At one point or another, everyone has uttered the words: “I am happy.”  And: “I am upset.”

Notice what happens when you say: “I am [something].”

You are describing yourself.

Any words that follow the statement “I am” is your description of yourself.

Moreover, when we say, “I am [something],” it feels as if we really are that “something.”

It feels as if our entire being is happy, or upset, or anxious, or any other emotion we say we are.

But is that really who we are?

Most readers of my weekly blog have eliminated at least one belief using the Lefkoe Belief Process where they discovered that they are not merely a “creation,” who has beliefs and feelings and who takes action, they also are the creator of that creation.

Although the creation you think you are is comprised of your beliefs and feelings and what you do, the consciousness you really are is whole and complete, for whom anything is possible and nothing is missing.

Thus, it actually is more accurate to say: My creation has feelings, but I am not my feelings. My creation has beliefs, but I am not my beliefs.

> Continued: Stop being run by your feelings.

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“When the player becomes stressed or fearful, the game will increase in intensity and difficulty. When the player calms himself, the game returns to its default state.” Game designer Erin Reynolds

There are many different sorts of video games, and many studies on their psychological and social impacts – research that is often critical or conflicting.

Articles on Psych Central, for example, include Brain Scans Show Violent Video Games Alter Brain Activity, by Rick Nauert PhD and Video Games May Not Enhance Cognitive Skills After All, By Traci Pedersen.

Gaming is not of any particular interest to me, but I was intrigued with a recent newspaper report about Erin Reynolds, a USC cinematic arts graduate student, and her team who are developing a video game that “uses heart-rate sensors to help players learn to stay calm as they wind their way through a decrepit house filled with their characters’ horrific memories.

“She believes her psychological thriller game, Nevermind, can help people develop ways to cope with stress.”

[From USC competition pushes the limits of modern video games, By Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times December 11, 2011.]

The Nevermind site describes the group’s upcoming game:

“You can’t fix stress – it is a constant force in our everyday lives that spans geographic borders and cultures. However, you can fix the unhealthy, knee-jerk responses many people have to stress and prepare people to face inevitable conflict. This is exactly what Nevermind intends to do.

“In this vein, the player’s goal is not to remain in a constant state of calm, rather, it is to force himself to proceed into scenarios he knows will cause stress or fear, experience the natural reactions such scenarios prompt, and then quickly temper his response to return back to a state of calm. In other words, Nevermind rewards ‘true’ bravery.

“When the player becomes stressed or fearful, the game will increase in intensity and difficulty. When the player calms himself, the game returns to its default state. If the player is unable to calm himself, then the game becomes increasingly more difficult and intense…”

Nevermind Developer Video: What is Nevermind?

The site also emphasizes the game is “not a self-­help program that simply lectures to the player how to handle stress.

“Rather, it leads him to personally discover how to manage the stress in a way that is specific to them – and provides plenty of opportunities to practice, refine, and make a habit of employing these healthy coping strategies both in and out of the game.”

[The photo of Erin Reynolds is from her site Reynoldsphobia. She also helped develop the Disney title Epic Mickey (for the Nintendo Wii), among other titles.]

There are also other reports about game or game-like software that can address mental health issues.

Attention retraining

Software that delivers attention retraining – “like really boring computer games,” as Nader Amir, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, describes it, has helped a number of patients diagnosed with social anxiety.

[From Relief from anxiety may be as close as your BlackBerry, Adriana Barton, Globe and Mail, Apr. 03, 2011.]

While the imagery in Nevermind is richly detailed, other games can be beneficial even with crude graphics, like this screen image from Bejeweled 3 by PopCap Games.

The author of a newspaper article writes about Gail Nichols, who has suffered from depression for years.

“When the 49-year-old resident of St. Marys, Kan., cannot sleep, she falls back on a form of entertainment that is gaining increasing credibility as a medical intervention: video games.

“Nichols said she discovered the mental health benefits of video games some years ago during a particularly bad spell of depression.

“She had just started playing a game called Bejeweled, which requires players to move gems into rows based on their color. When she could not get to sleep one night and was tormented by mental pain, she said, she turned on the computer and played the game for hours.”

