# Claire Weeks, "Hope For Your Nerves" 1A read.



## andymania (Mar 19, 2005)

Wow 1A, this book is awesome. It has stuff in it that exactly represents me. I am going to keep practicing this stuff. The big question for me now is: If I happen to have one more of these "breakdowns" in my life, will I be able to handle much better than the previous one and will the mind wrecking thoughts on reality, existence, etc be more be more mitigated?

I hope so.

I recommend this book to everyone.

-Andy


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## freesong (Dec 26, 2005)

Since I definitely had a nervous breakdown, this is interesting to me as well. I will read this particular book. Thanks for sharing!!


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## Matt210 (Aug 15, 2004)

Just a question - does this book actually have anything in it on DP/DR? I know it's more anxiety based. The Peter Levine books mention specifically the dissociation and memory problems I feel which I find helpful.

I'm not looking for a book specifically about these things - but if it is just on anxiety I am not sure how helpful that would be to me. I feel like i've read everything there is to read about anxiety and done every exercise related to anxiety there is to do.


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## 1A (Aug 12, 2004)

Yes, the Claire Weekes book does, indeed, have several sections on DP/DR. Keep in mind that the book was first published in 1969 and, as such, the terminology is, in some cases, different than the verbiage we use in 2006.

I know that Claire, in some cases, refers to DP as "brainfag." I had never heard of that word until the late 90s.

I am surprised not everyone here has read that book. My goodness. Don't walk, RUN, to your library or nearest bookstore. It is essential reading for those with anxiety/panic/DP or anyone interested in these subjects.

In fact, it is probably the most important book ever written on anxiety.


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## 1A (Aug 12, 2004)

Claire Weekes believed that in order to overcome an anxiety disorder for good, you have to actually experience some very wicked and painful and debilitating anxiety, without recoiling or resisting it.

Before I started feeling better, I had to accept lots of pretty awful physical symptoms. It took a while to just accept them, without backing down.

These physical symptoms are so far removed from what anyone would consider normal human experience, that it's no wonder we fight them from happening.

The problem with fighting, however, is that these sensations then remain frozen or locked in the body. When we let the symptoms flash onto us, without trying to fight them, only then can they (the symptoms) climax and eventually lose their grip on us.

If anything, getting better involves feeling worse.... a lot worse, at first. For me, it's an incredibly powerful nervous energy in my chest. I had this nervous energy constantly for 11 years, locked in my chest. Any time I made any movement whatsoever, the sensation would increase and become maddening.

This nervous energy still surfaces today, but it has been steadily getting better since late last year. Instead of trying to fight it, I actually will look for opportunities to bring it to the surface. Once to the surface, it persists very strongly for 1-2 hours, before climaxing and disappearing.

The goal, I think, is something like this:

Symptoms Appear > Symptoms Climax > Symptom Reduction > Symptoms Appear > Symptoms Climax > Symptom Reduction > Symptoms Appear > Symptoms Climax > Symptom Reduction > Symptoms Appear > Symptoms Climax > Symptom Reduction > Symptoms Appear > Symptoms Climax > Symptom Reduction >

Following each climax, the symptoms may return, but do so with less and less power, AFTER the most powerful climax occurs. That first climax has to appear and wash over you, without you resisting it. Once you experience the worst your body can shock you with then -- and only then -- you're over the hump.

Eventually the huge red letters become a tiny red dot. .


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## Dreamland (Jun 1, 2005)

brainfag or brainfog?


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## 1A (Aug 12, 2004)

Dreamland said:


> brainfag or brainfog?


Actually, it's brainfag. I can't find the word in Webster's, though. It seems that there is some dispute as to what she truly meant with that word, as well. I thought it had to do with DP, but others are saying it means being overexhausted.


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## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

brainfag she describes as a tired mind


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2006)

I have read the book, and it was somewhat helpful. The concept sounds really nice on paper, but i have to say it just doesnt work for me. I suppose it works for people with some of the physical symptoms, but i never really had any.

Point being, I can try and relax and accept my symptoms, "float" past them, and it does nothing for me. I have a kind of ongoing anxiety that never goes away.

I think mine is somewhat different though. I have a lot of interpersonal psychological conflicts that are causing my hell. Plus, Im just in a hole, a big dark hole.

Eros


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## 1A (Aug 12, 2004)

Eros said:


> I have read the book, and it was somewhat helpful. The concept sounds really nice on paper, but i have to say it just doesnt work for me. I suppose it works for people with some of the physical symptoms, but i never really had any.
> 
> Point being, I can try and relax and accept my symptoms, "float" past them, and it does nothing for me. I have a kind of ongoing anxiety that never goes away.
> 
> ...


Where do you feel your anxiety, though? Usually it manifests in your chest or head. Once you identify the location, you have something to work with.


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## nemesis (Aug 10, 2004)

> Claire Weeks believed that in order to overcome an anxiety disorder for good, you have to actually experience some very wicked and painful and debilitating anxiety, without recoiling or resisting it.


This is a really interesting quote in light of some new research that centered around the formation and destruction of memories. An element of the study touched on how we may actually be able to 'undo' or forget old memories that we did not want.

