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Sandra

It was Sandra’s first meditation lesson. She was feeling apprehensive. She glanced around the room and wondered if other people were feeling the same way. She closed her eyes and began to practise the meditation technique she had chosen. At first she felt self-conscious and wanted to laugh out loud. She couldn’t understand how this would help her with her anxiety and attacks. Gradually Sandra became aware of a gentle heaviness slowly moving through her body. A wave of fear went through her, but she allowed it to pass without resisting it. She felt herself drifting into deeper and deeper levels of relaxation. The voice of Sandra’s instructor, ending the meditation session, broke into the silent depths of her meditation. Slowly Sandra opened her eyes. She had done it! She was able to meditate.

Philip

Deciding to find time to meditate can be a problem for many people, of whom Philip was one. Philip had been practising meditation on and off for several months. He had become aware that he always had a bad day if he didn’t meditate the night before, but wished there was an easier way to control his anxiety. He ‘didn’t have time’ and it was such an effort to try to make time. He felt he would just have to put up with the anxiety until a ‘real’ cure was found.

Joanne

Some people experience symptoms similar to those of panic attacks in meditation. Joanne did, while she was in the deeper stages of meditation. Instead of reacting with fear, Joanne was able to let them happen and they went as quickly as they came. This gave Joanne the courage to let them happen during the day, when she wasn’t meditating. Again, they went as quickly as they came. Joanne had found the key to her recovery.

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Difficulty Sleeping Alone

To avoid a big chase, we just lie down with him until he falls asleep.

There are degrees of parental involvement in the bedtime process, becomes a problem when it takes too much time or the parent begins to f© burdened or manipulated. It also becomes a problem when a parent involvement, or lack of involvement (for whatever reason), keeps the child from getting to, or back to, sleep. This can be an unexpected culprit in frequent waking—when he needs something from his parent in order to go back to sleep?

Unusual Sleep Cycles

She is just not ready to go to sleep—but we are!

Sleep patterns follow an internal set of rhythms. When they are skewed early, or late, or are extremely irregular, it becomes a problem because the child does not mesh with the family routine. Very often a problem at one end of the day begins to affect the other end or the remainder of the day. When a child apparent sleep needs (much more, or much less) are different from her parents it can also cause a problem.

Nightmares and Sleep Terrors

He wakes up screaming and really seems terrified.

Nightmares and sleep terrors are often confused because the incidents ca look so similar. The child “wakes” with confusion and fear once or several times a night. However, there are definite differences between a nightmare and a sleep terror. Recognizing them is crucial because the best response is very different for each.

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The anxious patient cannot sit still. He fidgets and wriggles about. He cannot settle to the task in hand; he starts one job but feels uncomfortable, leaves it and starts something else. He is less restless when there is something definite that he has to do, so he is more comfortable at work than at home. On weekends, in spite of happy relations with his family, it is common for him to wish for Monday so that he can go back to the fixed routine of work.

Sometimes people feel that they will be better if they take a holiday and have a good rest. Of course, these patients are at their worst in such circumstances because they have lost the ability to relax and take it easy. Other people with anxiety are benefited by such a holiday, but when restlessness is a feature the anxious patient only returns more tense and frustrated than ever.

A forty-seven-year-old foreman wrote for an appointment, and described his restlessness in these terms.

“I have an inability to relax, nervous tension, anxiety complex and constant apprehension, I cannot sit [without a flush of anxiety] in meetings, church, theatre, dentist’s chair, barber’s chair, public transport, or as a passenger in a motor car . . . My flush of nervous tension makes me leave whatever I am attending . . .”

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