Female Hormonal Changes and Anxiety

Some women are more sensitive to hormonal fluctuations than others. For many women, anxiety issues appear for the first time during periods of hormonal change.

For other women, hormonal changes intensify previously existing anxiety symptoms.

Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS), post-childbirth, and perimenopause (the period of time before the onset of menopause).

It may take the form of panic attacks, nervousness, sweating, intense fear, anxiety combined with depression, or other overwhelming symptoms.

Here are several periods of hormonal change that can intensify or trigger anxiety in women.

Puberty -- Developing girls experience hormonal changes as they prepare to begin their reproductive years.

Monthly menstrual cycle -- Often girls and women experience PMS the week before their period.

Following childbirth -- The severe drop in certain hormones following childbirth can cause dramatic physical symptoms and a temporary feeling of depression or anxiety; in some women, it is prolonged.

Perimenopause -- Perimenopause is the period of time when the body is approaching menopause. It may last from two to ten years. During this time the menstrual cycle becomes irregular as the hormone levels keep fluctuating, causing some women to experience PMS-like symptoms.

Although many of us may use the term "going through menopause" to describe this period of time, it is actually called perimenopause.

Many women experience panic attacks for the first time during perimenopause.

Other symptoms such as insomnia, hot flashes, rapid heartbeat, and sweating are also common.

With surgical menopause (hysterectomy), you'll likely experience perimenopausal symptoms after the surgery, even if you did not experience symptoms prior to surgery.

Symptoms can be prolonged and are due to the dramatic and sudden decrease of certain hormones as a result of the removal.

In non-surgical circumstances, menopause occurs after a woman has no periods for twelve consecutive months.

It lasts only one day. Many women report feeling better than ever mentally and physically after menopause, due to the fact that hormone levels stabilize.

Hormonal Change Triggers the Fight Or Flight Response

Due to the fact that hormonal change is a stressor, it triggers our "fight or flight" response.

The fight or flight response is the body's inborn, self-protective response to perceived danger. When we perceive that we are under stress, our bodies send out a rush of cortisol, adrenaline, and other brain chemicals to prepare us to "fight" or "flee" the danger.

The fight or flight response triggers the physiological changes that we associate with anxiety, such as rapid heartbeat, increased blood pressure, sweating, muscle tension, narrowed mental focus, heightened emotion, and much more.

These are the same physical sensations that many women experience when their hormone levels fluctuate.

In other words, most of the symptoms women experience during times of hormonal change are really fight or flight reactions.

While harmless, these physical sensations can be intense and overwhelming.

Because of various hormonal changes in our bodies that take place from puberty to menopause, plus the fact that many of us are in a constant state of stress due to our lifestyle and thought patterns, our fight or flight response mechanism can become "hypersensitive."

In other words, our bodies may be stuck in the "on" switch of fight or flight.

What normally wouldn't trigger symptoms, now initiates symptoms and perpetuates an ongoing cycle.

Fight or flight reactions in and of themselves are harmless. However, when our thoughts convince our rational minds that these symptoms are scary and dangerous, we create an anxiety cycle.

Anxiety consists of more than fight or flight reactions acting by themselves.

Unproductive thoughts play a critical role in creating and perpetuating the anxiety we experience.

Our thoughts convert fight or flight reactions into anxiety, and a self-perpetuating cycle begins.

Soon we find ourselves limiting our behaviors because of anxiety too, which further entrenches the vicious cycle.

When a person is under stress, unresolved emotions and issues commonly come to the forefront.

Because hormonal change is a major stressor, it can bring up internal conflicts and self-doubt in many areas of our lives.

All of a sudden, we may find that the negative self-talk that we successfully pushed to the background of our lives during less stressful times is now playing center stage.

During periods of hormonal change, we may also feel uncertain about our changing roles (e.g. maturing from girl to woman, becoming a mother, becoming a mature woman past child bearing years), which can add to our internal conflict.

When we fail to successfully resolve internal conflicts and the unhelpful thought patterns that contribute to them, we create a breeding ground for anxiety.

Combined with fight or flight symptoms, it's no wonder that these unproductive thoughts create and perpetuate the anxiety cycle!

What can you do if hormone-related anxiety affects you?

Here's some great news! The same tools that you can use to overcome anxiety due to other reasons can help you to conquer anxiety related to hormonal changes too.

Research shows that cognitive-behavioral techniques that help you change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, lifestyle changes, relaxation techniques, and nutritional strategies (all found in our Conquer Anxiety Success Program) can help women experiencing hormonal changes.

These types of strategies not only help women regain a sense of control over their lives, but actually achieve improved physical and emotional well being!

Here are afew tips to get you started feeling better:

-- Focus on reducing preventable stress in your life that triggers the fight or flight response -- stop the yo-yo dieting; increase sleep to eight or nine hours a night; exercise regularly; don't skip meals; cut back on your frantic schedule; and decrease stimulants such as caffeine, for example.

The body isn't designed for constant stress. When we are bombarded with constant stress, our ability to cope can become overwhelmed because the elevation in stress hormones makes the fight or flight switch remain "on."

-- Learn how to train your body to respond differently to stress so that you can automatically turn the false alarm "off" when the fight or flight response is triggered.

Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation can help you achieve this goal.

-- Most importantly, learn how to change how you think. Our thoughts are what convert the harmless fight or flight response into a vicious cycle of anxiety.

Remember, just as our thoughts hold the key to creating anxiety, they also hold the key to eliminating it!

Jammy Hokins writes for http://www.anxietyremedies.info where you can find out more about cheap hotels and other topics.

