Addressing Five Common Fears

Worry: Self-help tactics for reducing anxiety

There are two categories of worrying: about a specific issue or general worrying. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers suggestions for each.

Tips for Sub-Clinical Sadness, Worry, Anger, ADD/ADHD

Many people have “issues” that don’t rise to the level of a disorder requiring professional help. For example:

• They’re sad by nature or because of external events but they’re not—as in clinical depression— numb or inert, let alone suicidal. They function, just not as happily as they’d like.
• They tend to worry more than they'd like but rarely panic, nor does their anxiety greatly impede their quality of life.
• They’re predisposed to anger but aren’t in an ongoing state of suppressed anger nor are subject to frequent outbursts let alone physical violence.
• They have trouble staying focused but their distractibility doesn’t rise to the level of clinical attention-deficit disorder; neither the spacey version (ADD), or the hyperactive version (ADHD.)

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers not-magic pills that have helped a number of my clients address their sub-clinical malaise. Of course, many of these tips are obvious, yet many of us can benefit from reminders to do even things we’ve successfully used before.

Your Dark Side's Upside

America rewards optimism, cheeriness, and moderation. The new book, The Upside of the Dark Side by Todd Kashdan, argues that you’re more likely to be successful and feel good about yourself if you, as appropriate, invoke less societally encouraged behaviors.

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers ideas from the book plus my reaction to each.

Why "Live in the Moment" is such potent advice

The advice to live in the moment is ubiquitous but has merit. Reasons:  

• It gives you a fresh start--without the baggage of your past or fears of your future

• It precludes your being overwhelmed--If you're only contemplating your next one-second task, you're unlikely to feel overwhelmed.
• It maximizes pleasure: You are fully savoring what you're eating, reading, feeling, listening to.

It can even work while you're working. For example, as I'm writing this, I'm not particularly enjoying the effort to figure out what to say. But I make sure to take a moment of pleasure with every completed paragraph, when I'm done with the first draft, when I reread it and find ways to improve it, when I click, "publish post" and see it published, and whenever I get a positive or edifying comment on that post.