After experiencing severe heart palpitations and shortness of breath while driving, Diane rushed to the emergency room of the nearest hospital. Extensive tests showed no physical abnormalities or problems. She was told she had a panic attack and was given an anti-anxiety medication. As a result of the panic attack, she quit driving by herself because she became fearful of having another panic attack and losing control while driving. Whenever she would attempt to drive by herself, she would have a panic attack. Her family physician explained to her that Panic Disorder was a chemical imbalance and that medication helps to regulate the chemicals in the brain. An anti-depressant was prescribed in addition to the anti-anxiety medication. Diane found that she began to feel less anxious with the medications, but that she was still avoiding the driving due to her fear of having a panic attack. Additionally, she became concerned about needing to be on the medication for a long time and wondered if any other treatment could help. READ MORE...

A serious problem exists with the public's understanding of depression. The problem occurs because of the clinical term "Major Depression" and the general use of the word "depression." One of the definitions in the Merriam-Webster dictionary indicates that depression is "a state of feeling sad." Therefore, the general public typically defines "depression" interchangeably with "sadness" as in "I'm so depressed today." The tendency, then, is to assume that clinical depression is just extreme sadness or the inability to handle normal stress and sadness of life.

This assumption is not only wrong but it is a disservice to all individuals who experience one of the clinical forms of depression: Major Depressive Disorder, Dysthymic Disorder, Depression NOS (Not Otherwise Specified), or Adjustment Disorder with Depression.  READ MORE...

Listening to the weather forecast one frigid day, I realized how much we are influenced by the catastrophic thinking of the media.  The weatherman reported, "The weather has brought more misery to the St. Louis area."  Certainly, the weather was causing problems that day.  An ice storm caused car doors and locks to be frozen so that people had a great deal of trouble getting into their cars.  However, I thought, unless someone was in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone and they were unable to open their car door because of the ice, this was not "misery."  Instead, I would call it an "inconvenience."  Most of us walked out to our cars to find that we couldn't open the door, went back inside a warm house or office, and found some solution to our problem.  READ MORE...


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Most of the time parents and spouses of individuals with depressive or anxiety disorders truly want to assist in the treatment. However, sometimes their efforts may interfere due to lack of understanding or due to fears and their own internal pressure to make the situation better. So often family members may have their own irrational thinking that might influence the person with the disorder. Therefore, if you have a loved one with anxiety or depression, you may need to examine your behavior to prevent interference with their improvement. The following is a list of ways that family members interfere with treatment and some ways to change these behaviors. READ MORE...

Janine is a 38-year-old married woman with two young children. She obsesses continuously about whether her house is neat and clean enough. She frequently stays up until three in the morning scrubbing and straightening. In addition, Janine is painfully shy and has few friends. She worries about what other people think of her and is terribly afraid of rejection. Some of her neighbors get together with their children to play in a nearby park or each other’s homes, but Janine never joins them.

You may easily recognize that Janine has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). What you may not recognize is that she has an additional anxiety disorder called social phobia. Janine is not alone; recent research (1) estimates that 24% of individuals diagnosed with OCD receive an additional diagnosis of social phobia. In fact, this study found that social phobia is the most common additional anxiety disorder diagnosis made for those individuals with OCD.  READ MORE...