“In the day, you can find someone to talk to,” Nichols said. “Games are a big help in getting through to the next morning.”

“Nichols liked the game so much that she got in touch with the manufacturer, PopCap Games. The inventors of the game were surprised to hear about its possible mental health benefits, and the company decided to study Bejeweled’s untapped potential systematically.

“In a preliminary study that PopCap commissioned and funded, researchers found that volunteers who played Bejeweled displayed improved mood and heart rhythms compared with volunteers who weren’t playing. The preliminary study was published this year in the Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine.”

[From Researchers Explore Mental Health Benefits of Video Games, By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post, August 18, 2009.]

Restoring or enhancing cognitive function

There are also a number of research studies on the potentials for games to enhance brain abilities. Here is an excerpt of one:

“Stanford professor Dr. Shelli Kesler and colleagues recently published a study in the journal Brain Injury demonstrating improvements in cognition following Lumosity training in childhood cancer survivors.

“Twenty-three pediatric cancer survivors completed 40 sessions of Lumosity training. Participants showed significantly increased processing speed, cognitive flexibility, and memory recall. In addition, brain imaging results showed increased activity in the pre-frontal cortex compared to baseline.”

[From "Study shows Lumosity training increases frontal lobe function" By Joe Hardy, Lumosity blog December 23, 2010.]

The Lumosity site has a number of other research studies about their games (mostly for people without cognitive problems) and brain training programs that “strategically target brain areas such as memory, attention and processing speed.” The site says over 14 million people use their programs.

Also see my related post: Better Thinking: Brain Games For Cognitive Training.

Depression, Social Anxiety, PTSD

In her article FWD News: Video Games Promoting Mental Health, Nathalie Caron reports on research showing games can help with a variety of mental health issues.

“Individuals dealing with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety have been found to find help though video games. Backed up by research in the field of mental health, these psychological conditions have benefited from exposure to a variety of games.

“For example, two studies have found exergames to contribute to fighting depression in older adults.

“Another researcher demonstrates the impact of ‘hardcore’ gamers on the psyche of soldiers, while one company lead by an expert in psychology finds a link between a simple game and reducing social anxiety.

“Dr. Patricia Kahlbaugh, associate professor of psychology at Southern Connecticut State University, presented her work at the 2010 Gerontological Society of America’s Annual Scientific Meeting.

“She revealed the effects of playing Wii on loneliness and mood in elderly individuals, particularly games such as virtual tennis, bowling and golf.

Kahlbaugh explained that recreating the experiences which these older adults previously enjoyed through the video games seemed to allow them to “regain the psychological benefits such activities once afforded them.”

But those kinds of emotional and mental health benefits may work for younger people as well. Maybe teens with depression can benefit, for example.

The article also notes researchers “are turning to video games to help people dealing with anxiety treat themselves. Using an experimental method called ‘attention retraining’ individuals can curb their tendency to dwell on the negative.” [See another reference to Attention retraining above.]

“In one game, players can see a face with a neutral expression flash on the screen at the same time as a disgusted face. A millisecond later, user must identify a letter that appears on the same portion of the screen where the neutral face was. With repetition, the player will begin to ignore the negative image and look to the neutral zone for answers, which has been found to ease anxiety.”

…

Wii tennis game image from mynintendowiigames.tumblr.com

Nintendo Wii consoles

Wii Sports games

Article: Overcoming creative anxiety: Eric Maisel on fear of success

Book: Mastering Creative Anxiety: 24 Lessons for Writers, Painters, Musicians, and Actors from America’s Foremost Creativity Coach.

Also see my Anxiety Relief Solutions site for a variety of products and programs.

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“I used to drink several cups of coffee a day, but I kicked the habit a long time ago because I found that caffeine made me too jittery and unfocused.”

That is a quote by Steve Pavlina, author of one of the most popular, and financially successful, sites and blogs dedicated to personal development, StevePavlina.com – and author of the book Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth.

