Author: anxietyLA
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Anxiety and Surgery
The Los Angeles Times reports on a study that shows depression and anxiety interfering with healing after surgery. Why would depression and anxiety make a patient more vulnerable? The researchers offered several theories. Among them: Depressed patients don’t take as good a care of themselves, so when they go in for surgery, they may have…
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Virtual Exposure Therapy
Virtual reality meets exposure therapy (Scientific American). Recently, some psychologists have successfully combined exposure therapy and virtual reality to treat fears of flying, heights and spiders, asking patients to interact with simulated environments that guarantee their safety…Now, a team of psychologists has completed the first clinical trial testing the treatment of cockroach phobia with augmented reality—a younger…
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8 Tips for Reducing Anxiety
Anxiety reduction tips from Matthew Edlund on the Huffington Post. Number one is nice and simple: Start with deep breathing. Stand up straight and breathe in to the count of four, out to the count of eight. Repeat for five breaths.
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Whatever Doesn’t Kill You…
…makes you stronger, says study. “Our findings revealed,” he says, “that a history of some lifetime adversity — relative to both no adversity or high adversity — predicted lower global distress, lower functional impairment, lower PTS symptoms and higher life satisfaction.”
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Fight, Flight, Freeze
What an experiment with voles tells us about stress and anxiety (PsychCentral). “It’s not a question of being more or less afraid,” says Prof. Eilam. “Under threat, members of a social group will adopt a common behavioral code, regardless of their individual tendency towards anxiety.”
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Women’s Anxiety Increasing?
Why are anxiety disorders among women on the rise? One general practitioner—not a psychiatrist—estimates that one in five of the patients she sees now is there for anxiety issues, making it one of the most common reasons young women show up in her exam room. Megan Catalano, 34, of Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, is living…
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Meditation v. Anxiety and Depression in MS Patients
USA Today: Meditation reduces depression, fatigue, anxiety in MS patients Those in the meditation program, in fact, improved in almost all the measures of fatigue, depression, anxiety and quality of life, while those who received usual medical care declined slightly on most of the measures. For instance, those who took mindfulness training saw their depressive symptoms…
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Personality and Exercise
Your personality may influence your interest in exercise (PsychCentral): If you have a high metabolism, you are more likely to have personality traits that will draw you to a five-mile run or a game of tennis. On the flip side, if you have a slow metabolism, the couch may look much more appealing to you…
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Anxiety, Insomnia, and Menopause
The WSJ draws a connection between anxiety, insomnia, and menopause. “Many of these women are told, ‘You feel bad because your husband is having an affair, or your youngest is in college, or you didn’t get that promotion. Take this Prozac.’ When what is really going on was fluctuating levels of estrogen…”