Coping with Anxiety and Phobias

• What is anxiety?
• Links to depression
• What causes anxiety?
  • Genetic underpinnings
  • The brain
  • Life experiences
  • Personality
• Types of anxiety disorders
  • Panic attack
  • Panic disorder
  • Specific phobia (simple phobia)
  • Social phobia (social anxiety disorder)
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Acute stress disorder
  • Generalized anxiety disorder
  • Medical conditions that provoke or mimic symptoms of anxiety disorder
  • Substance-induced anxiety disorder
• Sex differences in anxiety
  • Potential factors
• Anxiety in children and teenagers
  • Full range of anxiety disorders
  • Diagnosis and treatment in children
• Anxiety and aging
• Diagnosing anxiety
  • Medical history and general physical exam
  • Screening tests
  • Psychiatric evaluation
• Treating anxiety
  • Psychological therapy for anxiety
  • What you should know about medications
  • Medications for anxiety disorders
• Alternative approaches to treating anxiety
  • Mindfulness meditation
  • Hypnosis
  • Biofeedback
  • Relaxation techniques
  • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
  • Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
  • Exercise
• Making treatment work for you
  • Persist with treatment
  • Learn to cope with stress
  • Don’t drink coffee or smoke
  • Seek social support
• Glossary
• Resources

We live in anxious times. By just turning on the evening news, you’re barraged with new concerns — a sagging economy, international conflict, or global warming, to name a few. Personal issues, too, provoke anxiety, about such things as your physical health, your job and financial security, and your relationships with family and friends. Even everyday annoyances such as getting stuck in traffic, dealing with a computer problem, or preparing for a work presentation can provoke anxiety in vulnerable people.

When do feelings of worry, fear, and stress cross the line from a normal part of everyday existence into an emotional mindset that governs your life? For many people, this distinction is not immediately obvious. Sadly, it’s the failure to recognize anxiety as a treatable disorder that often keeps people from seeking the help they need to feel better. A recent experience I had as a doctor and a teacher brought this point into sharp focus. After I presented a lecture on anxiety to a medical school class, two of my students told me that they had suffered for years with the anxiety symptoms I described, yet never knew there was help available for the problem.

Other issues, as well, can present obstacles to relief and recovery from anxiety. Anxiety symptoms themselves often stand in the way of reaching out. For example, anxiety can cause you to become so uneasy with social interaction that you isolate yourself, skirting social gatherings and passing up potential friendships. Anxiety can also fill you with such obsessive thoughts or inexplicable dread of ordinary activities that you cannot work. It can even cause chest pain so severe that you think you’re having a heart attack.

Adding to the problem is the longstanding stigma surrounding anxiety that makes people shy away from treatment. Anxiety sufferers are often ashamed to admit to phobias and persistent worries, which seem like signs of weakness. They commonly avoid seeing a doctor for fear of being labeled “crazy.” Without treatment, however, many individuals become more fearful and isolated, exacerbating their condition.

It may help to know that you’re not alone. Anxiety disorders, including problems such as panic attacks, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, are the most prevalent type of psychiatric condition in the United States.

If you think you may have an anxiety disorder, see your doctor. With proper evaluation and a tailored treatment plan involving medication, psychological therapy, or both, anxiety can be brought under control.

This report provides up-to-date information about the causes and treatment of anxiety disorders, including behavior therapies, relaxation techniques, and medications. And we hope that it gives you something more: an incentive to seek help and feel better.

The following reviews have been left for this report. Log in and leave a review of your own.

I read the Special Report on Coping with Anxiety and Phobia because I wanted to learn more about phobias and available treatments. The report is very comprehensive and I learned a lot about anxiety disorders of all kinds, possible causes and treatments. The information on how medications work on the brain is very interesting. Anyone who is on an anti-anxiety medication or thinking of going on one should definitely read this report ! I like that it explored other kinds of therapy besides medication. Some of the suggestions were for holistic approaches like meditation, etc. 4 stars--SW, Yonkers, NY