He notes on his site, “When I drink coffee, my activity level soars — I barrel through tasks in rapid succession.

“But at the end of the day, I have to admit I didn’t accomplish anything of major value. Caffeine causes me to overload on busywork like email, web surfing, socializing, and other unproductive tasks.”

Health risks from caffeine

Deanne Repich, founder of the National Institute of Anxiety and Stress, writes in her article The Dangers of Caffeine for Anxiety Sufferers that over forty research studies “have shown that excessive caffeine can be harmful to your health,” and can cause Rapid or irregular heartbeat; Restlessness; Nervousness; Insomnia and other symptoms.

Repich notes these are “fight or flight” reactions, which are “designed to protect you from harm. Excessive amounts of caffeine can trigger the body’s fight or flight response even though no real danger exists.”

Those body reactions can also stimulate or increase anxiety.

Paraliminal CDs

Pavlina writes that he “missed the action boost that caffeine gave me” but has found that Paraliminal CDs by Learning Strategies Corporation “have done a beautiful job of filling this void. After every session I enjoy a lingering aftereffect that usually lasts a couple hours.

“The Paraliminals provide a noticeable concentration boost that allows me to steadily flow through my work while still maintaining my priorities — that delightful state of flow.

“For me this effect translates directly into practical, down-to-earth results. During a period of a few weeks when I used Paraliminals once or twice a day, I completed several key projects that required a lot of focus and concentration, definitely much faster and at a higher level of quality than I would have otherwise.”

The image is for one of several Paraliminal programs: Peak Performance.

Paraliminal programs make use of Holosync audio technology by Centerpointe Research Institute. Visit the site to get a free demo CD.

Also see articles by Bill Harris, the Centerpointe director, about the technology.

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That is a quote by Christina Ricci from a 1998 Rolling Stone interview.

Studies typically find that about 6-8 percent of adolescents and young adults report current, chronic self-injury. Most self-injure for emotional regulation.

Continued: » Mental Health Day: Self-Injury – The Creative Mind
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Excerpt from lyrics (based on Emily Dickinson) in video: Fearing – by The Amygdaloids

While I was fearing it came
But with less of the fear because
Fearing it so long
Had almost made it dear
There is a fitting dismay
An appropriate despair
Tis harder knowing that fear is due than
Knowing it is here

Continued: Anxiety and the Amygdala

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What if you aren’t getting the acting jobs you want, or the writing assignments, or not enough people buy your paintings?

What do you do when your primary creative endeavor does not support you enough emotionally or financially?

Psychologist and creativity coach, Eric Maisel, PhD warns that this can have emotional consequences: “We get anxious because we fear failing, because we fear disappointing ourselves, because the work can be extremely hard, because the marketplace may criticize us and reject us.”

See my related article Managing Creative Anxiety: Change Your Thinking.

What brought this topic to mind was an article by Lisa A. Riley, MA, LMFT, a Creativity Coach and licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, who notes that we invest a lot of money, time and energy into training for a chosen creative profession, “hoping to actually be able to make a living doing the very thing we felt passionate about when we first embarked on that path.”

But, she adds, “In the state of our economy, creative professionals are having more and more difficulty finding jobs that match their qualifications.”

Continued: Diversifying Your Creative Work in a Challenging Economy.

She said, “I let my emotions and feelings be my guide. I find the things that trouble me the most, the things I wish I could change, are what I need to explore. And it’s always good to start with something that scares me.”

Being scared may be indispensable for creative expression

Fear is a simple label for a variety of experiences, some helpful for artists, but others – like anxiety – limiting or corrosive.

Continued in post: Creating and Fear.

Depression and anxiety are sometimes hard to tell apart. While they may seem like completely different conditions, chronic depression can hide anxiety, while people who suffer from general feelings of anxiety may actually be experiencing a symptom of depression.

Further, when people begin treatment for depression, the new focus on underlying issues sometimes causes anxiety symptoms, such as frequent heart palpitations, agitation and feelings of nervousness.

Which is it?

Many times, the same individual feels depressed and anxious, either at different times or at the same time.