Wireless Network Security: How to Use Kismet

Kismet is a wireless network detector / sniffer which can give you a vast amount of information about wireless networks. Wireless network security flaws are well documented but often very hard for the common person to understand. I will be showing you how to use kismet with out even having to install Linux, or compile kismet.

First you need to proceed to remote-exploit.org and download and burn their Auditor CD. (IF you dont know how to burn an ISO image, go to Google). This version of Linux doesnt install or modify your hard drive; it will boot from the CD and use a Ram Drive (On your Memory).

Auditor is not only a great tool for testing wireless network security with kismet but it also has many other computer security tools on it as well.

Client Window

Next, to start Kismet proceed to the Linux version of the start menu, and press Auditor. Now proceed to the wireless /scanning/kismet tools/kismet.

Once you click on Kismet it will ask you for a default location to place the Kismet log files for analyzing later, just press the desktop or temp file.

Now I will show you how to use Kismet. When kismet initially opens you will see a greenish box with numbers and network names (If any are near you) clicking away dont be overwhelmed. (Also I cant show you how to use kismet if you dont have the correct wireless adapter, get an ORINICO Gold Classic Card off EBAY.) The Orninco gold classic card will be automaticly detected by auditor linux.

The Kismet columns will show the wireless networks SSID (Name), Type of device (Access point, gateway) Encryption or no Encryption, an IP range and number of packets. Kismet will pick up hidden networks with SSID broadcast Disabled also, Netstumbler will not.

Now Press H, to bring up the Help Menu. This will give the nuts and bolts on how to use kismet. If you tab down to the network you are auditing and press C, Kismet will show you all the computers that are using that wireless access point / gateway. This Kismet screen will show you the clients MAC address, Manufacture of Wireless Adapter, IP address range and traffic.

Kismet: Help Menue

Now to get out of that screen press Q. Tab Down on the Main Kismet Screen to another SSID and press I. This Kismet window will show detailed information about the wireless network. The Kismet detail screen will show the type of network (Infrastructrure / Adhoc), signal strength, channel, encryption type, and much more.

Kismet will also give you sound alerts when new wireless networks are discovered or security alerts or suspicious clients are in range. Suspicious clients would be people like you who are using Kismet or Networkstumbler. Unlike you these could be Wardrivers looking for venerable networks to hack into.

Kismet Alert Page

You can prevent War drivers from discovering your wireless network by performing a proper site survey which will help limit signal bleed off to unneeded areas. You should write down the suspicious MAC address and keep an eye on your access logs. If the War Drivers are really stupid just look out your window and look for cars with weird antennas.HA HA HA.

Kismet is more than just a tool to discover wireless networks; it can be used in conjunction with other tools to crack WEP/WPA. Many websites will claim that WEP can be cracked in less that five minutes. This is only half the truth because it could take many hours,days,months to gather enough packets to crack. Good luck and have fun learning the more advanced applications of kismet.

Keep your wireless network simple and secure. Join the most popular wireless networking newsletter on the internet http://www.wirelessninja.com

Having Fun at a Baby Shower

Planning to have baby shower? Try out these baby shower games!

How Big is Your Belly?

Have guests slice off a piece of string to the length they think the pregnant woman's belly is in circumference. The mom-to-be then wraps every string around her belly, one at a time, to see which piece is the closest. Whichever guest has the closest measurement is given a prize.

Guess the Baby

Have guests bring baby pictures of themselves in advance. Every guest must match the baby picture with the other guests. Whoever guesses the most right, receives a prize.

'My Water Broke!'

Buy some plastic babies and freeze them in ice cube trays. Place one in all of the guests' drinks. The first person whose baby breaks out of the ice and floats to the top, receives a prize. The winner has to yell, 'My water broke!'

Do not Say 'Cute'

Attach numerous small safety pins to one large safety pin. Ask the guests to attach the large safety pin to their shirt and tell them the forbidden word, i.e. 'cute' or 'baby' or anything else you might like. When a guest hears another guest say the prohibited word, they get to take one of that guest's safety pins. Whoever has the most safety pins by the end of the shower wins a prize. Cute is a good forbidden word if the mom-to-be will be opening presents at the shower.

Messy Diapers

Get a few candy bars and melt each one into a disposable diaper. Use a variety of candy bars that are less common to jazz it up. Label each diaper with a number and ask the guests to guess which candy bar is in the diaper. They can use their senses to guess the kind of candy- possibly even taste. Whoever gets the most diapers correct, wins a prize. Don't forget a camera!

Footprint and Handprint Advice

Cut out footprints and have guests write down advice or helpful hints on them. Place them in a scrapbook for the mother-to-be.

Stork Bingo

Take blank bingo cards and hand them out to each guest. Guests will fill in the bingo card by guessing what the mother-to-be is going to receive as a gift. While she opens her gifts, guests scratch off the item from their card. Whoever gets a bingo first, wins.

Word Scramble

Scramble up a list of baby related words. The guest who unscrambles all the words, receives a prize. .

Nursery Rhyme Lines

Write down one line from a nursery rhyme. Ask all the guests to guess which nursery rhyme the line is from. The person who gets the most right wins a prize.

Baby Food Mix-Up

Remove the labels from a bunch of different jars of baby food and re-label the jars. Ask the guests to guess the type of baby food by looking at the jar without opening it. A prize is given to the guest who guesses the most correctly.

Note: Use of this article requires links to be intact.

As a father of eight, Chris Dunn enjoys writing articles for the Baby Shower Games section of his childbirth website.