Group Therapy Program: Overcoming anxiety in social situations

Group therapy can be an important part of learning to overcome social anxiety.

Swinburne Uni, in collaboration with Gestalt Therapy Australia, is starting a group therapy program aimed at assisting people to better manage their social anxiety.

Group Details:
Start Date: Mid-June
Location: 333 Heidelberg Rd, Fairfield
Duration: One Saturday morning seminar, followed by 8 weekly sessions from 6.30 – 8.30pm on Tuesday nights.
Program fee: $265


For further information contact the Swinburne Psychology Clinic on
(03) 9214 8653, and ask for the Gestalt Social Anxiety Group.

Weekly Quote:

"Some people dream of success... while others wake up and work hard at it." - Anon.

Looking for Research Participants!

Social Anxiety and Substance Use

Swinburne University is seeking individuals who experience anxiety in social situations for a study which is investigating the relationship between social anxiety, personality, coping strategies, beliefs about the use of alcohol, and use of substances. We are interested in exploring why some people with social anxiety use alcohol or other substances whilst others don’t.

We are interested in people who experience anxiety in social situations who are 18 years old or older.

As a participant you will be required to take part in a clinical interview (either in person or by phone) and to complete a questionnaire pack. Answering questions during the interview and completing the self-report questionnaire should take no more than 45 minutes in total.

If you are interested in being a part of this study, please contact Annette Raber (Associate Investigator) via email: annetteraber@gmail.com
or by phone: 0459 775 739.


If you have any questions or comments about the study, please forward them on to Annette Raber or Professor Michael Kyrios (Principal Investigator) via email: mkyrios@swin.edu.au

A Special Poem for ADAVIC!

I had a friend called happiness
And used to have such fun
But happiness fought anxiety
That’s when I came undone

My happiness was torn to shreds
Anxiety won the war
So now I try to live with it
But don’t want it anymore

I've tried to tell it, “Go Away”
But it just falls on deaf ears
It travels with me where I go
And lives on all my fears

I've looked around for happiness
But it’s dark, I cannot see
Anxiety has got its grip
It will not set me free

So I'll keep searching in the dark
Until I find a way
That I can light up this darkened world
And happiness can say

“Yes I was wounded but did not die
I simply needed rest
And when I get my strength again
I’ll win cause I’m the best”

So all my friends at ADAVIC
Although there is a fight
Anxiety will lose one day
Because I'll find the light

By Scott

ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY

Our own personal momentum towards a safe, healthy and happy life is a journey shared by all. Throughout our ‘life’ experience we challenge, experience and interact with others and our environments. Along the way we construct a rich narrative of this ‘life’ documented in our thoughts, memories and dreams.

At times we all learn to avoid some of the uncomfortable and hurtful sensations associated to our ‘life’ story to ‘get on’ with our ‘life’ story. We are all familiar with the experiences of fear, depression, anger, stress, guilt, shame and confusion, as much as we are familiar with laughter, joy, love, kindness and compassion.

But why do we at times allow these fleeting emotional responses to limit, decrease or disable our participation in meaningful activities leading to a richer, fuller and meaningful experience of life.

“Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) takes the view that most psychological suffering is caused by the avoidance of experiences, i.e. by attempting to avoid, escape or get rid of unwanted private experiences (such as unpleasant thoughts, feelings, sensations, urges & memories). Our efforts at experiential avoidance might work in the short term, but in the long term they often fail, and in the process, they often create significant psychological suffering and reduced experiences within our lives. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) assists people to change their relationship with painful thoughts and feelings, to develop an ‘aware’ sense of self, to live in the present, and to take action, guided by their deepest values, to create a rich and meaningful life” (Dr. Russ Harris).

At Positive Psychology our team of Psychologists are trained in delivering psychological support, treatment and support within the Acceptance and Commitment framework.

Written by Ari Patrikis (Psychologist)- 2011

Maroondah Printing

We would like to thank Maroondah Printing who are located in Ringwood for providing ADAVIC with very low cost printing for close to five years now and who throw in some freebies to us as well! Thanks to the staff at Maroondah Printing for their support over the years, it is very much appreciated by the ADAVIC TEAM!


Maroondah Printing

Weekly Quote:

"Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise." - Anon.

Mental Health Awareness Forum

The Ringwood Spiders Football Club is hosting a mental health awareness forum in partnership with the City of Maroondah and with the support of Beyond Blue on June 9 2011 at 7pm.

The club has lost two players to suicide in the past 18 months and is holding the forum in an effort to decrease social stigma regarding mental illness.

