Taking the power back means we cannot let the fear of what other people think get in our way of full recovery. If our hands and legs shake, let them shake. If our face turns bright red, then our face turns bright red. If we feel faint, then sit down on a chair, on the floor, on the footpath, if need be. If we vomit or have an attack of diarrhoea, then we vomit or have an attack of diarrhoea. Let it happen. When we let it happen, we turn off the adrenalin and it will be over as quick as it starts. We will not have to waste all of our energy trying to keep it under control and thereby turning on more adrenalin. Our mental health needs to be more important than other peoples’ opinions. The feelings of embarrassment are created by our thoughts. We have to move from ‘what if to the all powerful attitude of ‘so what’. ‘So what’ if we have an attack, ‘so what’ if we are feeling anxious, ‘so what’ if people see. So what.

Depending on how high our anxiety level is, the anxiety may not disappear as quickly. Learning to manage the anxiety by being aware of our thoughts, letting them go and by letting the anxiety be there, is part of the recovery process. As we work through the process of recovery our anxiety level diminishes, until we are anxiety-free.

We will reach the point where we will have a choice in how we respond, either with fear or by letting it happen. This choice will always be there. After recovery in times of extreme stress we may experience further attacks. We can choose how we respond: either with fear, ‘what if, or by letting go and letting it happen. So what.

The working through process can at times be very frustrating, but the final result is worth every step. Everything which has been taken away from us by the disorder will be given back to us through the clarity of thought and freedom wbich recovery brings.

*83\94\8*

The night begins as the child moves quickly through drowsiness and into deep sleep within ten minutes. Waking a child in deep sleep might be almost impossible—this is the time your child can be moved from the car or your arms into bed without waking.

Deep sleep makes up the next two or so hours of sleep. After about an hour (and again after the next hour), it is interrupted by a brief arousal when the child seems to be sleeping and waking at the same time. Behaviors range from crying out or opening eyes to the more extreme thrashing about. It is during this arousal that confused thrashing, sleep terrors, sleep walking, or bedwetting might occur. Although we tend to think that these behaviors are a result î dreaming, that is not the case since dreaming does not occur until REM sleep

The bulk of the remaining night is spent moving between light sleep and the REM episodes in which dreaming occurs. There is a tendency to wake briefly while changing states—the child checks to be sure all is well, goes back to sleep, and generally doesn’t remember this waking in the morning. Sometime when he wakes during these “arousals” he has difficulty returning to sleep. This is a common cause of frequent waking. If he needs your help to get back u sleep, he will wake you.

It is during this block of time (in the REM episodes) that nightmares occur. If he comes to a full waking while moving in and out of the dreaming states, he might be afraid to fall asleep again.

Near morning he returns to another period of deep, non-REM sleep. Following another arousal comes another, more intense, REM dream episode. After more light sleep and dreaming transitions, he wakes for the day. If the child wakes fully during any of these transitions, he might decide that night is over; he then becomes an early waker. If you decide to wake him (to fit your schedule or in an attempt to alter his) during his period of deep sleep, you will both be left out of sorts.

*12\67\8*

I have bad a number of patients who suffered for years from classical asthma with proven sensitivity to common pollens and dusts. They ceased to have attacks of asthma after being treated by relaxing methods, even though they were still exposed to the same pollens and dusts which in the past had caused the attacks. Furthermore these patients have shown no formation of substitute symptoms, such as skin rashes, that have been reported by some authorities when hypnosis was used to stop asthma by direct suggestion. I could quote histories of a great number of patients whose asthma was either completely relieved or at least greatly improved following the practice of relaxing mental exercises.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable was a woman of forty-six who had suffered from severe asthma for thirty years. She seemed to live by repeated use of her spray. After practising the relaxing exercises, the woman simply ceased to have attacks, and her spray was completely abandoned. I am sure that if there had been any recurrence she would have returned to me, but she has not done so.

A lad of eighteen was incapacitated by asthma. He ceased to have attacks, and I lost contact with him until a relative came to consultation a few weeks ago, and reported that the lad had remained free of asthma since seeing me five years ago.

A young married woman was extremely sensitive to house dust, and any housework always produced a severe attack. After some relaxing treatment she came to be able to dust the house in the normal way without any ill effect.

The significant finding of my work in this field is that many patients who suffer from classical bronchial asthma cease to have attacks when the general level of their anxiety is reduced. Some other patients have continued to have attacks, but they have been much less frequent and much less severe. Other patients have remained uninfluenced by this approach. Approximately one third of the patients so far treated fall into each of these three categories. It would therefore seem that anyone suffering from bronchial asthma should at least try the method of relief through the principles of self-management. The method reduces the general level of anxiety in a way similar to the relaxing method I have used in my office treatment.

*24\57\2*