WHAT TO EXPECT

For years, for years and years, I was plagued by anxiety, by panic, by all the inevitable and invariable elements that often accompany such issues. Self medication -my preferred selection beer or/and wine-, inability to function in a manner that might be considered compatible with a functioning existence, an increasingly hermetic lifestyle, all the usual suspects pronouncing their presence in a most unambiguous manner. Therapy, years of therapy, group, one to one, hypnosis (more about that later), self help manuals, diets, exercise (more about that too), tranquillisers, pretty much everything available or on offer. I even qualified as a counsellor in the process. It didn't work, none of it worked. There might have been moments of tranquillity, the odd bout of lucidity and full functionality, but nothing permanent, nothing that genuinely convinced me in thought or action that I had found the road to recovery.  Not until I discovered and experimented and immersed myself in a different approach. Therapy is all well and good, it is useful to understand the causes, perhaps, but knowledge without application is just that. There was never a way to apply the knowledge, no formula, no tools, no blueprint for building the road that really could lead to recovery. CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) does try to provide some tangible steps, but it is like applying a plaster to an amputated limb. It isn't going to work or endure. After all, its fundamental system is applying a conscious rational against an entrenched, automative response. Or more basically explained, using a toothpick to dig a hole. A big hole.  A really, really BIG hole. My approach is practical, scientific, an amalgamation of disciplines but most importantly with steps, logical steps that can be implemented and monitored in terms of progress. If you have been using the same techniques, the same methods, the same approaches to rid yourself of whatever it is that ails you, if you have been doing all this but nothing has worked, then consider me. I am willing to help.