Dr. Simone’s Mind Space

Anxiety in everyday life

Waking up, immediately starting to ruminate, worry, notoriously planning the day, trying to control and organize the entire day. Further, second guessing each action one does with a feeling of never being good enough.

How can it be stopped, this constant worrying?

How can we boost our self-confidence?

 

-Ask yourself what this worrying stands for.

-Is it reasonable and anything you can control?

-The more you think, the more you worry.

-Focus on relaxing routines, to disconnect the mind from worrying.

-Try to break the spiral by yoga, a walk in nature, meditation or simply reading a book or bake/ cook.

-Engage in an activity you are fully dedicated to, experiencing a state of flow.

-Dare to try: Mastering a challenging situation boosts your self-esteem.

 

@drschwank

@optimalperformancezurich

@unesurcent

 

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

What is generalized anxiety disorder?

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry about a variety of events. It is often accompanied by physical symptoms such as headaches, muscular tension, restlessness, heart palpitations, and stomach upset. Children and adolescents with GAD may worry excessively about their performance and competence at school or in sporting events, about personal safety and the safety of family members, or about natural disasters and future events.

 

GAD is relatively common disorder among children and adolescents. It begins gradually, often in childhood or adolescence, with symptoms that may worsen during times of stress. Worries may switch from one concern to another, and may change with time and age. GAD may result in significant academic, social, and familial impairment. If left untreated, the disorder may be chronic and predicative of adulthood anxiety and depression. However, early identification and effective management can help reduce the severity of symptoms. 

 

What causes GAD?

As with many other mental health conditions, the exact cause of generalized anxiety disorder is unknown but may be linked to:

• Genetic factors: GAD may run in families. Just as a child can inherit parent’s brown hair, green eyes, and nearsightedness, a child can also inherit that parent’s tendency toward excessive anxiety.
• Biological factors: Neurotransmitters, that send messages back and forth to control the way a person feels. Serotonin and dopamine are two important neurotransmitters that, when disrupted, can cause feelings of anxiety and depression.
• Temperament factors: A child whose temperament is timid or shy or who avoids anything dangerous may be more prone to generalized anxiety disorder than others are.
• Environmental factors: A traumatic experience (such as a divorce, illness, or death in the family, or major events outside of the family) may also trigger the onset of an anxiety disorder.
• In addition, anxiety may be learned from family members and others who are noticeably stressed or anxious around a child. I.e. children whom’s parents display perfectionist tendencies may become a perfectionist, too.

References

1. https://www.childrenshospital.org/conditions

@drschwank

@optimalperformancezurich

@unesurcent

Separation anxiety disorder

What is separation anxiety disorder?

• difficulty being away from parents or other loved ones.
• excessive worry about harm to loved ones.
• excessive worry about danger to self.
• difficulty leaving the house, even to go to school.
• difficulty sleeping.
• feeling physically ill when away from loved ones.

 

Treatment for separation anxiety disorder usually includes therapy, medication, or a combination of both. Therapists can help parents to understand how their behavior may increase their child’s anxiety (for example, allowing their child to skip school). It is very important to seek out medical advice if you are concerned that your child has separation anxiety disorder, because if left untreated, anxieties can grow bigger.

 

Who is affected by separation anxiety disorder?

About 4 percent of younger children have SAD, while the estimate for adolescents is slightly lower. Girls are affected more often than boys.

 

How common are anxiety disorders?

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental, emotional, and behavioral problems affecting children and adolescents. About 13 out of every 100 children ages 9 to 17 years old experience some kind of anxiety disorder, such as separation anxiety disorder. Approximately 4 percent of children suffer from separation anxiety disorder (1).

 

What causes separation anxiety disorder?

Nearly all children experience brief feelings of anxiety about being away from a parent and display clingy behavior. Typically these normal bouts occur when a child is between 18 months and 3 years old, although older children can have passing feelings of separation anxiety during times of stress. The difference between these normal feelings of anxiety and a disorder like SAD is that a child with separation anxiety disorder will experience an extended and extensive period of fear and distress about being apart from familiar people and places and the degree of anxiety or fear is notably out of proportion to the reality of the situation. Anxiety disorders like SAD are linked to biological, family and environmental factors.

