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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ003115S
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00:25 Stress and anxiety affect almost every one of us at some point in 00:29 our lives often keeping us awake at night with tense muscles and 00:34 a racing mind. A recent study shows that even our fur friends, 00:41 dogs can be kept awake at night after stressful experiences. 00:45 Anxiety. It's that inner voice that questions everything you 00:50 do, that makes your mind race uncontrollably causing you to 00:54 feel extremely nervous, restless and agitated. But that doesn't 01:01 have to be you because there is a way to deal with anxiety. Our 01:05 special guest today is going to share some simple but effective 01:09 steps to alleviating anxiety. 01:14 ♪ ♪ 01:33 According to large population based surveys up to 33% or one 01:38 in three people are affected by an anxiety disorder at some 01:42 point during their lifetime. However, a large percentage of 01:46 people affected never reach out for help or seek any treatment 01:51 perhaps because of the stigma attached to mental health issues 01:57 Prince Harry, on his recent visit to Australia opened up 02:00 about his own struggles with anxiety and depression that he 02:04 suffered for many years after losing his mother in a tragic 02:08 car accident when he was 12. This is what he said at a recent 02:11 press conference: 02:20 Seeking professional advice can certainly be helpful and today 02:25 we're going to meet a doctor who has created a lifestyle program 02:29 for anxiety that is changing lives around the world. 02:33 Dr. Neil Nedley is a practicing physician with an emphasis on 02:38 mental health and lifestyle medicine. He's the president of 02:41 Weimar Health Institute near Sacramento, California which 02:46 runs highly effective recovery programs. However, Dr. Nedley 02:51 is perhaps best known as the founder of the Depression and 02:55 Anxiety Recovery Program which empowers people all over the 02:59 world to recover fully from depression and anxiety and 03:03 experience a fulfilling life. Dr. Nedley thank you for joining 03:07 us on our program today. Can you begin by helping us 03:11 understand anxiety? In what way is anxiety different to stress? 03:17 You know, it's a great question and I'm so glad to be on your 03:22 program Gary, again. But yes anxiety is of course fear and 03:26 excessive worry and feeling on edge and all of us can have 03:31 those feelings once in a while. But when it starts impacting our 03:36 family life or our productivity or our work life, that's when it 03:41 becomes excessive and that's when it actually is a disorder. 03:44 It's a diagnosable mental illness. There's generalized 03:50 anxiety disorders. A lot of people think about that they 03:53 think about anxiety but panic disorder is also a type of 03:57 anxiety. Post-traumatic stress disorder. There can be phobias. 04:02 There can be obsessive compulsive disorder, social 04:08 anxiety. These are all forms of anxiety. For instance panic 04:13 disorder actually comes about suddenly and unexpectedly, this 04:20 overwhelming fear associated with physical symptoms. So you 04:25 might have crushing chest pain where you think you're having a 04:28 heart attack. You might have shortness of breath where you 04:31 just feel like you're being asphyxiated. You might have 04:35 dizziness, you might have severe headache, you might 04:37 have abdominal pain. There are 17 different physical symptoms 04:42 that can result from panic disorder and most of the time 04:47 these people feel that they are having physical issues and so 04:51 they go to the emergency room and they get checked out and the 04:54 doctor says there's nothing wrong with you. You're actually 04:57 experiencing a panic disorder or a panic attack. Those are fairly 05:03 common as far as anxiety goes. Past-traumatic stress disorder 05:07 is when you have had a very traumatic event happen to you 05:12 that just continues to come back with intrusive thoughts. It's 05:18 part of your memory. It might be like, you know, a trigger 05:21 where the movie replays, the whole traumatic event replays 05:26 with the sights and the smells and the sounds. And it can be 05:30 very crippling and disabling. Then there are phobias. There 05:35 might be a simple phobia of spiders, it might be a phobias 05:41 of buttons. More common phobias might be a fear of driving or 05:46 maybe a fear of flying. These are phobias that are irrational 05:52 but yet accompanied with those anxiety symptoms. Then with 05:57 obsessive compulsive disorder this is when you have obtrusive 06:02 thoughts that come in and then it's normally accompanied with 06:07 compulsions of having to do something. So it might be a 06:11 result of being fearful of germs and having to just wash your 06:14 hands and arms excessively or having everything be clean. 