This can make it more challenging to decide whether the main issue is depression or an anxiety disorder.

Symptoms that are the same in both conditions include obsessive thoughts or rumination, panicky feelings, stomach upset and racing heartbeat. …

The goal [of treatment] is to keep levels of mood-regulating neurotransmitters high. While medications can be helpful in this regard, you don’t necessarily need them.

Lifting Mood the Natural Way

Levels of serotonin increase when you exercise, eat a healthy diet and spend time outdoors.

That’s why regular exercise and healthy eating habits are so important for people who suffer from depression and/or anxiety disorders.

Continued in The Link Between Depression And Anxiety

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Author J.K. Rowling says, “I feel very strongly that there is a move to sanitise literature because we’re trying to protect children, not from the grizzly facts of life, but from their own imaginations.

“We need to fear and need to confront fear in a controlled environment and that’s a very important part of growing up.” [starpulse.com]

Literature and drama, including movies, can provide that kind of controlled environment, as Jungian analyst and writer Marie-Louise von Franz, among others, explores in her books such as Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales.

But how does experiencing fear relate to being creative?

In her HuffingtonPost article Fear and Self-Loathing in Hollywood, Arianna Huffington writes, “Courage, my compatriot Socrates said, is the knowledge of what is not to be feared. But far too often in Hollywood, people are afraid of their own shadows — which can be a real career-killer.

“After all, it’s next to impossible to be truly creative when you are afraid of shadows (unless you are a nubile teen cast in a slasher flick, in which case you have a very good reason to fear those dark nooks and crannies).

“The most stultifying and damaging fear infecting Hollywood is, of course, the fear of failure, because it keeps you from taking risks — and risk is an essential element of creativity and art. Failure is part and parcel of any creative life. It’s not the opposite of success; it’s an integral part of success.”

Arianna Huffington is author of the book On Becoming Fearless.

Actor Molly Parker ["Deadwood"] agrees that a lot of decisions in Hollywood “get made based on fear” and says, “It’s something that I try really hard to not buy into… (but) I’m often attracted to projects that scare me in terms of what they’re about, because it challenges who I am and who I think I am and what I think the world is about.”

Actor and producer Drew Barrymore thinks “There’s something liberating about not pretending. Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk.” [From imdb.com]

One exuberant instance of her daring was in 1995 when she flashed David Letterman on his show. “How fun was that?,”Barrymore commented about it. “I’m so glad I was so free at one point in my life.”

Barrymore still nurtures that spirit at times: “I’ll drive in Ireland and park my car and run out into the field and rip all my clothes off and just run in the wheat fields naked. That’s for no one to see. That’s to have that freedom of feeling, like, at one with nature. So I am completely unguarded still.”

She adds, “I can’t handle actors who are guarded. I just think that it’s a tragedy when people are self-protective and angry about it. You have to know what the job entails.” [From How To Be Happy All the Time, by James Kaplan, Parade, Jan 21, 2007.]

Sandra Bullock is also someone who embraces risk as a creative strategy in choosing her acting roles.

She says, “I don’t do anything anymore that feels safe. If it doesn’t scare the crap out of you, then you’re not doing the right thing…” [From the page: Fear.]

The photo is Bullock in one of her bold roles, as Leigh Anne Tuohy in “The Blind Side.”

We can learn to risk fear and work with it to be more creative.

Psychiatrist Judith Orloff M.D. outlines strategies for overcoming fear, including: “Try not to obsess on fear — we are addicted to fear. Replace it with a positive thought or action… Avoid energy vampires, people who suck you dry with their fear or doom and gloom attitude.” [From her book Positive Energy.]

Robert Maurer, a clinical psychologist and teacher, exclaims, “Fear is good. As children, fear is a natural part of our lives, but as adults we view fear as a disease. It’s not a disease. Children say they are afraid or scared, but adults use the clinical terms anxiety or depression.

“A writer should not view fear as something bad, but as essentially doing something right.” [From article Writers can use fear to advantage, by Victor Inzunza.]

Dr. Maurer is author of the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life, and a related CD/Workbook program.

