Welcome!

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I am so glad you are here!  
I created this blog to offer support to the many people who experience anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety or phobias.  I am a certified clinical anxiety treatment professional with 20 years in the field helping adolescents and adults manage and overcome their anxiety. I hope these posts feel helpful.

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Emerging from our COVID Bunkers

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I was at a socially distanced, masked, birthday party for a friend who just turned 50  and we started talking about how we thought the world would be after it was safe to really socialize after COVID.   We wondered about the survival of the tradition of shaking hands for hello and goodbye in some cultures.  Will the French and other Europeans abandon the  two-cheek kissing greeting?   There will clearly be post-covid changes to get used to worldwide and everyone will be affected. Since kissing and handshaking are not that embedded into US culture,  what will be different for Americans?  I wonder if we will still be comfortable packing into bars, concerts, and sporting events like we did pre-covid Most psychological researchers think that in the US post-COVID anxiety will take one of two forms.   Lingering fears of contamination and infection even though the pandemic will be controlled.  Social anxiety after being isolated for so long  Lingering fears After so much mandated mask-weari
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WHEN YOUR INNER CRITIC ATTACKS!

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WHEN YOUR INNER CRITIC ATTACKS During these many weeks of Covid-19 physical distancing, we are missing out on a lot of our usual coping mechanisms and useful distractions. There is also a lot of pressure on social media and elsewhere to be productive and do all the things you have been putting off or procrastinating about right now ! For some this proposition is inspiring but for many, setting these lofty goals is adding self-recrimination and guilt to their already frightening and destabilizing pandemic experience. A good alternative to all this pressure is learning to practice self-compassion.  “How can you be so stupid?”  “You are just lazy!” “You can’t do anything right!” These are things that most of us would ever say to anyone (unless you are a really cruel person) but why do so many of us tolerate a harsh inner critic that tells us these things all of the time? So many of my clients would be less depressed and anxious if they just could develop a better r
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TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

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Did you know that a natural hormone produced by your body to keep you safe can actually end up being bad for your health?  I t's the  stress hormone cortisol.  It's part of your natural “flight or fight” response that has kept humans alive for thousands of years.  It is for emergencies only however such as escaping an angry bull elephant or a hostile attacker.  The body's stress response was meant to be  triggered by life or death situations but in the modern world, it is often triggered by daily stressful social, economic, and work situations. In this case, the resulting constant surge of cortisol becomes unhealthy. When the Amygdala (the fear center of the brain) starts the fight or flight response, Adrenaline raises heart rate and blood pressure.  Cortisol helpfully triggers the release of sugars to the body and brain for energy and other substances that repair tissues.  Cortisol also shuts down body systems that are not helpful for responding to immediate danger includ
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