@drschwank

@unesurcent

@optimalperformancezurich

Overprotective parenting

Early exposure to overprotected parenting, sending signals that the world is a dangerous pace. When a child falls and the parents respond anxiously, the child will pick up on it and respond accordingly. Hence, not daring to try to run and explore anymore and therewith lacking experience in the future and be even more vulnerable.

 

Once upon a time - because of that! Fairy tales are always up to date. They build bridges and stand metaphorically to understand basic human interaction. 

 

Fairy tales speak the language of the unconscious and thus also connect us to our unconscious self. The story of “Sleeping Beauty” provides a prime example of how fairy tales help us not only to understand crises but also to overcome them.

 

The “sleeping beauty” effect, as it can be called. Out of concern, parents don’t expose their children to challenges, remove all obstacles out of their way to make life easier for their children, which in itself leads to unexperienced, unskilled children. These children are unequipped for the real life and unexperienced handling challenging situations. Encountering such “sleeping beauty”children, one can observe their inadequate response to challenges.

 

As parents and caregivers; it is important to be aware of our actions and reactions when engaging with a child. How we respond to a child will impact the child’s response to the situation at hand. Caregivers are a sounding board of a child’s development of his internal world. 

A famous concept of these unconscious processes, is the concept defined by S. Freiberg “the Ghost in the Nursery”. It describes the intergenerational transmission of early childhood experiences. S. Freiberg described there with the imprint of care experienced in the previous generations. The way children are raised will impact their own parenting style.

Besides ghosts, there are also protective intergenerational transmitted processes: “Angels in the Nursery”. These angles refer to states of mind when the person evokes memories of feeling especially loved, understood, or protected.

 

@drschwank

@optimalperformancezurich

@unesurcent

Sources of anxiety

We have all had a moment of anxiety in our lives, yet living with it on a regular, even daily basis is a different story. In this podcast series, I’ll discuss different types of anxiety, analyze the origin of anxiety in different life stages, and concepts to apply to reduce peaks in anxiety.

 

What types of anxiety are there?

 

The International Classification of Disease (ICD) and the American DSM-V have a classification of disorders:

• Generalized anxiety (GAD)
• Panic disorder
• Specific phobia
• Social anxiety disorder
• Separation anxiety disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

 

What are potential sources and causes o one might ask?

• Exposure to trauma
• Adverse childhood experiences
• Passing on experiences of worry from one generation to the next (intergenerational transmission)

 

• Genetic predisposition

 

@drschwank

@optimalperformancezurich

@unesurcent

Women’s hormonal balance

Today’s conversation, live from Hong Kong with Katia, Nutritional Therapist, NLP coach, and the founder of Omni Vitality.

In this podcast you'll gain insights in the mechanisms of lifestyle, stress, sleep, nutrition on women’s hormonal balance. We discussed how women can regain control of their bodies and emotions.

@drschwank

@omni.vitality

@optimalperformancezurich

@unesurcent

Mommy recovery plan

To all women in the world. Let’s stick together and be open to share your most valuable moments! Sometimes more than other times. The more we connect with other, likeminded women, the stronger we become. We’re not alone in this! The more we try to be the best in everything, optimising our lives, the less quality work and precious family / couples, but also less quality me-time we get. Such a vicious cycle, which we if ever only realise when it gets too bad and overboard. What a pity!! We all know better, yet societal, family pressure, and expectations weigh heavy on our shoulders. We need to break free, in order to understand the dynamics, how destructive we’ve been to our self and as a result dragged along our surroundings.

 

How do we get out of this cycle?

 

• Get aware and face yourself in the mirror. It’s a crazy vulnerable place!
• Get support that helps you hold yourself accountable to change.
• Implement small changes in your daily life —> new routines ☀️
• Get the right nutritious food into your body💛
• Start with a small daily mommy care routine. 15 min yoga is enough 🧘💛
• Book a guilt free mommy hide away 🌴

 

@drschwank

@unesurcent

@optimalperformance

@omni.vitality

Mommy guilt

Mommy guilt is real! As much as I wish my resources were infinite, they really aren’t and I have to admit, I’ve crumbled. Rushing to pick up my son, straight from work, taking care of my husband, all our Swiss family admin, my research, my clinic, my female empowerment club, just not myself. Lesser sleep quality and daycare germs didn’t help my immune system, so getting sick, something as foreign to me as it could be. That didn’t help my energy equilibrium either.