06:18 It is important for things to be clean but they put out of 06:21 proportion how important it is and everything else gets to less 06:26 importance than just cleanliness and that's when we get obsessive 06:30 compulsive disorder. There can be other obsessions and 06:33 compulsions as well. And then a very common one actually 06:36 dramatically increasing in our society is social anxiety. 06:40 It might be a particular social anxiety like a fear of public 06:46 speaking, but it could be a fear of even being in informal 06:50 settings. It could be a fear of eating in front of others. 06:53 Normally it's accompanied by a fear that you're going to do 06:56 something wrong and you're going to be judged by others as 07:00 a result of doing something wrong in social situations. 07:04 Social anxiety actually is becoming very common place 07:07 in our society today. 07:09 So what triggers anxiety? 07:11 You know, there's multiple factors coming together. What a 07:15 lot of people don't realize is it's not just one thing 07:18 necessarily that triggers it. Usually it's biochemical changes 07:23 that have taken place in the brain accompanied by some 07:27 irrational patterns of thinking. And what can set off those 07:31 irrational patterns of thinking are stressful situations or 07:35 prolonged stress. So if the person has the biochemical 07:40 makeup it might be a biochemical makeup because of genetics, it 07:43 might be due to even what they're eating. It could be due 07:46 to other lifestyle factors that are changing the biochemistry 07:50 and setting them up for anxiety and then when they have the 07:54 irrational thoughts that go with it, that's when it can tip over 07:57 the edge and you actually have an anxiety disease process. 08:03 Depression does play a role in regards to the anxiety. About 08:08 80% of the cases that I see that are severe in a residential 08:13 program are also accompanied by depression. And in an 08:17 outpatient setting at least half of anxiety patients also have 08:24 depression. What is interesting though and what a lot of 08:25 of people don't realize is that anxiety is known to be more 08:31 difficult to treat than depression. We think depression 08:33 is kind of the worst thing. No. The anxiety disorder is actually 08:38 known to be more difficult to treat. It takes double or triple 08:41 the doses of medicines. There are more side effects. It takes 08:45 longer often to recover. But actually if it's treated in the 08:49 right way, we can get the same dramatic improvement. In fact, 08:54 eradication of both depression and anxiety at the same rates 08:58 when we're taking care of the underlying issues bringing it 09:02 about. If we go the traditional route with just medicines, it's 09:06 very discouraging because these medicines not only don't work 09:10 that well, the ones that do work can be addictive and they can 09:15 actually set you up for even more anxiety because of the 09:18 addiction component. And that's why it's very good to address 09:21 this comprehensively and not just medicating it. 09:24 Dr. Nedley can you tell us more about the steps that are 09:28 included in the depression and anxiety recovery program that 09:32 has changed people's lives so much. 09:35 Yes. This comprehensive process involves a biochemical analysis 09:40 of what is happening in the brain and I'll just tell you, 09:43 most of the time the way anxiety is treated the doctor is 09:49 making assumptions about the biochemistry but not actually 09:53 measuring it and so they'll say try this, try that. And then the 09:58 patient comes back and says that made me worse. Or, you know, it 10:02 did help, but only a little bit. I actually don't want to play 10:06 that game. It's too long and anxiety is something that we 10:10 need to irradiate. So I actually, measure the 10:14 biochemistry and then there's personality traits that will go 10:18 along with that to give us confirmation. So once we know 10:22 the biochemistry, then we do an analysis on their thinking. 10:26 There are 10 different ways that anxiety patients can get into 10:31 distorted thoughts. There's over 100 causes of depression but 10:36 they can be categorized into 10 different categories. So these 10:41 are categories of causes and as I mentioned it's more than just 10:46 one category or one cause going on. When we do our workups we 10:50 find that the brain's pretty resilient. It can undergo one or 10:54 two or three of these pretty well but once the fourth hit 10:57 occurs, that's when anxiety or depression or another mental 11:01 illness is going to come about. So when our patients come in we 11:05 actually do an assessment, an assessment test, to see which 11:09 categories are operative. Those 10 categories of causes are 11:14 genetic causes, developmental causes. This has to do with 11:18 maybe being in a dysfunctional home or having severe stress and 11:22 maybe being abused growing up. Lifestyle causes which has to do 11:27 with not getting enough exercise or light or fresh air. Circadian 11:32 rhythm causes; this is our sleep wake cycles and our body rhythms 11:36 Often we're on schedules today with electronics, work schedules 11:39 where we're not on regular schedules as far as regular 11:43 eating and sleeping and that adversely affects the brain. 