There are hundreds of ways to manage stress, from doing yoga to switching to decaffeinated coffee, to taking a vacation. The reason why such remedies, or treatments, have limited power is because they do not address stress’ underlying cause. While there may be a host of factors that trigger stress — such as worry, fear, anger, interpersonal conflicts, overworking, and disease — the primary cause of stress is anxiety.
Psychotherapists, who should know better, invariably equate anxiety with stress. But stress is merely the physical tensions and emotional strains produced when the world impinges on us. What, then, is anxiety? Have you ever looked over a cliff and felt a kind of nauseous vertigo? That is anxiety. Pure anxiety!
But anxiety also has a cognitive component, for when we experience anxiety we are perceiving something about ourselves. Zen masters contend that we are perceiving our unreality! You may object that your anxiety is about getting laid off from work, or about your marriage, your cholesterol levels, the fact that the North Koreans have nukes, etc. But those are fears. At the root of those fears is anxiety.
Having conflated stress with anxiety, therapists then seek to alleviate stress with behavioral therapy, drugs (like Prozac), relaxation techniques and other forms of "stress management." But any therapy, or treatment, that treats the physiological manifestation of anxiety, i.e., stress, without addressing its cognitive dimension, retards a person’s emotional and spiritual development. One can run from anxiety, but one cannot hide from anxiety, for there is an inexorable truth to anxiety.
Unlike psychotherapy — which reduces anxiety to stress and then seeks to eradicate, alleviate, treat, or manage stress, as one would a disease or a disorder — philosophical counseling uses anxiety as a doorway into deeper questions. Dr. Dillof will teach you the art of listening to and understanding your anxiety, for that is the fastest route to self-knowledge, emotional freedom, self-renewal, inner peace, and mystical joy. And as a result of this philosophical anxiety “treatment,” you’ll be a lot less stressedout!
Feeling anxious? Dr. Dillof offers philosophical counseling, as an anxiety “treatment” (and also as a depression “treatment”), by phone and in person. For information, call him toll-free at 1-888-737-5724 or local at: (607) 723-2663 or e-mail him at mdillof@verizon.net. The telephone can allow for an intense conversation. Why, then, drive to a session — in the rain, snow, cold and dark — spending money on fuel?
No matter what part of the globe you inhabit — from New York City (NYC) to Los Angeles CA, from London to Tokyo, from Boston MA to Chicago IL, from Brooklyn to Queens, from Binghamton to Ithaca, from Scranton PA to Syracuse NY, from Vestal to Endicott, from White Plains to Westchester, from Rochester to Buffalo, from Nassau to Suffolk, from Louisville KY to Cincinnati OH, from Indianapolis IN to Hartford CT, from Hollywood CA to Miami Beach FL, from Minneapolis MN to Madison WI, from Portland OR to Washington DC, from Seattle WA to the Bronx NY, from Toronto Canada to Vancouver, from San Francisco to Houston — distance is no barrier to an illuminating counseling and life coaching session!
FREE 15 minute telephone chat with Dr. Dillof and assessment. Call today! Our telephone/office hours are 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, Eastern Standard time, everyday except Saturday.
