Ellen Hendriksen – Treating Anxiety

Have you ever experienced anxiety? Of course you have. It’s that uneasiness in your stomach as you walk into a job interview or the feeling of nervousness on a first date. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing; numerous studies have shown that moderate anxiety enhances performance. But for millions of Americans, anxiety is persistent and excessive, and significantly impacts daily life. In fact, the National Institute of Mental Health reports that 31% of adults in the United States experience an anxiety disorder at some time in their lives.

It might be hard to believe today, but anxiety started out as positive trait—You could even say you owe your life to it. In the world of our early ancestors, the only people who stayed alive long enough to pass on their genes were the ones who assumed that what was bad was bad and that what was ambiguous was bad, also. Anxiety told them that, even though they couldn’t see the bear right that minute, they had good reason to believe it was lurking nearby. Anxiety put your ancestors back in their cave, postponing hunting for another day. They were safe. Hungry? Maybe. But safe, definitely.

In the 12 fascinating and action-oriented lectures of Treating Anxiety, Dr. Ellen Hendriksen will help you identify and understand the causes and symptoms of numerous anxiety disorders—from generalized anxiety disorder to social anxiety to panic. With a calm approach, and always supported by rigorous scientific studies, she will give you numerous tools and exercises you can employ immediately to help treat your own anxiety. After all, few of us are in danger of being eaten by a bear these days and, as Dr. Henricksen says, “We don’t want to spend our lives hiding in the metaphorical cave.”

Anatomy of an Anxious Moment: Building Interventions

Think about the most recent time you had an anxious moment. Maybe you felt a spike in your anxiety because you were stuck in traffic and late to pick up your child from school. Or maybe you’re anxious about your finances now that your partner is between jobs. Whatever the cause of the anxiety, if you think about the moment in detail, you’ll be able to break it down into three components:

• What Did You Feel in Your Body? Maybe your heart started racing, your stomach cramped up, or you broke out in a sweat.
• What Were Your Thoughts at That Time? Try to remember what you said to yourself. Was your mind racing ahead to predict an awful outcome that you didn’t know how to solve? Think about the images that went through your mind.
• What Did You Do in the Moment Or Just Afterward? Did you send yourself voice messages, write notes even while you were driving, or turn up the volume on a playlist to distract yourself?

Every moment of anxiety has these same three basic components—physiology, thoughts, and behavior—no matter what type of anxiety you have. The great news about having identified these three components is that you now have three points of intervention.