Key speakers include:
Assoc. Professor Jane Burns from Melbourne University
Mr John McGrath (AM), Deputy Chairman of Beyond Blue
Ms Sharon Boag from Eastern Access Community Health (EACH)

Through these experts, the Forum aims to:
•Increase awareness and provide a better understanding of the issues surrounding mental illness;
•Disseminate important information about the support resources and services that can help anyone who is experiencing a mental illness within their family, friends or community network

The forum is free to attend and the Ringwood Spiders encourages anyone who is interested in this issue to attend and hear industry experts sharing their knowledge and experiences. It will be held at the Karralyka Centre in Ringwood East and supper will be provided. Bookings for this event can be made by emailing mha@ringwoodspiders.com before Friday June 3.

Event Details:
6.30pm for 7.00pm start, Thursday 9th June, 2011
Karalyka Entertainment Centre, Mines Road, East Ringwood
Melways Map 50, Ref A6

Links:
Maroondah Leader: Ringwood Footballers Act On Suicides

Maroondah Leader: New Study Shows Maroondah Teens Struggle to Find Mental Health Support


Note:
A BIG thank you to Maroondah Printing for once again providing free printing of booklets and brochures so as ADAVIC can provide this information to the forum.
http://maroondahprinting.com.au/contact.htm

Location of Maroondah Printing Pty Ltd
Unit 16, 42 New Street, Ringwood. Vic. 3134

PH: (03) 9879-1555

Next to Normal

It is always great to see movies, plays and television shows featuring characters with mental illnesses as it helps to raise awareness within the general population. Unfortunately there are also occasions where such characters are portrayed as being "psycho" or "weirdos" because of their condition which is not helpful at all.

A current example of a positive portrayal of mental illness however, is the Melbourne Theatre Company's play Next to Normal. It tells the story of a mother, Diana, who has bipolar disorder and how her condition affects her family.

The play itself has won many awards including 3 Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This has given it a high profile and has caused large crowds to go and see it.

Like most theatrical productions the play is fictitious and as such Diana's experience of living with a mental illness is not exactly true to life. What the play does do though is raise issues such as the difficulty of finding a treatment option that suits you, as well as the difficulty from both the sufferers perspective and the family's perspective in truly understanding mental illness and the impact it is having on a person's life.

Regardless of how true to life this production is, its exploration of the impact of mental illness is a positive step forward.


Next to Normal is currently showing at the Arts Centre in Melbourne's Playhouse Theatre and has been extended until the June 4, 2011.


Links:
Next to Normal Wikipedia Page

Radio National's All in the Mind featuring Next to Normal

Videos from the American production of the show

Reconnexion Group Programs

Reconnexion is another organisation offering support to sufferers of anixiety and depression.

From their website:

Reconnexion has been providing counselling and other services for over 23 years. Our motto is "Reconnect With Life!"
The aim of Reconnexion is to provide effective information & counselling to support you to overcome the effects of anxiety, depression or dependency which may be preventing you from full participation and enjoyment of life.

In the coming months they have some group programs which you may be interested in:




SOCIAL PHOBIA COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY GROUP:
starts on June 27, 2011
This group provides an opportunity to learn effective, evidence based strategies to overcome social phobia, with a supportive group of like minded people. Reconnexion psychologist Sonja Skocic has been successfully providing this popular group for many years.

Details:
LEADER: Sonja Skokic

DATE: Monday, June 27 to September 19 2011 (no group 8/8)

TIME: 6.30pm – 8.00pm

LOCATION: 222 Burke Road Glen Iris

COST: $480.00 (Medicare rebate available if referred by your GP)



EMOTIONAL WELLBEING GROUP:
starts on August 10, 2011
Supportive group meditation classes for people with little or no experience of meditation. In this 7 week programme you will learn how to practice both structured and incidental mindfulness. Meditation teacher Steve Brown has over 15 years of meditation experience.

Details:
LEADER: Steve Brown

DATE: Wednesday, Aug 10 to Sept 21 2011 (7 weeks)

TIME: 7.00pm to 9.00pm

LOCATION: Hartington Centre, 24 Hartington Street, Northcote

COST: $245.00 (Medicare rebate of $128.10 available if referred by your GP. Attendance is required to claim full rebate)


BETTER SLEEP PROGRAM :
July 21 & 28 2011
This group led by Fiona Lewi, an experienced Psychologist specialising in health and sleep problems. Fiona will provide participants with effective strategies to be used for sleep problems.

Details:
LEADER: Fiona Lewi

DATE: Thursday 21st & 28th July 2011 (2 sessions)

TIME: 7:00pm – 8:30pm

LOCATION: Reconnexion, 222 Burke Road, Glen Iris

COST: $88.00 (Medicare rebate of $41.70 available with Mental Health Care Plan issued by your GP)


For Further information visit their website:
http://www.reconnexion.org.au/group-programs/w1/i1001197/

Letting go to live again!

