Researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia conducted a systematic review of studies that compare the impact of various techniques on reducing pain and distress in children getting shots for immunization.

The investigators identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs that measured the impact of these interventions during the injection of vaccines in children 0 to 18 years of age. Both self-report and observer assessments were used as measures.

A research team from New York University and the University of Texas at Austin demonstrated that timing is critical in extinguishing a fear response – and this has groundbreaking potential for the treatment of phobias, anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress.  Evidently, there’s a brief window of opportunity for rewriting painful emotional memories immediately after re-activating them, when the imprinted memory becomes labile and open to change.

Simple fear was created in 65 subjects by giving them a mild electrical shock on the wrist one third of the time when shown a colored square appear on a computer screen (Earlier research in conditioned learning shows that this is the frequency of ‘punishment’ that creates a lasting association).

Our seven-year-old son Sam is a very sweet boy who has had problems with anxiety since pre-school. He now is in second grade with an excellent teacher and many neighborhood friends in his class.  He is also a bright boy - schoolwork has never been a problem for him. In spite of all this, at the beginning of the school year he became very anxious, was reluctant to go to school and started wetting the bed again.

This happened at the beginning of first grade too, lasting for many months. This year, my social worker sister predicted this was likely to happen again and coached us to become proactive. She recommended we keep tools on hand from your website to help Sam.  

We used two CDs  – Sleep Fairy right before bedtime and Magic Island in the morning before school – sometimes with breakfast in bed!  He enjoyed listening to them immediately.

Question:

Hi, Belleruth.  I'm a psychotherapist, and I have quite a few of your guided imagery CD's that I use with my patients.  But this question is personal... my 7 year old daughter has had stomach aches for years.  We've had tests run from time to time, but all is well physically.

I would like to buy her a CD from your website to help her with her stomach aches. Most of the ones for kids seem to focus on relaxation. Perhaps that would be enough.  I'm wondering which CD you would recommend for her.

Rosalynne

A grateful parent posted this paean to the Sleep Fairy, and it’s amazingly similar to what my niece told me years ago – she’s the one who put me onto this phenom of a snooze-inducing CD for kids.

She had a child with night terrors who was too scared to fall asleep.  Nights were hellish for the whole family for months – not to mention the cranky, exhausted days that followed.

They tried all sorts of things, but to no avail. Then a friend suggested she try this CD, and it was like blessed magic fairy dust. Suddenly they had a sleeping child. It was right away. 

Question:
First I wanted to say thank you for your work! I use your General Wellness, MS, Stress and Healthful Sleep cds frequently. My question has to do with anxiety. I am seeing a doc for meds, but I still have some breakthrough anxiety especially, at stressful times and while menstruating.

I recently purchased the Panic Attacks cd, thinking the calming and feeling secure images would help. When I received it I started having second thoughts. Before I open it, would this be helpful to me? I saw that you do recommend the Stress cd to people with anxiety. Thank you
Joyce

My wife suffers from panic attacks, anxiety, depression, OCD and medical phobias. These issues have been going on for over a decade with no resolution in sight. The problems seemed to start just after a death in the family, and the anxiety just escalated from there until it turned into debilitating OCD, depression etc.

The largest obstacle to overcome seems to be the medical phobia. Because of this phobia I can't get her to seek treatment, so one thing just escalates into another. At this point she barely speaks to people, doesn't watch television or read etc. This is because any word she associates with medicine sends her into an uncontrollable panic. The words don't have to be medical - she just has to be able to draw some sort of correlation – for instance, hospitality, sounds like hospital.

This has been the month of dramatic thank you notes that attest to the power of guided imagery for anxiety, panic episodes, OCD and posttraumatic stress symptoms.   The HJ staff never tires of reading these emails, whether dramatic or tepid - we don’t care.

Here is what one fellow had to say:

Hi.  Can someone tell Belleruth (may I please be so informal?) and the HJ staff that the Panic Attack CD saved me from harming myself?  My sister, who is a cancer survivor and fan of Health Journeys, turned me on to this a few weeks ago when I started experiencing panic attacks and lost control of my life.  I got the CD, listen to it every night when I put myself to bed and again when I wake up, and I'm recovering.

Thank you, thank you, thank you - you literally saved my life.

Warmest regards,
Dean D.

My friend gave me this CD (Successful Surgery) when I discovered I needed open-heart surgery. Open-heart surgery!  I'd never been admitted to a hospital nor had I had any medically invasive procedures in my fifty-three years of life.

I was so anxious I had shortness of breath.  I know it was anxiety, because I was asymptomatic from my aneurysm. But I started listening to the Successful Surgery CD 3 weeks before my operation, and I listened to it during the surgery, and it was amazing.  I was so relaxed that I was joking with the anesthesiologists. I experienced minimal pain, zero complications, and 9 weeks later, my recovery is going amazingly well.