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Book recommendation "Seelenfraß - Wie Sie den inneren Terror der Angst besiegen"(Translation: "Soul junk - How you can conquer the internal terror of anxiety")
Being afraid is nothing to be ashamed of. Anxiety makes us alert and protects us from dangers. It can release enormous amounts of energy within us, and provide us with unimagined creativity. We must simply learn to use this energy in the correct way. We can observe how top sportsmen and women manage to do this. I experience this in my own family, with my son Markus Rogan. Managers are often also successful because they don't allow their anxiety to paralyse them, but rather to generate energy reserves from it. As do artists.
Many famous people are individuals who continually have to fight with their anxieties. Examples from history and the present day: Charles Darwin, the founder of the theory of evolution, the composer Antonio Vivaldi, the writers Brecht, Beckett, Goethe, Jelinek, Kafka, the actors Laurence Olivier, Barbra Streisand, Donald Sutherland, the director Howard Hughes, the painter Edvard Munch, the opera star Neil Shicoff. Another sportsman? - Lance Armstrong. We shouldn't try to eliminate fear. It wouldn't be possible anyway. Of course, anxiety can turn into the internal terror that wears the individual down. With panic attacks. Or by sneaking up in the form of a general over-cautiousness. The continual worry of not being able to cope with life appears to be normal for many - because life often isn't simple. Or anxiety barricades itself behind physical symptoms: heart-circulation complaints, back pain or headaches, a disrupted menstrual cycle, digestive problems. Many people sleep badly because everyday worries rob them of their sleep.
About every fourth person comes into contact with larger anxiety-based disturbances. Many suffer for years. Because they can't admit to what it is that is bothering them. Also, because doctors pay too little attention to this. Only every tenth anxiety-sufferer comes into contact with someone, who recognises the real cause of their suffering. Only four out of one hundred of those needing help receive suitable medication. Anyone trying to provide their own therapy - with alcohol or tranquillisers, for example - is often worse off. Anxiety cannot be mastered in this way. It still breathes down one's neck. It generates stress, which wears one down and weakens the immune system. This most certainly causes illness. Anxiety, which we don't want to acknowledge, weakens us. It takes away our enjoyment of life. It devours our soul.
The healthy way of dealing with anxiety begins by acknowledging it; by understanding what anxiety does to us. There is an anxiety-brain and a thinking-brain. We can turn anxiety into a "brain tool". Otherwise, anxiety will make us stupid. And it is infectious! Many are ashamed to admit to anxiety. In so doing, they rob themselves of the opportunity to master anxiety and to turn it into new energy. Those who always only conceal anxiety - from themselves and from others - suffer unnecessarily. It's possible to learn how to manage anxiety, to deal with it productively! Anxiety coaching is helpful for this. A good psychologist, psychotherapist, or a psychiatrist. Those in need of help can find it.
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