Wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions on how to fight off anxiety and depression after you thought that you had it taken care of. Is it normal to find it hard to find time to really use the lessons like you did when you first started.

Hi Tim,
I'm doing the program for the second time. I did it four years ago. It did a lot of good then but was not a total cure for me.
In the interim I went to a very goood therapist. I learned that my emotions were overtaking me again because I had some deep issues at the emotionally formative level. They were from long term child abuse. Getting that reality out from under the intense masking of denial gave me great insight into what was going on with me. Having slain those dragons it's now time for me to get back to acquiring the life skills of this program. For me, knowing what had messed me up in the first place allowed me to come to terms with it now that I had the maturity to deal with it. I could then see the inefective skills I'd acqired to survive in a toxic and hostile environment. Also I could see the skills I had not acquired that other people had who'd been raised in an adequate childhood environment. This has reaffirmed the importance of the life skills of this program and I'm going through it again with more confidence and enthusiam than the first time.
I don't know if this pertains to you but if you expect you endured some pretty severe childhood neglect, abuse,or exploitation, a good therapist might be worth looking into as an adjunct to this program.
What reoccuring anxiety and depression wasn't for me was biological. I had some test done and my chemistry was normal. The therapist did have me try some antidepresants for a while but they really were a dud for me and I gave them up right away. The short term use of therapy and application of this program is what worked and still works for me.

Hi, those sound like classic anxiety/panic symptoms - reminds me so much of my own experience. Don't worry - this is a very common affliction and there's a lot of info out there for you. I used a technique offered by www.selftherapy.org that was simple yet wonderfully effective for me - changed my life. But that's just one approach. In many cases just plain simple exercise can release a lot of the built up energy that transforms into anxiety. Good luck!

Capper,

It is totally normal for anxiety and depression to come back after initial success. Life is full of stress and there is always going to be something just around the corner that can cause anxiety and depression... whether it be an illness, loss of a loved one, job change, move, etc. That is why is it important to continue practicing the skills you learned and make time to do the program again. These are skills that we need to keep practicing for the rest of our lives. It's like with exercising... you can't just work out for three months and then expect the results to be everlasting; you have to continue working out the rest of your life. It takes commitment, as does everything that is worth doing. It isn't always easy to do the "work" we need to do in order to stay mentally and physically healthy, but if you want it bad enough, you have to put in the effort. And if you "relapse" and have a bad day occasionally, that's okay... just recommit yourself and start over. I do that with exercising. I'll do good for about three months and then quit for one reason or another, and it is SO hard to get started again; but I force myself to do it because I know it is vital to my health and there's no way around it. Sometimes we just have to power through it whether we like it or not; but in the end, it's always worth it!

Best of luck!

Jen