The basic concept is that memories, being a network of synapses between neurons, have the ability to adjust their potential during activation. A strong memory will exhibit a high degree of bonding by means of a low potential between the synaptic cleft, requiring only a low level input for the network to be activation and thus the memory to be recalled. A weak memory will have poor boding between synapses because they need a stronger input in order for the link to activate.

We constantly form new networks (learning) by bridging new synaptic links between neurons, and we are continuously adjusting (normally increasing) the potential between the synaptic links whenever we activate that network by means of remembering. In this way the network and thus the memory will become strengthen each time we recall it. The network can be strengthen further still if we exhibit a high emotional response during the act of recalling. An example of this may be someone firing a gun while you were looking at a familiar face in a magazine. From that point forward, that persons face may be related with a degree of anxiety caused by the gunshot.

What is truly interesting about what Claire Weeks wrote some 40 years ago, is that we have only just discovered that we have the opportunity to weaken these synaptic potentials in the same way that we are able to strengthen them during activation of a memory. For those like myself whome are anxious, some feelings and thus the neural networks which form those feelings are very strong and take little input in order to be activated.

What Weeks proposed, and what science now backs up is the fact that we have the ability to weaken these potentials simply by responding to the memory in a different way. By choosing not to react with a high degree of emotional lability when the anxiety state is activated, we actually weaken the very network that was causing the anxiety. We actually unlearn the anxious response.

More information can be found in the article Erasing Memories, Scientific American Mind, December 2005


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## 1A (Aug 12, 2004)

nemesis said:


> "We actually unlearn the anxious response."


But is this a good thing? The reason I question whether it's "good" is because can't unlearning the anxious response perhaps compromise your ability to protect yourself in a truly life-threatening situation?


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## nemesis (Aug 10, 2004)

> The reason I question whether it's "good" is because can't unlearning the anxious response perhaps compromise your ability to protect yourself in a truly life-threatening situation?


Im not so sure you can completely remove anxiety. A high stress response is probably quite useful if youre preparing to run when you hear the roar of a lion behind you. Many of the 'life saving' anxious responses which are critical for survival are probably innate; 7th generation lab mice will always freak out if they catch the scent of a cat regardless of whether theyve actually experienced a cat before. So there are some responses that we're born with which are hard to supress.

Also, the anxious response for a given stimulus is unique to that stimulus. By reducing your anxious response to say, the fear of being in a public place, you will no less reduce the response that comes from the sound of a truck's air horn as youre crossing the road. So fear not (heh).

On that note, Im off to try and freak myself out..


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## Guest (Apr 11, 2006)

I feel my anxiety in my chest. Most times it feels like a tightness, and like i cant breathe, but lately I have a sickening fluttering feeling, like my stomach is doing loops.

All of this is maddening. I wish i could stop coming to this site, stop obsessing. Its like I am caught in some strange world where all I can think about are my symptoms, and its scary and its dark and its hellish.

Perceptions blur, identity fades and becomes confused. My mind is like one giant ping ping pong machine. CHaotic thoughts bouncing back and forth off the walls of my mind. I feel myself dis integrate, emotions and identity confused. Thoughts become confused, I cant sleep, I am a zombie. I feel like I am truly in hell.


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## nemesis (Aug 10, 2004)

We *really* need to stop self monitoring. I'm not sure if this is true for the rest of you, but I can function much better whenever I attempt to just _operate_ without the checks and flags that come with this self obsessive monitoring.


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## 1A (Aug 12, 2004)

Eros said:


> I feel my anxiety in my chest. Most times it feels like a tightness, and like i cant breathe, but lately I have a sickening fluttering feeling, like my stomach is doing loops.


This is why I know you can feel better. When my anxiety is at its worst, it's in my chest.

You may not know it now, but Claire Weekes and Peter Levine are your answers.

I am confident enough to say this, and some day you will actually post that their literature cured you.

Your case sounds incredibly similar to mine, and I went around thinking I had a chemical imbalance, on and off, as well. I don't think that any more, because I got better, and keep getting better.

I wish we lived closer because I would get together with you and probably start talking about stuff that may not come to mind on this board.

Jeff


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## freesong (Dec 26, 2005)

But could you have gotten better physically? I am not sure where I stand on this except to say that we are very intricately made with all very close, spirit, soul and body. It seems that if one part gets off or a series of parts get off then it is like a mobil (like over a crib) that teeters and goes awry. Could we think ourselves into this or emotionally place ourselves here? Why would we? I can''t imagine being able to do that but the mind is a very powerful thing. This is the question!!!! I will try the books but am getting better with sleep for me!!


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## nemesis (Aug 10, 2004)

I hear you on the sleep issue. For me, sleep is like the foundation of house. Good sleeping patterns will not cure you of anxiety / DP, but it gives you a stable base to work off when youre applying the right healing techniques.


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## Inflammed (Aug 10, 2004)

Sleep ?

I havent had more than 3 hours of sleep per night the last 4 months due to depression and I've never had Derealisation and overall feeling like dying like this.
It's almost full blown all the time.
I used to have DR only when tired...imagine !

Sleep is as essential as food and love


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