My family has made a funny observation...

[MirandaLey]

My family is so pleased with how well I've done with this program so far. In fact, I'm raving so much about how much this program has helped me that I'm always telling other people I know who are under some stress or who I think would benefit from the program (basically everyone!!) about it and trying to convince them to try it. My sister, who I am very close with, made the observation that it sounded like I was being paid to talk up the program and the company. I had to laugh at this! I never looked at it that way, but it's absolutely right. I remember thinking the success stories sounded too good to be true, but it's all real! I am on Lesson 10 and yes I have a long way to go but I am feeling so positive and proud of my recovery so far :O)

[BlueD]

I am so glad this has worked for you, I am on session 3 but I haven't started the homework yet. Its kind of hard because I have to do this all alone and I like doing things with other ppl so its kind of hard to stay on top of things.
What is your story? Did you have anxiety or depression or both??
Hearing things like this gives me a lot of hope!! Thanks

[Alejo88]

Wow that's really awesome to hear, I've had the program for about 2 years and I've only ever gotten as far as session 5.

Did you ever go through times where you just put the program off, did you do all of the home work, did you do the relaxation 3 times a day?!? Gah, so many questions. I want to be like you saying the same thing.

[MirandaLey]

Hi guys! Honestly, this program came into my life a long time ago and yet it's just this past fall that I've really started to give it my all, and the results are so wonderful. Let me briefly tell you my story.

I have diagnosed obsessive compulsive disorder, in the form of overwhelming (at times) scary thoughts that seemed totally out of my control. I remember thinking as a child, "If I have a bad thought when I'm crossing under this doorway, something bad will happen," and I'd have to repear the action again and again. My parents fought a lot when I was little and when my father would leave to go for a drive to cool off I'd be terrified that he'd kill himself, or just random thoughts like that. They never really came to the forefront and took over my life until I was about 15 turning 16, Grade 11 I believe. All of a sudden I was having these thoughts that I was going to hurt someone in my family, by stabbing them with a knife or beating them or something horrible like that. I had no idea where these thoughts were coming from and they sickened and terrified me. I told my parents and they took me to the doctor and he said that I had anxiety. Well, he didn't put me on any medication because of my age but referred me to a mental health worker. This didn't really help though, because I lived in such a small Northern town (I'm from the province of Manitoba in Canada) that she only came once every two months, and it wasn't enough to help me. My life was miserable. I had gone from a happy go lucky, bubbly, joyful girl to someone who was having DAILY panic attacks and would cry hysterically every night before bed, begging my mom to pray with me to Jesus that these thoughts would stop. Eventually all this stress created depression, and even when I wasn't feeling the panic or having the thoughts I'd feel hopeless and sad and afraid. I'd lay on the couch downstairs and just watch anything on TV. I remember it was May, the month of my Mom's birthday, and it was her birthday and I came upstairs to get my picture taken with her for her birthday. I was miserable. I look back on that picture now and I can see the misery in my eyes though I was trying to be brave. It was a dark period of my life and the ONE thing that saved me was this program.

My Mom was working as a health care aid at the time and she was up late one evening at a client's house and saw the infomercial. She thought, "Wow, that sounds like Mandy," when she heard the people talking. Immediately she and my Dad answered the program and honestly, I don't know WHAT I would have done without it. I was never so depressed that I thought of suicide, but I remember crying and my parents telling me that my mental health worker would be back the next week, and me saying, "I don't know if I can make it that long," and they asked me what I meant and I couldn't tell them -- even I didn't know.

The program came in -- back then it was in tape format -- and I immediately started. I remember reading the bit that said there are no subliminal messages in the tape, and I laughed and thought, "Wow, they sure know people like me!" From the day I started the program my panic attacks stopped. I think it was just such a relief to know that this was just anxiety and that it was so normal. Even though my doctor had said it was anxiety, I didn't know why I was having those scary thoughts. But the moment Lucinda talked about having thoughts of hurting people in that very first tape, I felt like the weight of the entire world was lifted off my young shoulders. During the next five or six weeks I did the program faithfully, but stopped because my panic attacks were gone, the depression lifted and dissapeared, and I felt better. After all I was a teenager, lol, and I wanted to have fun! So I kept the program but set it aside and got on with my life.

