Once you have read the book you may feel overwhelmed by the information contained in it. This is a normal reaction and you should not worry. Start reading the book again and make notes in your diary.
First stop smoking. Just stop immediately.
Get onto the low fat, low cholesterol vegetarian diet. Stop or curtail your intake of sugar, caffeine and accept that you need to stick to this very low fat diet to cause regression in the plaque inside the artery. You must also avoid any single high fat meal for the reason mentioned earlier.
Start your exercise programme under your doctor’s supervision. Build your aerobic capacity gradually without straining yourself. Rest at the first sign of discomfort and take a tablet of nitrates, if required.
Start modifying your coronary prone behaviour, keep a diary and use the Stop Technique and Quieting Response to reduce hostile thoughts. Practise developing forgiveness, compassion and trust. Try to develop more empathy for others and learn how to give the other the benefit of doubt.
Use self-hypnosis as your primary tool for achieving deep states of relaxation, behaviour change and the exploration and healing of unconscious conflicts. Plan to do at least one 20 minute session per day.
In addition you should develop your capacity to witness your own behaviour. Mindfulness training is the method par excellence to develop this ability. So frequently through the day take breaks and become mindful of the thoughts going through your mind. Carry out as many daily activities as possible being fully present and of course learn and practise mindfulness meditation. Try to spend at least 45 minutes to an hour meditating every day.
Work on your relationship with your partner or spouse. Relationship enhancement skill training in the United States has been found to reduce hostility levels in husbands!
Work on building a new network of friends who embody the new values that you would like to imbibe. Join a support group if you can find one.
Learn deep listening skills that will help you develop closer and more empathetic relationships.
Keep a pet if you like animals. Studies show that people with pets are less likely to have a recurrence.
Start doing the activities that you found pleasurable earlier.
Become a partner with your doctor in the treatment of your disease. Ask questions, read and take a second opinion if you have any doubts.
Use other self-improvement techniques such as yoga, focussing, dream analysis and therapeutic massage such as Shiatsu.
While this will demand a great deal on your part, once you have made the effort you will find that you feel much more energetic and vibrantly alive, to the extent so that if you do go off the track, you will begin to miss your programme.
And remember, it is not worth getting upset about the small difficulties. Most things are inconsequential especially if one looks at things from a future perspective. What will my reaction be if I think about all this five years from now?
Remember that the quality of your life is much more important than its length. You can learn to cope with your illness, without becoming an invalid, by increasing your enjoyment of pleasurable things. It is important that you lean how to have a relaxed social life and start enjoying activities, apart from work.
Many people with coronary artery disease have unbalanced lives. It is important that you rediscover social activities and hobbies such as meeting friends, taking holidays, communing with nature, listening to or playing music, going for plays and movies, reading books, painting or visiting art exhibitions, window shopping, discovering low fat gourmet food and enjoying sex.
There are other things that you have enjoyed in the past or new sources of pleasure that you can explore and enjoy. Physical activity such as walking, swimming, dancing, cycling and golf offer other alternatives. Be aware of any beliefs such as ‘pleasurable activities are a waste of time’ — you will need to modify them in order to enjoy things again.
It is very important that you get enough natural sleep. Sleep deprivation is very stressful and should be avoided. Some experts believe that irregular sleep habits and deprivation due to television and the internet are important contributors to the high incidence of heart disease in youngsters and adults.
Do not try to make up for lost sleep over the week end. Develop regular sleep habits. It is useful to catnap once or twice a day for short periods of time.
In case you cannot sleep discuss it with your doctor. Sometimes sleeplessness is a side effect of some of the medication used to treat hypertension or heart disease. It may also be a sign of depression or anxiety which needs treatment. Coffee, tea and cola drinks contain caffeine and can also interfere with sleep. Hypnotherapy offers many effective techniques to resolve insomnias without the need for addictive sleeping pills.
Attempt to find a behavioural solution to your sleeplessness. Going to sleep is a habit and therefore try to sleep at a regular hour. A small snack of warm, low-fat milk and half a banana may help induce sleep. Both are rich in amino acids which help induce sleep.
If you suffer from insomnia do not read, watch television etc when you are in bed. Use your bed to sleep on. This will help recondition you to the habit of sleeping. If you find yourself worrying, get out of bed and sit in a chair and finish worrying. Then go back to bed. This will help break any habit of worrying in your bed.