11:45 Then there's addiction causes. Addiction causes are at an all 11:49 time high. Nutrition causes. Toxic causes like mercury or 11:55 lead or excess copper or something along that line. 11:58 Social causes or stress or loss could fall into this category 12:06 where we have experienced a very stressful or very severe loss in 12:11 our life that we're not able to cope with very well. Then there 12:15 are medical causes like thyroid conditions or autoimmune 12:19 conditions. Head trauma; a blow to the head where you've been 12:22 knocked out. That can cause inflammation of the brain. 12:24 That's a medical cause. Then the 10th cause is 12:29 frontal lobe causes. 12:30 This is the area of our brain that's the analytical portion of 12:36 our brain but it's also where the spiritual part of our brain 12:39 is at. And that's where our overall meaning and purpose is. 12:43 And we will see many patients with anxiety, depression in 12:47 particularly that area of the brain. Fortunately all of those 12:51 categories can be reversed to some extent, even the genetics. 12:55 The genetics, of course, are going to stay the same but we 12:59 deactivate the active genes through these other categories. 13:03 So we can actually get the developmental and genetic causes 13:08 under control by getting these other eight categories under 13:12 control. So we work on the eight that we can do something about 13:16 and it actually helps the other two if they're present. 13:18 So in regards to the biochemical process what are some of the 13:22 things that we can do to actually help that process? 13:25 This is where nutrition comes in People with anxiety tend to have 13:31 low serotonin levels. That's one of the reasons why they tend not 13:35 to sleep very well associated with this and they're not able 13:40 to handle the common stressors around them very well. So we're 13:45 doing things to boost their serotonin level like pumpkin 13:48 seeds and tofu and gluten. That's one of the advantages if 13:55 you don't have gluten sensitivity of whole wheat. This 13:58 is one of the problems of a gluten free diet. If you don't 14:01 need to be on a gluten free diet Yes you can get tryptophan in 14:04 other foods but wheat is one of the good foods to get that in. 14:07 Then we utilize light therapy. Light through eyes actually 14:13 helps the brain to make serotonin. And then we'll 14:16 actually look at other chemicals Often their dopamine levels are 14:20 low and their norepinephrine levels are high and the 14:24 norepinephrine fuels this stress and fuels this anxiety. So we 14:29 we will do things to get that under control. If that's the 14:31 case, we see that their metals are not handled correctly. 14:36 Sometimes it's due to excess free copper and we have to give 14:38 them zinc and zinc can actually help to balance this situation 14:43 out in the right doses. Exercise is crucial for all anxiety 14:48 patients. Physical exercise actually works better on your 14:54 brain than it does your body. A lot of people think exercise 14:57 is just for body fitness. No it actually is more for your brain 15:02 than it is for your body and so we get our anxiety patients 15:05 starting to work on getting very fit physically. Then, we might 15:11 actually do, if they come to our residential program, some 15:14 contrast hydrotherapy. This helps the circulation of their 15:17 brain, helps to actually wash out the toxins. And after 15:22 several days of that, we're now ready to start working on the 15:25 thoughts. Then when we get to the thought issues along with 15:29 the improvement in biochemistry that's when we can see a 15:32 dramatic turnaround in as little as 10 days. It's amazing how 15:37 these symptoms that they've been putting up with for years are 15:41 just gone and they didn't think it was ever, they were ever able 15:45 to return to feeling normal again and feeling peaceful, but 15:50 it happens when we correct the underlying causes. 