Fast forward to 2008 (I believe) when I was first living with my boyfriend (now he is my husband). He had opened up a sporting goods store and it wasn't going very good. We were facing bankruptcy and had to make the decision to shut down the store and move to the northern part of the province so he could take a job in a mine to make enough money to pay off the loans he had incurred. I had to give up a job I loved working in radio and go to a place totally new. In the weeks leading up to our move I started to feel really anxious, and started to have the panic attacks and the depression again. For some reason I didn't think of the program right away, or I thought I was worse than last time, so I went to the doctor and she put me on 20 mg of citalopram. After we moved and things settled back to normal I was fine again and weaned myself off of the medication.

In April of 2010 my boyfriend and I got married, and I was pregnant during 2011 with our first baby. During this whole time I didn't have a problem with anxiety or depression or those silly OCD thoughts, not even after the birth. I was worried about post-partum depression but it didn't happen. Then all of a sudden in June, when my daughter was about 10 months old, I was faced with the dilemma of whether to return to work or not. This felt like a huge decision, and I let the stress of it get to me. I started to feel panicky and anxious and depressed again. This really scared me, because this time around it wasn't just me, I had a husband, I had a baby, I couldn't afford to go to pieces. This was this past June. I started to have the horrible, obsessive thought that I would get so bad that I would kill myself. This filled me with fear, and I was confused -- did this obsession with suicide mean I was sucididal, or was it just a symptom of my anxiety? I started seeing a therapist and started up the program again, even though it was really hard. Eventually I got the diagnosis of OCD, and now that I look back on my life I realize that it makes so much sense about the strange thoughts I'd have in childhood. I also realized how genetic this was -- my Grandpa had spells of depression and obsessive worries about death and dying and his wife dying -- and my cousin, who is of a similar age as me, has OCD as well. My Mom had thoughts that she'd hurt her babies during the months that followed the birth of her children. But no one had told me any of this!

Since then it's been a long hard road but I can honestly say that I am back to normal. I'm my happy self again. And it's all thanks to this program. I still have moments where I feel anxious or even panicky, but I don't have panic attacks and I don't feel depressed. My OCD thoughts have almost completely stopped, but even when they are there I know that they're not real at all and are nothing to be scared of.

This program honestly has saved my life, and I wish you all the best in your journey. Have faith in God, have faith in the program, and most of all have faith in yourselves. You CAN do this. Follow the instructions. Do the homework. Follow the schedule they set, but spend extra time on lessons you think you need help with. Yes it takes dedication and extra work, but the happiness and peace of mind that comes with it is beyond priceless! May God bless you all!

[tina martin]

What a fantastic, inspiring post. You do such a good job relating all of it from childhood on. If we have tendencies to anxiety or depression the chances are they may return. There seems to be no once and for all "surgery" to be "cured" for all time. Realizing this truth is worth so much.

For yourself, for your husband, for your baby you will always return to do the best for all 3 of you. I meditate, exercise every day, remember to praise myself every day and and so keep the negatives at a distance. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Wishing you the very best. Hooray for you, for the program.

[MirandaLey]

Thank you Tina! I appreciate the positive feedback. I know since I tend to be an anxious person, it's something I will have to work on throughout my life. But so what? That doesn't scare me because everyone has something they need to work on -- whether it's an addiction, anger, low self-esteem, a bad relationship, an illness -- we all have hurdles that we have to overcome. And I think too that this program is helping me view things in a more realistic way. I expect to have anxiety again in my life, even depression, because life isn't easy and bad and sad things happen. But I also know that now I have the skills to deal with the bad stuff. Does that mean the bad stuff will go away? No, it just means that I can deal with it in a healthier way. And I may need extra help from time to time but with every experience, be it negative or positive, we only get stronger and learn to know and love ourselves that much more.

[tina martin]

You are very welcome. Yes, yes to all you say here. I also keep a journal to remember Session 3, a key one, it seems to me. Positive Self-Talk. It is so easy for the negatives to return. We must fight them.

Do give your little one a big hug and smiles from me. On my walks I sometimes see them in strollers. They are so adorable and deserve the best from us.