Similarly, if you find it difficult to fall asleep, get up and practise self-hypnosis; read a book or listen to music till you feel sleepy again. Then go back to bed. If, even after 15 to 20 minutes, you find that you cannot sleep, get up again and read until you feel sleepy again. Practising this routine will often re-establish the habit of going to sleep soon after you go to bed.
Remember, you cannot will yourself to sleep. So do not try to sleep. Allow it to happen naturally. Some people find it useful to do mental tasks such as counting sheep or imagining themselves walking through a forest.
Following a myocardial infarction it is likely that you will get slightly depressed. While this is normal for a few days, any prolonged depression will need attention. Similarly, if you get severely depressed, you should seek professional help. Research has shown that patients who get clinically depressed have a 40% higher chance of a recurrence and a much higher risk of death.
Depression may make it difficult for you to stay with your programme as you might start feeling that life is futile or you may not feel energetic enough to do things. Getting as much aerobic exercise as is allowed is one method of preventing depression. If you are depressed there are effective hypnotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic techniques to rapidly overcome depression.
It is important for you to periodically reassess your life and goals. It can be the perfect opportunity to creatively transform your life. You may find that this requires major changes that call for courage. This is often the point in a person’s life when he faces the reality that he is not going to live forever and this can trigger a process of deep soul searching, with an appraisal of one’s values which can lead to a major existential crisis. You may also consider undergoing psychotherapy to reduce your unconscious conflicts. Existential and transpersonal therapy is most useful for people with cardiac disorders. It would be preferable to avoid the older psychotherapies such as Freudian psychoanalysis as it can bring up disturbing thoughts and feelings and make you more upset.
While hypnotherapy is very useful there are many who have started practising after a short workshop offered by travelling ‘schools’ which have remarkable names giving the idea the person is highly qualified. They give the participants many impressive looking certificates words such as International, Arizona, and California should make you cautions. Be aware that many of these so called hypnotherapists also give themselves the title doctor (Dr) by purchasing an online PhD or registering with fraudulent medical boards in India after just ten days of training. Write to the Behavioural Science Foundation bsf@psymind.net, if you would like a recommendation for a hypnotherapist.
There are a number of schools of alternative medicine legally practised in India — unani, ayurveda, homeopathy and acupuncture. The practitioners of these schools usually have a relatively poor knowledge of other schools of medicine, particularly Western medicine.
While homeopathy may lead to changes in personality and symptom relief it is not a substitute for a behavioural programme but may be helpful as an adjunct. However make sure to consult a qualified homeopath. It is not a good idea to consult a book and take homeopathic medicines on the basis of one or two symptoms. Nor is it useful to take homeopathic medication on the basis of allopathic disease entities. The homeopathic diagnostic system is very elaborate and for best results one must consult a trained homeopath.
Similarly with ayurveda. While it may help you must consult a qualified person who gives you ayurvedic medicines, many nostrums and quack remedies are being prescribed by allopaths without knowing what they contain. Similarly one should be careful of any ayurvedic medication prescribed by an allopath unless he has dual qualifications.
In addition you will find a number of naturopaths (all kinds of postal degrees are available today) that one should be wary of. Anyone can practise as a nature cure specialist and you should ideally choose one with a recognised medical degree.
I would suggest that if at all you use alternative medicine as an adjunct, under no circumstances must you stop the medication prescribed by your cardiologist without his knowledge.
A number of nostrums are available and one should be very wary of them in terms of what they contain For instance, ginseng can lead to a rise in blood pressure. Further, it has hormonal side effects. There is no convincing proof that it is useful in the conditions that it is being touted for.
As mentioned earlier there is an ongoing explosion of information on various medicines and surgical procedures used for treating cardiac disease. Many of these are in vogue at a particular point in time. Often these may not necessarily have scientific rationale and it is best that you update yourself by discussing things with your doctor. A wealth of information can be gleaned through a computerised search of current medical literature. On the internet too there are discussion groups, where it is possible for you to access information on the latest trends.
The Behavioural Science Network (http://www.psymind.net) will keep you updated about new changes and discoveries on our website. We also provide free life saving information about choosing how to choose a doctor and make informed decisions about medical interventions.
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