15:53 So Dr. Nedley I understand that you've been treating people with 15:56 anxiety for quite some time now with remarkable results. Can you 16:01 you tell us a little about that? 16:03 We've had thousands recover as a result of this program and 16:08 many examples. You know, I can just draw from the last caseload 16:14 that we just finished in doing a program at Weimar Institute 16:18 where we do our residential programs. But this was actually 16:21 a lady from Australia that had severe obsessive compulsive 16:26 disorder. Her arms and hands the flesh was just gone. She 16:30 was actually taking a scrub brush and just incessantly 16:34 trying to keep things clean. She was actually working as an 16:39 executive secretary for a corporation and it was just 16:42 destroying her life. She couldn't even go to work anymore 16:47 for this obsession that she continued to have to repeat. 16:51 And she thought she was beyond help. She had gotten all of the 16:53 medicines treated for it. She had been to all the 16:56 psychotherapy techniques and she heard about the program and came 17:02 She told us just like many that nothing's going to work for me 17:06 I've been through it all, but this is my last hope. And when 17:11 we went through that systematic approach with her it was amazing 17:17 In 10 days she no longer had those thoughts coming in and of 17:23 course she was a little fearful going back to a reentry to her 17:26 environment but with the biochemical changes as well as 17:29 being tooled up in regards to now thinking rational and 17:34 majoring in majors now instead of majoring in minors. This is 17:38 where you know people with obsessive compulsive disorder 17:41 they major in minors and they minor in majors. So she got that 17:45 all sifted out and she has done wonderfully well. She is back 17:50 to work and she has full success in fact she's trying to become 17:56 an executive secretary over here now because she'd love to be 18:00 acquainted and helping some of the other people that have the 18:03 anxiety level that she had. We also had in the same program 18:07 an individual who could not go to work anymore. He had to you 18:13 know resign from work, became unemployed. Just driving caused 18:18 him severe stress. And he would try to get out in his car and he 18:24 couldn't even move his car past the driveway because of this 18:27 severe anxiety. He'd have to go back into his house and even 18:31 tell his wife he wasn't going to work. He knew how upset she 18:35 would be but then she came home and found-What are you doing? 18:38 Well, I had to miss work. My anxiety level is so high. 18:42 He came to our program and had that same level of success and 18:48 he's back to work. He's back to being productive. His anxiety is 18:53 gone and they had tried him on Ativan, lorazepam, Zanax, all 18:58 of these types of things. We had to actually withdraw him from 19:02 that to help his frontal lobe but then we found the 19:04 biochemical issues as well as him being stuck in his 19:08 irrational thoughts and he was transformed as well. Those were 19:11 just two very severe cases, just from our last program. It's 19:17 actually great. If our patients would allow your film crew in 19:23 there they tell the stories a lot better than I do. But it's 19:29 exciting to be involved in this line of work. 19:31 What are your other secrets to recovery? 19:33 Other secrets of recovery center in enhancing the frontal lobe, 19:38 some techniques that can really help our circulation up here. 19:42 You know, for instance relaxing and melodic classical music has 19:47 been shown to enhance the frontal lobe. Actually 19:51 developing a meditative prayer experience where you combine the 19:57 spiritual with the meditation and reflection aspect of things 20:01 can help the frontal lobe. Then actually reading of certain 20:06 books where we're illustrating principles of irrational thought 20:10 along with case reports on how this worked actually can 20:16 actually improve our frontal circulation and those principles 20:21 get into good analytical subsets and then people can 20:24 start practicing that and their frontal lobe will actually get 20:28 better. 20:30 I understand that you've created an eight week depression 20:34 and anxiety lifestyle recovery program that can coach people 20:37 who would like support to implement these principles and 20:41 help them recover from anxiety. Can you tell us more about that? 20:44 Yes we have developed an eight week program for both depression 20:49 and anxiety recovery. This takes the participant through step by 20:55 step this process that I have elucidated. It starts out of an 21:00 assessment of those 100 causes and which categories are 21:04 operative. It actually starts out with an assessment to see 21:07 what type of anxiety they might have, how severe it might be 21:11 and then they are given suggestions and recommendations 21:16 through even health coaching on what they can do differently 21:20 as far as what they're putting into their body and what 21:22 they're doing with their body as well as how they're utilizing 21:25 their brain to produce the 21:28 significant results that we know will happen when we get rid of 21:33 the underlying causes of anxiety. There is hope for 21:37 people suffering from depression and anxiety. Every