I told Ebbie I'd stay off this thread to keep from killing it (my special talent!)--but have had a couple of pm's about the subject so will drone on in bits and spirts since it seems to be good info. for some to have.

The author of "The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook" is Edmund J. Bourne, Ph.D. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Other good authors to look for in the USA are Reid Wilson, David Burns and Judith Beck.

When the symptoms of anxiety begin DON'T FIGHT THEM and DON'T RUN FROM THEM. They are caused by a sudden surge of adrenalin (the fight or flight response, gone awry.) Fighting or tensing against it makes it worse. Attempting to suppress or run from it is a way of telling yourself you can't handle performing, and will usually also increase the panic. People often end up fearing the anxiety symptoms themselves (we have nothing to fear but fear itself, eh?) Learn to turn down the volume on anticipatory anxiety. Learn to decatastrophize your thoughts about performance.

Examine your beliefs and automatic thoughts-your self-talk. Those that lead to or feed the anxiety are not productive. You can unlearn them and replace them with productive beliefs and thoughts.

Use what I call the Cognitive Equation.

event------------------>thoughts------------->Feelings and Reactions
(Internal or            (interpretation/       (can be circular-these
external)                self-talk)             become events)

Learn to identify the cognitive distortions in your self-talk.

Learn to apply Socratic reasoning to your self-talk.

More about self-talk and Socratic reasoning later.

Janie