Behavioral Medicine Solutions

Many ADHDers have social anxiety. The reasons are obvious: Verbal impulsiveness makes the ADHDer prone to talk without thinking in social gatherings. This leads to negative experiences in social situations and an exaggerated awareness of perceived threats from interactions with others. A delayed sense of social propriety can induce post event analysis that often lead to rumination and obsession with recalled [...]

Your primary care physician did all the tests but found nothing, and referred to a cardiologist for sudden onset of fear, anxiety, chest pain, shortness of breath, weakness in the legs, sweating, and general discomfort. Your million dollar work up turned out to be negative for any identifiable cause of your symptoms. The symptoms started after a series of losses [...]

Many suffering people are quite hesitant to avail themselves of therapies due to the current biased trend in literature. We hear almost daily that antidepressants are no better than placebo.  These medications although are by no means a panacea (you can find my view on the fallacy of the label ‘antidepressant’ in my earlier posts), leading to a change [...]

Social Anxiety Disorder or Social Phobia is one of the most prevalent and undertreated psychiatric conditions. It causes much suffering and pain in those afflicted, and when unaddressed can evolve into many other forms of depression, anxiety and substance abuses disorders. The core feature involves an intense fear and embarrassment at being the center of attention. Many ruminate on the [...]

So you’ve been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or another related condition.  You have seen a skilled physician and have been started on proper medications.  You are also receiving individual therapy from an excellent psychologist.  You are eating properly, have been exercising and cultivating good relationships.  Yet you still feel terrible sometimes, and are beginning to lose hope about your [...]

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday and those wonderful meals and family get-togethers, let’s take a minute to contemplate  the nature of these events.  Many people feel ambivalent around their core families.  The dynamics are complex as we regress to an earlier mode of psychological defenses around our relatives and old friends.  The interplay between heightened expectations, dependencies, unresolved [...]

External forces that keep people from career advancement are well documented.  Fortunately, some of the barriers in the work place emanating from prejudices of all kinds are improving.  Although there is no doubt that we still have a long way to go to eliminate discrimination based on race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, etc, there is [...]

I have been struck by the predominance of shame in ADDer adults. This is a different kind of shame than, let’s say, someone who has PTSD symptoms. It is not related to one or a series of catastrophic events. It is more related to feeling different and inadequate in day to day tasks. Many feel [...]

Unrealistic expectations set people up for treatment failures, especially when it comes to treatment for anxiety disorders. The changes that take place with the initiation of therapy are gradual and subtle. I conceptualize these changes as palliative as opposed to curative. For example:  If you have been prone to constant states of worry or irritability , [...]

There seems to be a worry epidemic all around us.  Even our health promoting attempts seem to worsen the process. We are bombarded by the news and images of problems the world over and import these concerns to our personal lives.  The economic upheaval, terrorism, cultural collisions, moral decline, exaggerated expectations for material well-being: All seem [...]