My name is Theodore I am 51 years of age and my agoraphobia began quite suddenly and unexpectedly in 1998 when I was 42. To the best of my knowledge my condition was triggered during a bitter and long drawn out divorce with my former wife, during which time she would continually deny me access and visitation rights with my daughters, despite me having obtained court orders from the Family Court.

I clearly remember when my first BIG panic attack occurred. It was 1998 and I was walking down Glenhuntly Road in Elsternwick when I had a massive anxiety/panic attack and collapsed in the street. This attack was triggered by another refusal by my former wife to allow me to see my daughters. These events left me anxious, highly stressed and very fearful as at the time I was frightened that I may never see my daughters again. May I add these events have since had a traumatic and negative impact on my beautiful daughters today, which is very sad for two beautiful children to have been innocently caught up in adult issues which should never have concerned them.

Within a matter of minutes after I collapsed an ambulance was called by a shopkeeper. When the paramedics arrived and examined me, they realized that I had ‘only’ suffered a panic attack and that my condition was not life threatening. They promptly left as there was nothing more that they could do. As they were leaving I clearly recall how frightened and vulnerable and helpless I felt. I also recall that when I asked the paramedics as to “What should I do?” they suggested that I book myself into a private hospital such as the Albert Road Clinic, and in the meantime to get myself onto some form of medication such as “Valium” to avoid a repeat of this incident.

Unfortunately at that time I didn’t have any private health insurance or any money to be able to afford the $500 per day plus for a private hospital!

Since that major panic attack in 1998, my life had been miserable, extremely frustrating, very traumatic and extremely limited by agoraphobia. There is great sadness when one is unable to enjoy the normal things in life. In fact my entire pre-occupation from 1998 until 2005 had been to centre all my attention of every minute of every day in total avoidance of becoming stressed and/or suffering another panic attack. You could say that I lived in complete fear all those years, and without any hope of ever getting better and resuming a normal life – such as the happy and successful career and life that I had previously known as an award winning Financial Planner with AMP.

Up until early 2005 when I was first introduced to Pauline McKinnon and “Stillness Meditation”, I had not been to the outskirts of Melbourne for 8 years. In fact all my living during the 1998 to 2005 period was spent exclusively on map 58 of the Melway Street Directory! I very seldom journeyed beyond 5 kilometres from my place of residence in Malvern.

In 2004 after an amazing and quite uncanny sequence of events, I literally stumbled across an old copy of Pauline McKinnon’s highly inspirational book “In Stillness Conquer Fear”. A good friend of mine who is a psych nurse had a first edition copy. The irony here is that my friend did know that I suffered from depression, but I had never told him that I also suffered from agoraphobia, because of my embarrassment about the condition. After reading Pauline’s book through two or three times, I found the courage to ring her office early in 2005, and to book myself an appointment with her. I have to say that making that appointment to get to Kew was not an easy task for me. In fact I didn’t show up the first time to the appointment because I had gotten anxious in Hawthorn on the way, and I turned the car around and went back home, feeling very scared and panicky.

After getting over the embarrassment of my first failed attempt to get to Pauline’s office, I finally made it there on my second attempt. I can still clearly recall how uptight and frightened I was when I got there. In fact I was literally shaking during that first consultation. I also recall how calm, understanding and reassuring Pauline was, and after we finished talking she took me into the meditation room for a short introduction to “Stillness Meditation”.
Although I didn’t get the full effect of the meditation on my first attempt that day due to my highly stressful state, I did however feel some calmness during the demonstration. One thing I do know about gaining any worthwhile knowledge about a particular subject, and that is one must seek out a person that has actually “Walked their Talk” and therefore personally experienced that which you are seeking to learn for yourself.

Throughout the first weeks of my meditation course with Pauline I was frightened and stressed at the beginning of most of those sessions, due mainly to my fear of being so far away from home. However, after the first few weeks I found that I was able to let go and relax more and more, and I was becoming calmer and therefore gradually experiencing the full effect of this wonderful activity.

My first test or journey following my introduction to “Stillness Meditation” took place some ten weeks after I commenced Pauline’s classes, when I was called upon by a friend to take them to the airport. Normally I would have instantly refused a request like this without even thinking twice about it. I had not been to Melbourne Airport for eight years prior to 2005, and I don’t need to tell you how frightened I was about the prospect of being stuck on a freeway without any escape routes and a long way from home.

