Last week I wrote a post about the increase in severe anxiety among privileged teens. This week I want to talk about how to reduce the anxiety. Severe anxiety debilitates. If a child (or adult) avoids everything that makes them uncomfortable their life is seriously hindered. What can we do about the trend of avoidance and [...]
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) defines social anxiety disorder as "a marked and persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety [...]
A few years ago, I started noticing a slight hesitancy to sign my name on a credit card tablet in front of the store clerk. I also noticed that if I suddenly become the center of attention during a group conversation, I blush and feel hot, sometimes forgetting where I am going with my story. When [...]
Last December I was in a play. It was presented at my church, where the people are kind and compassionate and it's OK to not be perfect. I felt very comfortable joining in the production. There were no auditions and my daughter was in the cast too. The playwright/director of the show is well-known in the [...]
Last week, I had an overwhelming desire to withdraw from everything. Like the mustard-hued sludge the EPA workers inadvertently released down the Colorado River, my emotions colored and flooded my mind. My mother's recent death; the humbling number of edits necessary to make my manuscript work and the start of the back-to-school shuffle, all put me in a draining state [...]