But we also need to be aware of the quality of our fear, and how valid it really is.

In his article Facing Fear with Deliberate Awareness, personal development teacher and musician Tupelo Kenyon notes that in our history as a species, “fear was an important tool for survival. Faced with a hungry wild animal, our fear kicked in, and our imagination provided us with graphic images of what was about to happen. Lunch!”

But, he adds, even without that kind of threat today, “our fear reflex still kicks in, just the same.”

“It’s not so much what’s happening in our world that creates the fear as what’s happening in our minds.”

He quotes Montaigne (1533-1595): “He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because of his fear.”

The video is by science journalist Jeff Wise, author of Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger.

Here are quotes from a couple of his articles :

Stealth Super-Powers

“Even low levels of fear can have a positive effect. A century ago, physiologists recognized that we tend to do better at a given task as the intensity of the challenge increases. Eventually we reach a performance maximum, beyond which our abilities begin to degrade. Taken together, these performance trends yield an inverted-U shape, known to psychologists as the Yerkes-Dodson law. Just when the peak occurs depends not only on the person but on the skill involved.”

Nine Secrets of Courage From ‘Extreme Fear’

“One crucial tool for mastering fear is to develop a sense of confidence in your abilities. You can train yourself for this mindset by setting challenging but reachable goals that become progressively more difficult. Dread public speaking? Make a toast at a small dinner party. Afraid of heights? Try tackling the lower reaches of a climbing wall. Above all, be sure to reward yourself when you’re successful.”

Both of these articles are in the Psychology Today collection Overcoming Fear.

Related pages:
Fear articles / books
Courage / confidence

Eric Maisel provides helpful ideas about fear vs anxiety over success. He wrote:

Hello, everybody:

Yesterday I addressed the Tri-Valley branch of the California Writers Club on the subject of “overcoming creative anxiety.” I described 24 sources of anxiety in the lives of creative people and 22 anxiety-management strategies.

In the question-and-answer period that followed, a fellow asked, “Can you tell us a little bit more about ‘the fear of success’?”

In fact, I had used the phrase ‘the anxiety of success’ in my talk; and it struck me that the phrases ‘the fear of success’ and ‘the anxiety of success’ were very different one  from the other. Language is so interesting!

‘Fear of success’ is a future-looking idea: it is about your relationship to the success that might come your way one day. ‘Anxiety of success’ is a now-looking idea: it is about your relationship to the success you are currently experiencing.

Whereas ‘fear’ and ‘anxiety’ may be relatively interchangeable words in some sentences, ‘the fear of success’ and ‘the anxiety of success’ are not interchangeable.

Both are real and both are problematic; but they are different. It is the difference between an addict worrying that at some point in the future he may encounter a trigger that causes him to slip versus suddenly finding himself surrounded by temptation right now.

‘Fear of success’ can be dealt with cognitively: you notice how your thoughts are weakening your resolve and you replace those self-sabotaging thoughts with thoughts that serve you.

The anxiety that arises from actual success, on the other hand, must be dealt with behaviorally. You must do something with the new offers coming in, the fan mail, the interview requests, the invitations to excess and distraction.

Try not to fear success. It is true that success may bring with it some new anxieties, but what aspect of living doesn’t?

Let’s raise a glass to [a year] filled with our successes. May all the hard work that each of you is doing pay dividends. If we all cross our fingers for each other, that will amount to thousands of crossed fingers!

Best, Eric

P.S. Don’t forget to take a look at my class on overcoming creative anxiety at dailyom.com. Start it when you like and pay what you want.

[From an issue of his newsletter: Dec 20, 2009]

His related book: Mastering Creative Anxiety: 24 Lessons for Writers, Painters, Musicians, and Actors from America’s Foremost Creativity Coach

Eric Maisel is also author of the Meaning Solution Program.

Related:
Articles by Eric Maisel
Managing anxiety articles
Anxiety Relief Solutions site

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Artwork at top: Fear of Success, by toastedghost. Used by permission.

Eric Maisel, fear of success, success anxiety, creative anxiety