To cut a long story short I decided to undertake the journey to the airport, and I can clearly recall that during the first five minutes on the freeway I was uneasy and quite scared. Strangely, though, I was not as scared or frightened as I would have been before practicing Stillness Meditation. After those first few nervous minutes I started to relax and in fact could quite clearly feel the calmness of stillness actually “kick in”, and quite comfortably made it to the airport and actually enjoyed the drive after all.

Aside from agoraphobia, I also suffered from depression during those seven years, and as a result I had become a bit of a recluse during that time. Since that first journey away from my comfort zone, I have acquired a very busy 100 seat restaurant, and have begun mixing with and being around people once again on a daily basis. Even though the restaurant is very hard work, it has also been a major help in my recovery in that I have learnt to live with and work quite freely at a high level of stress again. As a result both my body and my mind have adjusted to cope better with stress and anxiety. Along with those positive changes I have been blessed to have met a wonderful partner in Anne from Mornington and I have now moved down to the Peninsula to live with her.

At times, journeying there was not always easy, but when one is in love and has a powerful enough goal or desire to do something, it is amazing how one finds the strength and persistence to succeed – and therefore, to reclaim one’s life! If there is one thing I would recommend to anyone who wishes to beat agoraphobia, and that would be to make sure you have some persistence, because persistence basically means “to hold onto your goal through thick and thin, and not let go of whatever you really want”. Having said that, what we DO need to let go of is FEAR. Because the more we let it go, the more fear fades away as success grows from success.

To summarize my story, my physical capacity to move more freely further away from home has returned to me but more importantly my attitude and confidence are the best they have been for nine years. Like Pauline I too have suddenly awoken from what seemed like an endless sleep, and I have now begun to enjoy each minute of every day once again in a most positive “good to be alive way”.

Success in any worthwhile endeavor or venture is an ongoing journey, and not a destination, because as human beings our spirit is always searching for “expansion and self-expression”. In my opinion the only way to satisfy our soul is to constantly have a good reason for getting out of bed every day! And by good reason I don’t mean to get up only to look after others (for example, the duties and responsibilities relating to the care of children). What I mean is for one to get out of bed with a desire of accomplishing something worthwhile for themselves, because this sort of achievement no matter how small it may seem, will make you FEEL a lot better about YOURSELF.

Thank you for everything Pauline. There is so much more for me to do and I hope that maybe in the future I too may be able to give other sufferers hope and inspiration just as you have given me.
By Theodore

Pauline McKinnon’s details:

The Pauline McKinnon Stillness Meditation Centre
P.O. Box 151
KEW EAST Victoria 3102 Australia
Phone: (03) 9817 2933

Weekly Quote:

"The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention." - Anon.

National Volunteer Week

This week is National Volunteer Week where the essential role that volunteers play within society is officially recognised.

According to Volunteering Australia, there are more than 5 million volunteers contributing to communities around Australia.

Here at ADAVIC we have over 45 volunteers who perform a wide range of activities within the organisation. Being a non-profit organisation we rely on volunteers to help us continue to provide a wide range of services for people with anxiety disorders within the community.

So to all our volunteers out there, past and present, thank you for all you do!

For anyone interested in volunteering with ADAVIC please send an email to us: adavic@adavic.org.au

Mental Health and the Federal Budget

On Tuesday night the Federal Budget was released and one of the big announcements was the Government's investment in the Mental Health Sector.

The Government has said it will provide $2.2 billion over five years as part of a mental health reform package that will try and focus on prevention of mental illness. The package will also aim to provide streamlined services for people with chronic mental illness.

The Department of Health and Ageing released a joint statement from its ministers saying that under the reform "Australians with a mental illness will get the care they need, when they need it".

Under the reform a mental health commission will also be established, a move welcomed by the Mental Health Council of Australia.

“A Mental Health Commission is one of the measures we have long been advocating for and is very significant investment in better accountability and governance in mental health," they said.

Not everyone is pleased with the Government's announcement though. Australian Medical Association President Dr Andrew Pesce said under the reform patients would end up having to pay more to see their GP.

"Devaluing the role of family doctors is a backward step that will seriously fragment medical and mental health care for those people who need it in the community", he said.

At this point it appears there are more positives than negatives to the announcement. Any commitment to funding for the mental health sector can only be a good thing. Especially considering how many Australians have a mental illness such as anxiety and depression.

For More indepth coverage of the announcement visit the links bellow:

Croakey Blog: Overview of the budget’s mental health announcements – and some preliminary reaction

Media Release: Department of Health and Ageing

Media Release: Mental Health Council of Australia

The Australian: Mental health reforms aim for prevention

Lateline: Government Pours $2.2b into Mental Health