The Ultimate Mind Battle

By Karissa Brashear

Choosing happiness is challenging. Some say it's a choice, but the truth is, it's a lifelong endeavor with an endless journey of lessons and self-awareness. This book explores just that: the most common methods of treating depression and anxiety without medications - from mindfulness to cognitive behavioral therapy.

This book is for anyone who just wants relief from the feeling of being at a crossroads in life, or someone who might be struggling with their mental health. You'll also find helpful strategies on how to set goals for your future, as well as ways to reduce negative thoughts and feelings about yourself.

This book contains practical steps on how to build a new life filled with hope, joy, satisfaction, and relief. It offers guidance on how to challenge negative thoughts - the root of depression and anxiety - by practicing new behaviors that are better for our minds, bodies, and spirit.

Readers will learn how to make decisions based on what is best for their overall well-being instead of simply choosing 'the easier path'. When people are depressed or anxious, it's common for them to take on bad habits that might not be healthy in the long run. This book teaches you how to break those bad habits by making better choices that can sustain a more fulfilling life ultimately leading towards happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karissa Brashear
• Release date: Sep 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201639471

Book preview

A word from the author

You're chatting with your crush. Using emojis is your forte, she's laughing and you're having a good time. You're setting up a date for a Friday 3 days away, she's agreeing and you're feeling good.  Again, no problem. You know a decent mom and pop restaurant. It's a few blocks away from your apartment, just in case you'll be walking back together. You're going to be free from work that Friday, she's excited to meet you. What could go wrong?

Come Friday, you're feeling good.  You're in the zone, ready to answer any question she throws at you. You're ready to show her your best, most charismatic self. You feel like Rocky Balboa, not an ounce of anxiety is in the game plan. But what if she doesn't show up? What if she flakes on you?  As time passes, you start to feel awful. You keep checking your phone, just in case she texted you that she's going to be a few minutes late.  You're now catastrophizing.  What if she didn't like you? What if she noticed something weird about you? What if when she meets you, she is too uncomfortable to be with you the entire night?  

Every time your phone vibrates, your heart skips a beat. You're hoping and praying that it's not her, but it is.  You're now in the bottom of a downward spiral; your mind is playing games with you. A few hours ago, you were psyched to be meeting her.  Now, you wish you were in bed.  You're stuck in this anxious loop, terrified that the worst has happened to you.  You're scared of failure, scared of rejection out in public, and most of all, scared of failure inside your mind. Your stomach hits rock bottom.  You're entirely convinced that this is your first and last date with her... and it's over before it even started!

Anxiety is amusing. It will take you through a roller coaster ride that breaks all the rules. Ten minutes ago, you felt like a rich billionaire, and now you're broke.  You could buy anything in the world, but now you can't even buy yourself a piece of chocolate. I know this feeling well. And to be honest, I'm sick of it! Of course, it's normal to feel anxious. But what is not normal, is to let it get the best of me.  We can't avoid anxiety.  We'll have a feeling of anxiousness at least once in our life. The question is, how do we deal with it?

I'm writing this book for four reasons: First, and most importantly, I want you to feel a sense of relief. When I was going through a bad breakup, my anxiety was out of control. My mind was playing games with me on a daily basis. As a result, I became intimately familiar with the spiral that I'm about to detail for you. The more depressed and anxious you feel, the more likely it is your mind is tricking you into feeling this way. Second, I want you to feel what it's like being in your own mental prison, anxiety included. I have this great sense of pride telling my friends that I can help anyone get rid of their anxiety. Third, I want you to know that there is another way out of this mental prison!

Finally, I want you to understand why anxiety is so common. I'm going to drastically oversimplify the link between anxiety and the mind, but please take it as a starting point. You will see why relying on medication or the medical community to solve your anxiety problem is completely ineffective. It's not that you can't buy your way out through the drug store, no. Formal medicine has a lot to offer, the BCG vaccine you got at birth has ensured that Tuberculosis is no longer a threat in many parts of the world. Formal medicine can help you, but it is no silver bullet.

I want to make it clear that I am not saying to avoid medication all together, I'm saying to use it selectively for when necessary. This book is about how anxiety manifests physically and psychologically into your life. It will give you practical tools that will help you get rid of anxiety once and for all. This book will also explain how anxiety works behind the scenes, exposing its roots within the mind.

Why you should read this book

I'm not going to sugar coat it; Anxiety is not easy to deal with. It's mentally, physically and emotionally draining. What's more, there is no 'one size fits all' solution. This book will not provide you with a magic pill; the truth is, the more you understand your anxiety, the more likely you'll be able to deal with it. At the end of this book, there are 'quick fixes' to the most common anxiety inducing situations. That is the closest you'll get to a magic pill.

