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Articles - Anxiety, Depression &
Other Disorders
If you're
reading this, chances are you're either dealing with some kind of
anxiety or depression yourself, or concerned about someone who is. I
don't want to bore you with a lot of statistics, but consider this:
- One out of
five people will experience a severe clinical depression
at some point in their lives.
- An
estimated 10% of the U.S. population suffers from panic attacks, phobias
or other anxiety disorders each year.
- More than
a third of us will experience at least one panic attack in our lifetime.
Add all
of the people who have mild to moderate depression, or some form of bipolar disorder,
plus everyone affected by someone else's depression or anxiety
(friends, spouses, kids, coworkers), and we're talking about a major
issue. Yet as common as these problems are, most people don't really
understand much about them. So keep reading!
My
approach to treating these problems is based on Cognitive-Behavioral
Therapy (CBT), though I'm not
a strict CBT therapist. I use CBT because I've found that it works, at
least for most people most of the time. Its basic premise, that you can change your mood
and feelings by changing your thoughts and behavior,
has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to treat both
anxiety and depression.
Because
these are "whole body" disorders, the best treatment practices address sleep, nutrition and
exercise habits. Medication
can be a useful tool in treating some of the most distressing symptoms,
but is rarely a complete solution. Recent neuroscience research has
demonstrated that mind-body practices
like meditation, yoga, and Tai Chi can not only relieve symptoms of
stress, anxiety and depression, but may also be able to prevent their
re-occurrence.
I've
included Adult Attention Deficit
Disorder
(ADD) here because it tends to occur in people with bipolar or unipolar
depression.
Complimentary
Therapies for Mood Disorders
Understanding
and Overcoming Depression
Anxiety
and Panic Attacks
Social
Anxiety
Bipolar
Disorder
Winter
Blues
Attention
Deficit Disorder in Adults
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