A few evenings ago, when my broken and surgically repaired elbow had healed sufficiently to be able to turn the steering wheel, and I had already driven my car to physical therapy two days before without a problem, I still asked Tony to drive me to my next PT appointment,…
It’s 3:30 a.m. and my beloved greyhound Gee is having a grand mal seizure on the couch. I can feel adrenaline—in the form of full alertness—course through my body. I watch over her, her paddling legs and foaming mouth, to make sure she will not injure herself. There is not…
How I’m using my pottery class as a practice in learning to “dare greatly;” be vulnerable, be willing to fail in order to succeed.
Anyone who suffers from anxiety knows what it feels like to be told, “you should just…” followed by some oversimplified answer. Or the sentence ends in some technique you’ve already tried (and tried). My favorite advice regarding my driving issue is, “Just get on the highway.” This pearl comes straight…
I didn’t feel the sense of ease I’d been waiting for until I was one exit away from returning home during today’s driving lesson. It’d been a while since I’d been on the highway and my baseline anxiety level was up before I even got in the car. I questioned…
An unexpectedly effective therapy for fear of highway driving.
“I’m always afraid my first swim of every season,” a veteran triathlete told me at my second open water swim practice with a local triathlon club. More than a few good swimmers and determined triathletes told me stories of feeling fear or even having panic attacks in open water. A…
Did I want to try “Thought Field Therapy” for my fear of driving on highways, one of my therapists recently asked. I had read not long ago that a somewhat related therapy, one I’d years ago rejected out of hand as unscientific and not worth trying, has since gained acceptance…
If depression could speak: An interview with Depression
“How’s your day going?” I asked a new canoeing friend, R, as he pulled into the eddy. My class, the more experienced solo boaters, had already scouted Staircase Rapid, just below. From the boulders on the shore we’d picked our lines and were heading back to our parked boats as…
