Run For Your Fears

Jogging can help relieve stress and anxiety

(HealthDayNews) -- Did you know that jogging can release anxiety and help you control that feeling of breathless panic that accompanies fears and phobias?

That's the advice from British psychiatrist Arnold Orwin, who discovered the running cure while treating a 24-year-old patient who had an unusual fear of toilet tanks -- the overhead basins common in British washrooms. She was terrified of the sound of running water above her head.

Orwin concealed a toilet tank on a high ledge in his office. When the patient saw it, she ran from the room in a state of panic. The short sprint worked. When she recovered her breath, she discovered the tank no longer made her anxious.

Orwin advises people to run before they have to face their fears. Claustrophobics, for example, might take a brisk jog before climbing into an elevator. It might also help to run before you give a speech -- not only will it give you good color, it will help to calm your "performance nerves."

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