Treating Anxiety

Course Overview

Learn how to identify anxiety in your everyday life and discover the techniques you can use to address your anxious thoughts and behaviors. Overview Course No. 80750.

Understanding 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, significantly interrupting daily life. In fact, the National Institutes 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 an extremely positive trait. In fact, you could 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.

Course Lectures

01: Where Anxiety Comes from and Why It Persists

Have you ever considered that you just might owe your life to anxiety? Learn how evolution favored those with a healthy amount of anxiety, including your personal ancestors. But yes, you can have too much of a good thing. Explore the boundary between everyday anxiety and the clinically significant anxiety that is experienced by about one-third of the population in their lifetime.

Duration: 27 min

02: Understanding and Challenging Anxiety

What exactly is anxiety? Discover the numerous relationships between the three elements of anxiety: thoughts, physiological sensations, and behavior. As you’ll see, anxiety can start with any of these three elements and amplify from there. But what if your anxiety didn’t hold you back? What could you accomplish? Learn the difference between goals and values, and how to create your own personal Challenge List.

Duration: 26 min

03: Your Anxious Thoughts: Overcoming Worry

Worry that feels uncontrollable and physical tension are the two pillars of a very common anxiety diagnosis called general anxiety disorder. Explore why we all worry from time to time and the difference between worry and general thinking. Most importantly, you’ll learn about the four cornerstone tools from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that can help you start to decrease your worry load today.

Duration: 31 min

04: Your Body: Tools for Anxiety and Panic

Explore the causes of the physiological symptoms of anxiety from blushing to shortness of breath to trembling hands. And how does potentially helpful anxiety turn into its most extreme form—panic? Learn about the panic cycle, why our avoidance behaviors do more long-term harm than good, and the simple physiological and cognitive tools you can use to make a very real difference today.

Duration: 31 min

05: Your Actions: Living a Valued Life

Of the three components of anxiety, behavior is the factor we can best control. Participate in an exercise to identify your values and then learn how those values drive your behavior and affect your anxiety. Explore Choice Point, a mental-health tool that can help you assess behaviors. Are your behaviors moving you toward or away from your personal values?

Duration: 25 min

06: Rise above Social Anxiety

Because we are social animals living our lives in social situations, social anxiety can have a significant effect on our ability to attain our goals. Learn why this type of anxiety is all about our fear that people will find something deficient about us that we would rather hide—our “fatal flaw.” Explore two skills—task-focused attention and giving yourself some structure—that can help you get around social anxiety and its fears.

Duration: 28 min

07: Live Well with OCD

Learn about the many different types of obsessions—the uncontrollable, recurring, and distressing thoughts, images, or urges—and the actions people feel they must take in response. Explore the tools of cognitive defusion and acceptance, tools that don’t strive to get rid of the distressing thoughts but can change the relationship with the obsession to allow for a more peaceful life.

Duration: 28 min

08: From Perfectionism to Flexibility

Learn about perfectionism—not a diagnosis, but a mindset that drives many different types of anxiety. While you’re probably familiar with the term, it is commonly thought to mean striving to be perfect. Instead, perfectionism, with its two pillars of over-evaluation and self-criticism, is actually about a cycle of never feeling good enough. Explore several tools that can help you change the rigid thinking of perfectionism to a more flexible, peaceful way of existing.

Duration: 26 min

09: From Self-Criticism to Self-Compassion

Self-criticism is a normal part of existence and without it, we wouldn’t survive. In evolutionary terms, it helps keep us safely ensconced in our tribe, increasing our chance to see another day. But with anxiety, self-criticism can get in our way. Explore the characteristics of pathological self-criticism and the nine needs it fulfills in us. Nine? No wonder it’s so difficult to let go. But you will discover methods that do work. In this case, put behavior first, and your beliefs will catch up.

Duration: 27 min

10: Make Decisions and Get Things Done

Explore the anxiety manifestations of indecision and procrastination, both of which are rooted in avoidance (of uncertainty and negative emotions) and keep us from moving forward in our lives. Discover tools to help you address the uncertainty-causing indecision, and tools to help you manage the emotions you’re avoiding with procrastination. You’ll also learn several ways to find a one-on-one therapist or a support group.

Duration: 27 min

11: Seeking Treatment: Medication

Medication can be a powerful and effective tool in the treatment of anxiety. But to choose a medication that is right for your body, your life, and your anxiety, you’ll need to become an informed consumer. Learn about anxiety medication from psychiatrist Dr. Christopher Miller of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He answers questions about the types of anxiety medication, their effects on the brain, their efficacy, and so much more.

Duration: 45 min

12: Sleep and Anxiety

A recent study synthesizing more than 50 years of sleep research showed that even short periods of sleep loss resulted in increased anxiety symptoms. Meet Dr. Jade Wu, a board-certified sleep psychologist who answers questions about the complex relationship between sleep and anxiety. You’ll learn about the most common sleep problems for people with anxiety: why our brains won’t “turn off” at night; the pros and cons of melatonin, supplements, and sleep medications; and much more.

Duration: 36 min