This book is for you, if you are trapped in the spiral that I described earlier. If you're like me, you aren't looking for quick fixes; instead, your goal is to understand why anxiety comes into play.  My goal is to give you tools that will help you dismantle your anxiety once and for all.  I'm also hoping this will be a tool which can help future generations avoid anxiety altogether!

By reading this book, you will learn how to be your own friend.  You'll understand the stress mechanisms in the mind, and how to go through life with minimal anxiety.  

Psychologists say that anxiety is 'learned' and not 'inherited'.  Did you know that anxiety is a skill that we can learn?  It's just like any other skill.  That means the more we practice and increase our anxiety, the higher it will go in our life.  Comical isn't it? Why would anyone feed a monster that will devour them later?

Table of Contents

A word from the author

Why you should read this book

Introduction

CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM

The evolution of anxiety

Self-preservation and anxiety

What anxiety feels like

What situations make us anxious?

How anxiety affects us

The different types of anxiety disorders

Anxiety causes physical symptoms too

What causes anxiety disorders on a psychological level?

When should you seek help?

Exercise: Get a journal and start noting when you're anxious

CHAPTER 2: PANIC ATTACKS

What are panic attacks?

Why do we get them?

How to know when they're coming

How to handle panic attacks

Facing your fear

Exercise: Write down the sensations you feel when you have panic attacks.

CHAPTER 3: ANXIETY AND MEDICATION

Drug Options for Treating Depression and Anxiety Disorders

SSRI

Tricyclic Antidepressants

The downsides of anxiety medication

Is medication right for you?

Reasons to stop medication use

Why you shouldn't go Cold Turkey from Anxiety Medication

Who Should Discontinue their Medication?

Alternative remedies for anxiety

CBD

Aromatherapy

Acupuncture and massages

Anxiety and Substance Abuse

CHAPTER 4: STRESS AND DEPRESSION

Signs you're depressed

How stress and depression affect anxiety

Stressful situations in everyday life

The stress-anxiety cycle

Stress management

Setting realistic goals and expectations

Managing your time (and money) effectively

Physical self-care

Taking a break

Learning relaxation techniques

Having a social support network

Learning from your mistakes and failures

Exercise: identifying areas that need change

CHAPTER 5: NEGATIVE THOUGHT PATTERNS

What is Cognitive Restructuring?

Changing negative thought patterns into positive ones

When to use cognitive restructuring?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

Identifying negative thought spirals

How to use CBT to beat anxiety

Cognitive biases

Anchoring Bias

Affective forecasting bias

Attentional bias

Mindset shifts that help overcome anxiety

Distorted thinking vs. rational thought

Silencing the Critical inner voice

Emotional flexibility

Tolerance

Exercise: Substituting negative thoughts with positive ones.

CHAPTER 6: OVERCOMING YOUR FEARS

Overcoming fear of the unknown

Face your fears!

Changing your perception of fear and anxiety

Using Humor to diffuse your fears

Exercise: Face your fears!

CHAPTER 7: SLEEP

How anxiety affects sleep

Calming anxiety at night

A healthy sleep cycle

The Circadian Sleep-Wake Cycle

Exercise: Resetting the circadian rhythm

CHAPTER 8: MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION

What is Mindfulness

How do I meditate?

Meditation for anxiety and depression

Balancing the throat chakra to cure anxiety

Different forms of meditation

Gratitude

How can you help others?

Exercise: Meditating

CHAPTER 9: SELF-THERAPY

Putting it all together

Journaling your progress

Relapse prevention

Appendix: Quick Fixes

Attribution

Introduction

According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, 40 Million adults in America suffer from anxiety or some form of depression. Why? Is it because people work too much, have a poor diet, or not enough exercise? Or is it something deeper?

Experts believe that these feelings are the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that chemical imbalance can be reduced with proper nutrition and relaxation techniques. There are many methods that can be used to reduce anxiety; some work better than others.

Fortunately, new alternatives are emerging, which do not involve drugs or drastic lifestyle changes. A new study published in the journal Neurotherapeutics found that deep breathing techniques like yoga can induce real-time relaxation of the brain (Italics mine). The results were noteworthy; compared to other research on stress reduction techniques, this study had greater success at relaxing anxious patients. Yoga has been used for thousands of years to control anxiety, so it's no wonder that this therapy is the top choice. Deep breathing is also known to induce relaxation through parasympathetic activation, which can restore homeostasis by overriding the sympathetic state. The goal of this study was to test deep breathing techniques on healthy people. It has been shown that meditation training reduces baseline anxiety levels by about 12% (6) and mindfulness practices have also been found to be effective in reducing stress and anxiety (7). By inducing calmness through techniques beyond our own control, it is possible that our brains are more capable of controlling