before I delve deep into my personal
life let me introduce myself my name is
Jonas I'm in ninth grade I like reading
sleeping and video
games good now that we're all well
acquainted I can
begin for me third grade was kind of a
sucky year all of my friends were in the
other classes the teachers weren't the
ones I wanted and I got pneumonia to
boot but what really makes the year
stand out for me was this one day in
November my mom was driving me to school
like she always did The Familiar sights
passing by my window but as the school
building came into view I began to feel
a sinking sensation in my chest a sort
of
rush I began to hyperventilate breathing
in and out much too fast and before I
knew it I was crying
my mom turned around confused like
anyone would be in a situation like this
and asked me what was wrong I didn't
know what to say the concept of panic is
not one that a third grader can
completely comprehend or at least not
this one so I simply said I don't feel
good when she asked why I simply
repeated I don't feel good at this point
we were already at the school drop off
Zone what would normally happen here on
any given day is a teacher would help
you out of the car and bring you into
school well when the woman came to help
me out of the car it was just too much I
began to ball and eventually I had to be
driven
home this series of events repeated for
about a week I would leave the house
feeling fine I would get in the car
feeling fine I would make about 78s of
the trip feeling fine but on that last
segment of the ride I would panic and I
wouldn't be able to go to school my body
would simply overload on fear and
anxiety eventually my parents realized
this was going to be a problem and I
started seeing a
psychiatrist to my horror the number one
thing she told me was that I had to
continue going to school like
normal and I know it may be hard to
comprehend this from outside of my
perspective but to me this was a death
sentence yet my parents were adamant and
I was pulled out of the car and pushed
into school each of the following
days to put it lightly these moments
were by far some of the worst I've ever
experienced imagine if you will every
inch of your body telling you something
telling you not to do something your
heartbeat booms as you shiver and Shake
of the thought sweat forms on your brow
as you try to avoid listening to the
voices telling you what you already know
hearing the sounds of your own yells
over those of the people trying to bring
you in into the place that your body is
telling you not to go all of this
combined in a mighty clanging Roar that
drowns out all rational thought
this was what I went through for more
than four years of my life it wasn't fun
but there was something important I
began to notice over time something that
confused me beyond all belief you see
once I got into school things would get
better 100% of the time no matter how
awful horrible terrible miserable things
got it would get better and it's from
here that I would like to begin to talk
about
anxiety about one in five people has
anxiety to a degree in which they need
to make active changes to their lives in
order to better manage it but anxiety is
a universal emotion felt by all and when
I told that story it may have been
confusing to some of you uncomfortable
to others but it's an important Story
one that helped me learn a lot about
myself and anxiety as a whole over the
course of those eventful four years
there were two main methods I was taught
to better handle what I was going
through these were cognitive behavioral
therapy CBT for short and exposure
now the first one cognitive behavioral
therapy that's essentially the idea that
you can work with your mind to better
roll with how you feel and to my third
grade mind no to my third through eighth
grade mind I thought this meant I was
going to be a superhero I thought that
with the snap of my fingers I would
forget the fear clowning through my head
the pounding of my heart and suddenly
smile and be AOK okay I don't need to
tell you I was wrong no like most people
I had a misconception about this in
reality cognitive behavioral therapy is
a collection of methods today often
including mindfulness you know that mind
over body stuff if you still don't know
what I'm talking about picture if you
will a friend who's really into
meditation everyone has one but
mindfulness is not meditation and it's
not some mystical hippie jippy mumbo
jumbo uh for example there was this one
exercise I had to do where I would close
my eyes and imagine waves slowly
crashing over different parts of me for
all of you trust TR close your eyes and
try to picture these waves slowly
rolling over and passing on just take a
little
time okay now for some of you that may
have felt good and for others it may
have just been weird but this would
actually slow me down and here's the
thing I'm not the only
one a study from the University of
Massachusetts found that those who are
Adept in mindfulness and cognitive
behavioral therapy these people could
actually lower and control the activity
in their posterior singulate cortex a
part of the brain believe to control
mind wandering and
concentration I don't know about all of
you but to me that's
incredible but what about that second
method I mentioned before
exposure well that's essentially the
idea that if you're scared of something
the best way to handle it is to face the
fear headon put yourself in a situation
where you'll have to interact with it I
remember in fifth grade I had a really
bad day it had been two hours before I
could bring myself into the school
building and another two before I could
enter the classroom I was fed up that
night I went to my dad and I asked him
dad why does this suck so much why do I
have to keep putting myself through this
to which he calmly turned around and
responded with embrace the
suck well it turns out that embracing
the suck is actually an effective
mechanism against fear and
anxiety the University of Pittsburgh
made a study regarding the effects of
exposure on those with OCD obsessive
compulsive disorder the study had three
groups those who were taking medication
those who were taking medication and
going through exposure treatment and
those who are only going through
exposure
treatment after the testing period was
done each group would rank their anxiety
levels here's what the study found the
two groups that used exposure treatment
ranked lower severity ratings than the
group without
this means that at least in this case
exposure worked better than
medicine so when it came to my panic
attacks obsessive exposure and OCD and
CBT made the difference when it came to
OCD and relaxation exposure and CBT made
the difference but what about all of you
in the audience what if you don't have
severe anxiety attacks what if you don't
have obsessive compulsive disorder what
if none of this applies to you
well remember that statistic before
about one in five people um having
anxiety to a degree in which they need
to take action guess how many people
have anxiety in
general five out of five people fear
panic stress these are all things that
we as human beings
experience think about it from an
evolutionary perspective these were the
emotions that would keep us away from
predators and many of the other ways
early humans could probably end up dead
but nowadays Society doesn't really have
a much of a place for those feelings so
even if our primitive fears aren't
determining the fate of our Lives
there's still an important part of them
and it's always great to have good
tools I had a friend who was terrified
of my dog every time she came over it
would be the same my dog Lucy by the way
is about as intimidating as you can
imagine for an animal to get scared by
its own
reflection so nothing changed until
after many visits and a lot of prolonged
exposure when my came over my friend
didn't react she let Lucy Pat on over
sniff give a quick lick and then walk
away and this friend with a smile on her
face continued on as though nothing had
happened and this is exposure maybe not
to a Monumental degree that will change
this girl's life but exposure
nonetheless and it helped her so imagine
if she had known to go for it from the
beginning she would have felt
comfortable in no time but let's go
beyond fears and Beyond anxiety can CBT
and exposure help in situations that
have nothing to do with these why of
course they can exposure after all is
simply a an extension of perseverance a
fundamental method in life and
CBT well a little while back I was
curious about its uses outside of Stress
Management so I did a quick Google
search here's what I
found and
this and this
so if CBT is so powerful and important
if exposure can Empower us so much why
aren't we taking these and making them
vital parts of our everyday lives why
aren't we all embracing the suck well
that's the question isn't it and to that
I have no answer thank you
[Applause]