Hi. All. I have joined this forum as it looks to be good and well run. My main interest is in the teachings of Dr. Claire Weekes whose books and tapes I found so useful in my recovery from a nasty bout of GAD. Over many years in fact. That and Jungian psychotherapy saved me a lot of suffering and enabled recovery. I hope anyone interested in Dr. Weekes or Carl Jung will be able to enter into discussion and if I am able to help at all then feel free to ask. jonathan123
Hi Jonathan - Welcome to Healthypages :wave:
Good to hear you have got over your problems and feel able to help others. I'm not familiar with Dr Weekes' work but hope to learn a little from your discussions.
Hello Jonathan. Welcome to Healthypages!
I'm not familiar with her either I'm afraid, but will also be interested to learn more.
Dr.Claire Weekes
Hi. Mountaineer. Thanks for your reply and interest. A brief run down on Dr.Weekes may help. She was Australian physician who wrote a number of books on nervous illness and especially Agoraphobia. She was nominated twice for the Nobel prize for medicine for her work with agoraphobics. She was also awarded the MBE. Alas, she is no longer with us, but she has a following in the UK and the USA. Her publishers have compiled a compilation of her works called "Essential help for your Nerves" available from any good booksellers. All her books were best sellers at the time.There are many CD's and videos available. Her basic philosophy was that instead of 'fighting' and 'struggling' with our feelings in nervous illness we should totally accept them Go with them. This is, of course, against the natural instinct we have to push the feelings away; to try and ignore them; to fight with them. "You must fight this thing; you mustn't let it get the better of you" was anathema to her teaching. She also disagreed with her psychiatrist colleagues in that she felt the present needed dealing with and not the past. The past may have caused the present suffering it was the 'sensitisation' in the present that needed dealing with. Going into the past availed nothing. This was and is controversial, but the number of sufferers who have been helped is considerable. She felt that it was the 'exaggeration' of normal feelings in the nervously ill that led to so called, 'breakdowns'. (I prefer the word 'breakthrough' but that is another story!). Her teachings did not include advice on more serious former of mental illness and I never venture into that area as I have no expertise in that field. It was mainly about Agoraphobia, GAD and it's associated problems. Hope this helps. Best wishes. jonathan.
Hi Jonathan
I am familiar with the work of Dr Claire Weekes and in fact, also used her teachings to assist in my own GAD (which lasted a long time!) many years ago now. Although still not widely known (unfortunately) what Dr Claire preached was so simple (but brilliant - as all good things are) and of course now it makes so much sense to just "go with the flow". As you have put so well here in your explanation to others, if you are not fighting or fleeing from something you will not get the same "fight or flight" response ie overloaded with adrenaline and stress hormones which exacerbate the feelings associated with anxiety (such as heart palpitations, shallow breathing, feeling faint and panicky etc).
I had almost forgotten about Dr Claire Weekes wonderful work, and how it had helped me.
Thank you for bringing her to others' attention - I am sure that many people could benefit 🙂