Topics

Anxiety

Happy Pills or Useful Skills?

By Peter Lambrou, Ph.D. on May 29, 2012 in Codes to Joy

Today antidepressants are the single most commonly prescribed medication in America, with 1 in 10 adults taking one. For the patients who suffer from severe clinical depression, these new pharmaceuticals have been a godsend. For everyone else, the picture is not so clear. Read More

Phobias and the Need to Be in Control

By Fredric Neuman, M.D. on May 28, 2012 in Fighting Fear

Most people feel that they are in control of themselves. They take being in control for granted. Read More

Mass Hysteria in America

By Neel Burton, M.D. on May 28, 2012 in Hide and Seek

Mass hysteria provides an alarming insight into the human mind. Read More

Stand Up To Self-Bullying

By Leslie Becker-Phelps, Ph.D. on May 28, 2012 in Making Change

Do you think of yourself as a nice and caring person to others; yet simultaneously criticize and push yourself mercilessly? Instead of continuing this self-destructive behavior, consider learning to treat yourself as well as you treat others; particularly when you are struggling or distressed. Read More

The Side Effects of Drugs: A Strategy

By Fredric Neuman, M.D. on May 27, 2012 in Fighting Fear

Even when a side effect is common, the great majority do not experience it. Read More

Recovery Through Acting

By Eric Newhouse on May 26, 2012 in Invisible Wounds

Playing the lead role in a movie about a young Marine with post-traumatic stress disorder, Matthew Pennington came to terms with his own case of PTSD. Pennington served three tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq before a roadside bomb removed one leg, shattered the other and scorched his lungs. Read More

Weighing the Ordinary Dangers of Life

By Fredric Neuman, M.D. on May 25, 2012 in Fighting Fear

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LeBron James: Why Do People Love to Hate Him?

By John Tauer, Ph.D. on May 25, 2012 in Goal Posts

Trailing 2-1 to the Indiana Pacers, the Miami Heat had their backs against the wall. Once again, fans and media were claiming LeBron James could not win the big game.

How did LeBron respond?

40 points, 18 rebounds, and 9 assists in a critical Game 4 come-from-behind win in a game that James proclaimed a must-win. Read More

Raising Kids to Handle Stress in Healthy Ways

By Susan Stiffelman on May 24, 2012 in Parenting Without Power Struggles

Whether we’re gripping the steering wheel at a red light because we're late for an appointment or shouting at someone who took the parking space we had our eye on, our childrens' cameras are always rolling. Read More

Talk About the War

By Phil Stutz and Barry Michels on May 24, 2012 in The Tools

I could tell Elizabeth was a worrier before she opened her mouth: she had a haunted look and wrung her hands together so compulsively I thought the skin would come off. Read More

The End of a Panic Disorder

By Fredric Neuman, M.D. on May 23, 2012 in Fighting Fear

A panic disorder can continue for many years. Some people become housebound for decades. I have heard it said that a panic disorder can return at any time, even after years; but this is not true. Read More

The Mental Health Costs of Academic Success

By Ruth C. White, Ph.D. on May 22, 2012 in Culture in Mind

Learning is stressful and the modern-day education stakes are high because not only does a future ride on performance but so do the bank accounts of parents and adult students. The need for anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications has trickled down from corporate executives to children in pressure-cooker elementary schools. Read More

Deconstructing Anger

By Robert Taibbi, L.C.S.W. on May 22, 2012 in Fixing Families

Jack has a temper. Growing up with alcoholic parents, he was the kind of kid who was always getting in trouble at school – threatening classmates who he thought were talking about him, quickly got into fights on the playground. Read More

Give No One Cause to Fear You

By Rick Hanson, Ph.D. on May 22, 2012 in Your Wise Brain

Much of the time the fear we trigger in others is mild but people can feel threatened by stimuli they're not actually aware of. Read More

Profiles in Courage

By Phil Stutz and Barry Michels on May 22, 2012 in The Tools

I’ve never understood why psychotherapy doesn’t deal with courage. Ask anybody what qualities they’d like more of and courage will be high up the list. Yet, like the rest of us, therapists tend to see courage as some sort of mythic power. Read More

Skylab Is Falling! Skylab Is Falling!

By Fredric Neuman, M.D. on May 21, 2012 in Fighting Fear

Skylab was a satellite about the size of a small house. There came a time when it was falling out of orbit. It was known that it was going to crash on earth within a five hour period, but it was not known where on earth, literally, it was going to strike. It could be anywhere. Read More

Full Exposure: The Sickening Treatment for OCD

By Fletcher Wortmann on May 21, 2012 in Triggered

ERP works when, guided by a trained therapist, the sufferer approaches the object of his or her fear without indulging in any compulsive ritual behaviors. These exposure exercises often involve doing things that would make anyone, even someone without an anxiety disorder, deeply uncomfortable. Read More

Troublesome Turn-ons

By Isadora Alman, MFT on May 21, 2012 in Sex & Sociability

The possibilities of what turns a person on is limited only by the individual’s imagination. It is women as well as men, young as well as mature, gay, bi and straight, who have imagined some doozies with which to bedevil themselves. Read More

Breaking Anxiety's Bizarre Death Loop

By Jeff Wise on May 21, 2012 in Extreme Fear

A person can be utterly overwhelmed by fear even though there's nothing organically wrong within his or her brain: complex systems can go off the rails despite every component working properly, a phenomenon of which ant colonies offer a vivid example. Read More

Envy as the Source of Anxiety and Discontent

By Frank J. Ninivaggi, M.D., F.A.P.A. on May 20, 2012 in Envy This!

Envy and springtime. Read More

Essential Reads: Editor's Picks

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Anxiety Blogs

  • Amy Przeworski, Ph.D.

    Don't Worry, Mom

    Coping with anxiety in families.
    By Amy Przeworski, Ph.D.
  • Fredric Neuman, M.D.

    Fighting Fear

    Confronting phobias and other fears.
    By Fredric Neuman, M.D.
  • Pamela Wiegartz, Ph.D.

    In the Age of Anxiety

    Panic, compulsions, phobias, and more.
    By Pamela Wiegartz, Ph.D.
  • Stephen C. Josephson, Ph.D.

    Just a Little Anxious

    Coping in these times.
    By Stephen C. Josephson, Ph.D.

  • Learning to Breathe

    My quest to bring calm to my life.
    By Priscilla Warner
  • Joe Shrand, M.D.

    Manage Your Stress

    Is someone else's stress in your way?
    By Joe Shrand. M.D.

  • Shyness Is Nice

    Spreading the word about the value of quiet, sensitive people.
    By Barbara Markway, Ph.D., and Greg Markway, Ph.D.
  • Christopher Lane, Ph.D.

    Side Effects

    From quirky to serious, trends in psychology and psychiatry.
    By Christopher Lane, Ph.D.

  • The Woman Who Thought Too Much

    Inside the magical—yet destructive—thinking of OCD.
    By Joanne Limburg
  • Fletcher Wortmann

    Triggered

    Exploring the psychological landscape of OCD
    By Fletcher Wortmann