Now everyone is having a rough time, since happy mommy is happy family.  Taking charge again for myself and reducing the mommy guilt moments!

• Taking time after work for myself
• Do 15min yoga before dinner
• Take a 5 min facial care daily
• Book a massage
• Meet a friend for coffee
• Organise help to go on couples night out!! Essential too!!
• Go on a solo AND guilt free trip
• A walk in nature
• A yoga class

 

@drschwank

@unesurcent

@optimalperformance

@omni.vitality

Perimenopause

Introducing a new and for more than 50% of the global population a lifetime incidence being affected by. Natural menopause does not occur suddenly. A period called perimenopause usually begins a few years before the last menstrual cycle. There are two stages in the transition.

 

Perimenopausal Symptoms

During perimenopause, women may have various symptoms. Symptoms differ among women and may range from mild to severe. Hot flashes, an intense sudden build-up of body heat, are the most common symptom. Some women have no symptoms.

 

Symptoms

Mood changes. Mood changes and irritability are usually due to a combination of sleeplessness and hormonal swings. Some women find the menopausal transition to be psychologically stressful; some develop clinical depression. Women may be more at risk if they have experienced severe PMS mood swings or have a history of clinical depression. Perimenopausal depression usually goes away within a few years after menopause. In general, depression is less common during the postmenopausal years than in the premenopausal ones.

 

Treatment

Menopause is a natural condition. It is not a disease that needs medical treatment. However, some women seek treatment for the relief of perimenopausal symptoms.

 

@drschwank

@unesurcent

@optimalperformancezurich

 

References

https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/report/menopause#:~:text=Early%20Stage.,be%20sudden%20surges%20in%20estrogen.

Lifestyle factors and endometriosis

Many aspects play a role in our body-mind health balance and may contribute to the trajectory of medical conditions. Women’s health issues frequently, remain undetected or mistakenly diagnosed. One of these issues, which affects an estimated of 10% women globally, endometriosis. It has enormous implications on the quality of a woman's life. This severe inflammatory condition occurs  globally in 190 million women of reproductive age (1). Endometriosis can cause constant and intense pelvic pain, especially during periods, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and infertility. Endometriosis is the cause of 70% of all chronic pelvic pain cases in women in the United States (2). The cost of illness burden is significant in women with chronic pelvic pain, particularly the productivity costs (3). They are the greatest contributor to overall costs. Given pain is the most significant contributor, priority should be given to improving pain control in women with pelvic pain (4).

 

• It is a chronic disease associated with severe, life-impacting pain during periods, sexual intercourse, bowel movements and/or urination, chronic pelvic pain, abdominal bloating, nausea, fatigue, and sometimes depression, anxiety, and infertility.
• There is currently no known cure for endometriosis and treatment is usually aimed at controlling symptoms.
• Access to early diagnosis and effective treatment of endometriosis is important, but is limited in many settings, including in low- and middle-income countries (5).

Treatment

Treatments to manage endometriosis can vary based on the severity of symptoms and whether pregnancy is desired. No treatments cure the disease.

A range of medications can help manage endometriosis and its symptoms.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and analgesics (painkillers) like ibuprofen and naproxen are often used to treat pain.

Hormonal medicines like GnRH-analogues and contraceptive (birth control) methods can also help control pain.

These methods include:

• pills
• hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs)
• vaginal rings
• implants
• injections
• patches

References

 

 

References

1. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-03-14-global-study-shows-experience-endometriosis-rooted-genetics#:~:text=Endometriosis%20has%20enormous%20implications%20on,depression%2C%20anxiety%2C%20and%20infertility.
2. Payne JA. Acupuncture for Endometriosis: A Case Study. Med Acupunct. 2019 Dec 1;31(6):392-394. doi: 10.1089/acu.2019.1379. Epub 2019 Dec 13. PMID: 31871528; PMCID: PMC6918512.
3. Armour M, Lawson K, Wood A, Smith CA, Abbott J. The cost of illness and economic burden of endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain in Australia: A national online survey. PLoS One. 2019 Oct 10;14(10):e0223316. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223316. PMID: 31600241; PMCID: PMC6786587.
4. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/endometriosis
5. https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/endometriosis-facts-and-figures

@drschwank

@unesurcent

@optimalperformancezurich