inexplicable sense of an imminent loss of control. Panicky persons become afraid that if they do not leave wherever they happen to be when they suffer an attack and return to a...
Confronting the final challenges. The process of recovering from a panic disorder and agoraphobia is straightforward, but difficult. The affected individual has to experience panic attacks over and over again, purposely, and then remain in the threatening situation...
There are two medical conditions that come up very frequently in consideration of panic disorder. They are said variously to be confused with the disorder because of a similarity of symptoms or to be related to it because they occur together. They are reactive...