Question:
Here is the revised questionnaire, ready for the second
review cycle.
Please take some time to look it over. If you have any
comments or suggestions, please share them with me. It is
not too late to add things, so let me know if we've missed
anything important. Also feel free to suggest any
alternative wording.
Answer:
If you have ever experienced an anxiety or panic disorder,
please fill out this questionnaire. Even if you consider
yourself recovered, please fill out this questionnaire as
best as you can remember your experiences.
Answers do not have to be precise, simply an approximate
guess will due.
Do not to focus on your worst or last attack, but consider
your attacks in general as you answer these questions.
When finished, please e-mail your completed questionnaire
to a...@netaxs.com. All replies will be completely
confidential.
I am getting these posts all out of order, so I'm actually responding
to the group of them as a whole (but I may have missed some so please
excuse any redundancy).
These changes might be considered "life events" by Richard Holmes and
Thomas Rahe. They are the creators of the "Life Events Survey" or
"Social Readjustment Scale." It is used to predict a person's risk
of developing a physical disease as a result of cumulative life
stress. I've seen many variations of this scale with numerous
different names. Basically, it is a list of life events (around 50)
with each event assigned a point value (up to 100). If any of these
events have happened to you in a specified period (i.e. past 2
years), you circle the points. At the end, you add up the points and
compare them to the scale and find out how your stress rates.
What is interesting to me is that not all of the life events are
negative experiences. Marriage, Christmas, and graduation from
school are all life events--sometimes positive (hopefully) and
sometimes negative. The point is that changes in your life add to
stress, and stress, as many of us know, can trigger for panic
disorder just as it can trigger other physical deseases. This does
not mean that changes are bad! It just means that if you're going to
make any major changes (or even if there's holiday coming), you
should take extra care of yourself.
I'm also interested in the idea that making certain changes could
help one's recovery. Because change does add stress thereby
worsening the PD for a while, it is probably difficult for people
with PD to leave harmful (either mentally or physically)
situations--such as a bad relationship. In such circumstances, it's
so difficult to see ahead to a better time. Therefore, I think it's
a wonderful idea to include this topic on the questionnaire. If
people see that others have made these changes and became healthier
because if it, then they might be inspired to make changes in their
own lives.
In any case, perhaps the life events on the "Life Events Scale" would
give you some ideas on what to add to the questionnaire. As I said,
there are around 50 events (and certainly many more included on the
traditional scale), but they could be narrowed down into categories.
I'm not sure that "Relaxing x stress" is what I am getting
at, nor even that "stress" per se is even the right word
at all. At the risk of sounding pretentious, the word
stress seems almost too superficial. I think I'm moving
towards some sort of ontological statement being called for
- but I need to think about it. And see what ChrisB reckons, too.
At this point I'm hoping we don't have to add much more
to the questionnaire. There are almost 200 symptoms and
treatments listed so far, and I think we have most of the
major stuff. Of course, I will add anything that we feel
might be important (to do otherwise would be biased and
bad science). However, I don't want to scare people off
with a hideously vast questionnaire either.
