Adventure Angst documents one person's attempts to overcome intense generalised anxiety in relation to a number of specific activities.  I was born in London and developed a passion for the great outdoors from an early age through extensive travel in the UK with my family.  My fascination with other cultures and my fantasies about visiting far flung places were spawned from school projects on topics as diverse as New Zealand and Native American culture and history and a fascination for the locations where a number of popular sixties western dramas were filmed.

In the late sixties my family made what was for me the very difficult move to the north of England.  Generalised anxiety closely linked to crippling social phobia dominated my teenage years.  After completing my A levels I began a degree in the natural sciences at a university in southern England but dropped out unable to cope with the interpersonal demands of a life away from the familiar.

After starting work I gradually began to overcome some of those difficulties through learning and implementing the interpersonal and communication skills required by my job.  Secure within the safe and comfortable confines of a twenty-something routine and with little real awareness of the nature of my problems my thoughts again turned to travel.

My childhood affinity with the mountains had never waned.  At 26, with a perceived love of travel and an undiminished curiosity about other cultures, I felt certain that I was ready to spread my wings.  At least as far as mainland Europe which might ultimately provide a stepping-stone to more distant destinations.   Despite all my previous difficulties I never, for one moment, considered that my anxious nature might sabotage my plans.

Imagine how quickly my excited anticipation turned to horror when a low key learn to ski package in Austria spawned a series of crippling panic attacks sparked by I wasn't even certain what.  A trip to Norway threw up an even more intense fear of flying and for a while I abandoned any further aspirations.  However I have never been one to baulk at a challenge and ever since then my desire to expand my horizons has inspired me to work through those psychological difficulties.  Realising my dream to emulate my childhood heroes a la "City Slickers" has been a voyage of discovery that raised as many new questions about my ability to cope with different situations as it answered.  For many years the strategies that work for me were developed by trial and error.

In the latter part of the eighties the nature of my work changed and I took a career break to explore my options.  After much consideration I chose to pursue an interest in counselling which developed from the life-changing help that I received.  I have worked as a counsellor in a variety of settings since the early nineties and also as a facilitator of counsellor training courses.  Until I undertook my training I was unaware that the approaches to overcoming anxiety and achieving objectives that I had developed were closely related to tried and tested psychological methodology. However my experiences have provided me with concrete and recurring proof that the step-by-step approach to desensitisation and achieving aims that many of my clients find helpful really works in practise.

In tandem with developing my counselling practice I have continued to travel to different destinations most of which have offered some new challenge.  There is no doubt in my mind that the fear of flying that I believed I had more or less conquered has intensified again since the events of September 11th 2001.  There are also a number of very specific activities and travel related situations that I still find more anxiety provoking than I would like and a number of activities which I am interested in trying but which I find difficult or impossible to contemplate.  I therefore continue to have plenty of opportunity to review, develop and test my coping strategies on a regular basis.