case of 21:42 depression and anxiety actually can be reversed and can be 21:50 eradicated if the person has a desire to get better and then 21:54 implements the changes that are recommended to transform their 21:59 brain. There may be a very select case extremely rare of 22:03 somebody who has secondary gain for staying in anxiety 22:08 depression. Maybe they're getting attention from their 22:11 spouse or maybe they're getting disability payments or something 22:16 like that, but even those type of people who their families 22:19 think they're getting secondary gain, most of the time, it's not 22:22 that they're wanting to stay that way. They would actually 22:25 prefer to get better. If people really want to get better they 22:28 can get better. There is not a case that can actually not 22:34 improve with depression/anxiety. The nice thing about our brains, 22:37 Gary, is that their malleable. The brain chemistry is 22:42 changeable. Our patterns of thinking can be completely 22:46 changed and gone from irrational to rational. So all of us have 22:50 these wonderful brains that are capable of changing. But when 22:54 you're in depression and anxiety you think there's no way your 22:57 brain can change. You're stuck. You know, these diseases 23:00 actually seem to...you know, you're against a brick wall. 23:02 You're just totally stuck. But, no. Even those brains can 23:07 dramatically improve utilizing the principles that we talked 23:11 about today. 23:13 Dr. Nedley, it's been a pleasure to have you on our program today 23:17 Thank you so much for sharing this vitally important 23:20 information with us. Thank you. 23:22 Gary, it's been great being here. Thank you. 23:25 God wants us to enjoy life to the full. Suffering from stress 23:29 and anxiety are not part of God's plan for you and me. 23:34 He wants us to experience peace in spite of the pain and 23:38 problems we may have in our lives. The Bible has a lot of 23:43 encouraging words and support for us when we are feeling 23:46 anxious and troubled. Here's what Jesus says in Matthew 23:50 chapter 11: 24:12 Yes, God loves us and wants to help us. He invites us to bring 24:16 our burdens and anxiety to him, to share them with him and allow 24:20 him to carry them and take responsibility for them. We are 24:24 not left to struggle alone. God cares. Listen to what the Bible 24:29 says in I Peter chapter 5 and verse 7: 24:38 God wants us to have the assurance that he is with us. 24:42 He doesn't want us to be anxious. He wants us to 24:46 experience the lasting peace, fulfillment and happiness that 24:51 he alone can provide. Notice what the Bible says in 24:56 Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 and 7. 25:17 God invites us to share with him those thing that weigh heavy on 25:21 our hearts and minds. If you would like to experience God's 25:26 peace that passes all understanding, I invite you to 25:30 join me now as we pray. Dear Heavenly Father 25:35 thank you for your love and for the many blessings you give us. 25:39 Thank you for your promise to be with us and for your offer to 25:43 take care of our problems and anxieties. Lord, we want to give 25:48 them all to you. Help us to trust you and give us your 25:53 peace in our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen. 26:00 Dr. Nedley has shared some valuable suggestions today on 26:05 how to alleviate anxiety in our lives. These principles have 26:10 helped thousands of people alleviate stress, depression and 26:14 crippling anxiety. If you are looking for lasting peace and 26:19 would like to better manage stress and anxiety in your life 26:22 then I'd like to recommend a free gift we have for all our 26:26 viewers today. It's a booklet called How to Cope with Anxiety. 26:32 This booklet is our gift to you and is absolutely free. There 26:36 are not costs or obligations whatsoever. So make the most 26:40 of this wonderful opportunity to receive the gift we have for 26:44 you today. Here's the information you need: 26:47 Phone or text us at 0436333555 in Australia or 26:55 0204222042 in New Zealand or visit our website TiJ.tv to 27:04 request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally 27:07 free of charge and with no obligation. Write to us at: 27:24 Don't delay. Call or text us now 27:28 If you've enjoyed today's program on the challenges of 27:33 depression and anxiety be sure to join us again next week when 27:37 we will share another of life's journeys together. Until then 27:42 remember the ultimate destination of life's journey. 27:45 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And God will wipe away 27:49 every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death nor 27:53 sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former 27:57 things have passed away. 27:59 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2020-07-30