You have a fear of spiders, or of flying, or of crowds. Are you just sitting there suffering? It’s time to try Exposure Therapy!
Exposure therapy is a type of Behavioral Therapy used to help the patient confront a feared situation, object, thought, or memory and dispel its power to produce fear and anxiety. It involves reliving a traumatic experience in a controlled, therapeutic environment.
The Anxiety Disorders can paralyze the sufferer with ever-mounting avoidance behaviors. While successful for the moment, avoidance just sets aside the fear and anxiety triggered by a situation. They are sure to come back, stronger than ever.
Exposure therapy has been shown to be effective with many of the Anxiety Disorders, including Social Phobia (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), panic attacks and Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
This is the second of a two-part series of articles on Exposure Therapy. It focuses on tips to make your Exposure Therapy successful. Today’s installment has these headings:
- Exposure Therapy: Better in real life or in imagination?
- Tips for successful Exposure Therapy experiences
Yesterday’s Part 1 describes Exposure Therapy and what goes into a typical Exposure Therapy plan:
- Exposure Therapy is based on habituation
- Exposure Therapy counteracts Anxiety Disorders’ avoidance
- Exposure Therapy is a part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Characteristics of a typical Exposure Therapy plan
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder,
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Exposure Therapy,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
The neighbor’s dog barks night and day. If you have gotten used to it, you have used one of the root principles of Exposure Therapy.
Exposure therapy is a type of Behavioral Therapy used to help the patient confront a feared situation, object, thought, or memory and dispel its power over them. It involves reliving a traumatic experience in a controlled, therapeutic environment.
In a way, Exposure Therapy is related to the old maxim “face your fears,” but instead of jumping into a terror-inducing situation with both feet, therapy usually advocates a carefully planned, gradual approach to alleviating fears.
Exposure therapy has been shown to be effective with many of the Anxiety Disorders, including Social Phobia (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), panic attacks and Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
This two-part series of articles describes what Exposure Therapy is, and offers tips to make your Exposure Therapy successful. Today’s installment has these headings:
- Exposure Therapy is based on habituation
- Exposure Therapy counteracts Anxiety Disorders’ avoidance
- Exposure Therapy is a part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Characteristics of a typical Exposure Therapy plan
Tomorrow’s part of the article will continue the discussion under these headings:
- Exposure Therapy: Better in real life or in imagination?
- Tips for successful Exposure Therapy experiences
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder,
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Exposure Therapy,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
Acne would seem to be a strange topic for a blog on the Anxiety Disorders.
But acne is one of the leading causes of Anxiety among adolescents and adults. A recent study published in the British Journal of Dermatology found that acne sufferers experienced social, psychological, and emotional consequences at the same level of those with chronic health problems, such as epilepsy, diabetes, and arthritis.
Adults have acne, too, on into their 30’s and 40’s and beyond. And they are more likely than adolescents to feel that acne negatively affects their lives, regardless of how severe their acne is. This may be because there is a greater social stigma for adults with acne. It can lead to clinical Anxiety Disorders, depression, unemployment, and social isolation.
This post is part of a two-part series. Today’s post details who can have acne and how it affects their life under the following headings:
- How many people have acne?
- How acne affects your life
- Acne and quality of life
- Adult acne
Tomorrow’s post goes into the interaction of Anxiety, stress, and suicide, as well as getting help:
- Acne and Anxiety
- Acne and stress
- Warning signs that your mental condition is getting out of control
- Get help
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Acne,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Depression,
SAD - Social Phobia
Anxiety Disorders in older adults is a huge problem that has been ignored, causing a great deal of unnecessary suffering.
Research on older adults’ Anxiety Disorders lags behind that of other mental conditions, such as depression and Alzheimer’s. Until a few years ago, Anxiety Disorders were believed to decline with age. But now experts are beginning to recognize that Anxiety is as common in the old as in the young, although how and when it appears is distinctly different in older adults.
Sadly, because of the lack of information on Anxiety Disorders in older adults, especially in how to diagnose them, many go undiagnosed and untreated. James Maddux and Barbara Winstead state: 1
[I]n comparison to other diagnoses (e.g. depression) less is known about the etiology [causes], including clinical characteristics, course, treatment, and prognosis of anxiety disorders in late life. … Because anxiety disorders are difficult to diagnose in older adults, they are often undiagnosed.
Yet, late-life Anxiety Disorders are what Keri-Leigh Cassidy and Neil Rector call a “sleeping geriatric giant.” Anxiety Disorders are twice as prevalent as dementia among older adults, and 4 to 8 times more prevalent than major depressive disorders, causing significant impact on the quality of life, morbidity, and mortality of older adults.2
The annual U.S. health care costs due to late-life Anxiety Disorders in 1990 was estimated to be $42.3 billion. The numbers are surely higher now, and likely to go higher yet as the Baby Boomer generation grows older.3
This post is the first in a two-part series on the Anxiety Disorders in older adults. Tomorrow’s post addresses the diagnosis and treatment of Anxiety Disorders, and gives some tips on how to tell if your parent or loved one is suffering from them. This post covers the following topics:
- How prevalent are Anxiety Disorders in older adults?
- What are the most common Anxiety Disorders in older adults?
- Anxiety Disorders in older adults are strongly linked with depression
- What are the risk factors for Anxiety Disorders in older adults?
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety Disorder,
Elderly,
Elders,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
OCD - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,
Panic Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
Are you among the 3 million Americans who is always dizzy?
Recent studies show that about 60 percent — almost 2 million — of chronically dizzy people also have an Anxiety Disorder. In fact, the Anxiety Disorder causes the dizziness!
If you are among these numbers, you may have what is called Chronic Subjective Dizziness. It’s a condition in which there are no physical reasons for the dizziness. You may have suffered from this condition for years without knowing what or why it was. New research from the University of Pennsylvania now has answers for you!
This post details this new research and explains why it is important to you or someone you know who is always dizzy. The subject is explored under these topics:
- What is Chronic subjective dizziness?
- Research on Chronic Subjective Dizziness and Anxiety Disorders
- The results of the study shows 60 percent had Anxiety Disorders
- The relationship of migraines, Anxiety Disorders and Chronic Subjective Dizziness
- The significance of this study on Chronic Subjective Dizziness
- Treating Chronic Subjective Dizziness
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety Disorder,
Chronic Subjective Dizziness,
dizziness,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
migraine,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia
People with Social Phobia face very large barriers to getting the treatment they need — larger than those faced by others with mental illnesses.
Many of the barriers are the same as with other mental illnesses, but some are unique to Social Phobia. Mark Olfson of Columbia University says:
Socially anxious people are often ashamed of their symptoms and embarrassed to discuss them with friends or health care professionals. It is ironic that the very symptoms socially anxious individuals seek to relieve may interfere with their ability to seek treatment.
This post, based on research by Olfson reported in The American Journal of Psychiatry, goes into detail about the barriers people with Social Phobia face, along with what can be done about it. It addresses the following topics:
- First, what is Social Phobia?
- Research on barriers to getting treatment for Social Phobia
- Untreated Social Phobia is very common
- Untreated Social Phobia greatly impairs daily functionality
- Barriers to treatment of Social Phobia
- What can be done to increase the treatment rate for people with Social Phobia?
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Barriers to treatment,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Stigma
Suicidal behavior has not been associated with the Anxiety Disorders alone until recently.
It has long been known that as many as 90 percent of suicides in the United States are associated with mental illness, especially substance abuse disorders, schizophrenia, and mood disorders such as depression. Up to 75 percent of all people with depression, schizophrenia or other mental illnesses who attempt or complete suicide also are diagnosed with one or more of the Anxiety Disorders.
As recently as 1999, the Surgeon General could only say that, ” it is likely that the rate of comorbid [simultaneous] anxiety in suicide is underestimated.” There had been no studies at the time of Anxiety Disorder alone being a risk factor for suicide.
However, since then there have been a number of studies of the risks of Anxiety Disorders alone for suicide. It has been universally found that the suicide risk in patients with Anxiety Disorders is much higher than previously thought. Bob Montgomery and Laurel Morris say,
Patients with anxiety problems, especially but not only panic problems, suffer an unexpectedly high rate of heart disease and suicide. Suicide has long been recognized as a risk associated with depression. But [when] researchers compared a group of anxious with a matched group of depressed patients and found that the suicide rates for anxious patients were equal to or slightly higher than for the depressed patients.
This post summarizes some landmark studies from the past three years that have proven Anxiety Disorders, both alone and in association with other mental illnesses, are a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation, attempts, and completions.
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety Disorder,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
OCD - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,
Panic Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias,
Suicide
by Mike Nichols on September 23, 2008 · 5 comments
Modern psychiatry has long held that Anxiety Disorder and depression are two distinct conditions.
However, in the real world, many suffer from both. Surveys show that half of Anxiety Disorder sufferers also have symptoms of clinical depression. And 60-70 percent of people with major depression also have an Anxiety Disorder.
Evidence is growing that they are really two aspects of one disorder. Looking at them that way, some experts say, could speed the development of therapy and medications that better treat both conditions.
David Barlow, director of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University, states that:
[Anxiety Disorders and depression are] probably two sides of the same coin. The genetics seem to be the same; the neurobiology seems to overlap.
This post explores several similarities between Anxiety Disorders and depression, along with the risks of getting both disorders, the benefits of early treatment, and a summary of how the disorders are treated together.
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety Disorder,
Depression,
OCD - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
by Mike Nichols on September 16, 2008 · 6 comments
There is an ongoing debate about what constitutes shyness and at what point it turns into Social Phobia (also known as Social Anxiety Disorder).
Some, such as Christopher Lane, in his “Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness” say that normal shyness has been medicalized by an over-enthusiastic drug industry and the psychiatrists who wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). He holds that what used to be considered a virtue and the sign of modesty and a contemplative mind, has become a diagnosable mental illness.
Others believe that extreme shyness is a scourge on the American population, and that it is the third largest of the mental disorders, after only depression and alcoholism. They hold that undiagnosed Social Phobia causes untold suffering and millions of lives in self-imposed chains — all treatable with a short course of therapy.
This post investigates shyness, Social Phobia, and the difference between the two. It lists the triggers and reactions of shyness, then makes clear the distinction between shyness and Social Phobia.
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Mental Health Professionals,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Shy,
Shyness
by Mike Nichols on September 15, 2008 · 0 comments
