Anxiety

The term anxiety is a generalized category for several different types of depression. Individuals who suffer from a severe phobia (eg. heights, spiders, death); a compulsive habit (eg. washing hands, nervous twitch), or stress related to past a life threatening situation (eg. rape, war, natural disaster) all lie under the scope of anxiety depression. Below, a short list of each anxiety disorder has been compiled; to gain a better understanding of the anxiety disorder.

1. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): OCD is purely characterized by obsessive and habitual acts. Each individual, is linked to their specific habit, because of superstitious notions. The doctors still believe that each habitual act is usually inexplicable.

2. Social Anxiety Disorder: The fear that is linked to social anxiety, is based within specific social situations. The disorder can be so debilitating; an individual will go into isolation. Usually, this disorder is rooted in a past social situation, in which the individual was embarrassed, scrutinized, or humiliated.

3. Phobias: This form if anxiety depression is triggered by a specific situation or object. This is the most common anxiety disorder in the United States. It can render an individual in emotional terror at sight of heights, spiders, or vomit. The range of stimuli which cause this anxiety are limitless.

4. Panic Disorder: Panic disorder is the term for short fits of apprehension and/or terror; known as panic attacks. The attacks can abruptly rise within ten minutes, and last as long as a few hours. The attacks not only, hit an individual emotionally; the actual body goes through physical changes (eg. shaking, trembling, increased heart rate)

5. Generalized Anxiety Disorder: This disorder is attributed to a long lasting anxiety, which does not focus on one object or situation. Any individual who is suffering from this disorder, will experience long lasting episodes of fear and paranoia.

6. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): This specific anxiety disorder is linked stress, to a life threatening situation (rape, war, natural disaster). An individual who suffers from this form of anxiety, will experience flashbacks, depression, and even reclusive behavior.

Depression

For those who have suffered from depression know how serious it can be.  Depression is defined as a state  of low moods and an abnormally high aversion to activity. It can cause debilitating feelings of sadness, helplessness and hopelessness.  It is often considered a defense mechanism, used by people who are feeling depressed, against common triggers of stress such as a loss of job, divorce, or death in the family.  Depression may, in these cases, be used as an adaptive response defending against the potential hurt and damage caused by these events.  The withdrawal of an individual from society, and the anger direct inward associated with the damaging events are typical symptoms of depression.

There are many reasons to try your best to cure depression.  It can cause a significant rift between relationships, quality of life, and production as a member of society.  Methods of depression treatment range from medical approaches to musical therapy.

One of the most effective treatments for depression is psychotherapy, or more specifically, behavior therapy.  Behavior therapy is defined as a type of psychotherapy that is typically used to treat forms of psychopathology such as depression, anxiety, and phobias.  Hopefully, understanding behavior therapy will help you understand how it can help you overcome your depression.

Stemming from the overarching beliefs of the school of behaviorism, behavior therapy focuses on the different psychological matters that can be studied empirically through the observing of outward behavior.  It is important to understand that the distinction between behavior therapy and other forms of psychotherapy is that behavior therapy focuses not on the internal mental state of a client, but the outward behavior that affects their life.

Behavior therapy bases its theories around the principles of behaviorism, developed by Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner.  Included in these principles are the principles of classical conditioning and operant conditioning, both of which focus on the conditioning of the mental state and, therefore, behaviors.  They focus on the idea of rewarding or punishing for good or bad behavior, respectively.

So how can behavior therapy help you overcome your depression?  Which techniques are used?  The rest of this article lists typical techniques used by behavior therapy to treat depression:

- Decreasing and/or managing the avoiding of events that may contain a damaging stimulus.

- Increasing levels of behavioral productivity through different social and pleasurable activities

- The teaching of relaxation techniques including mental imagery and stress management techniques through positive coping images.

- Developing healthy patterns of self-reinforcement

- Developing cognitive skills to modify self-statements and improving cognitive self-control, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.

- Training assertiveness, communication skills, and the use of role play to develop social skills and interpersonal effectiveness.

- Self-monitoring and evaluation of mood and activity levels

Behavior therapy has proven itself to be an effective treatment for depression.  If used in conjunction with other forms of psychotherapy such as cognitive therapy, it can quickly reduce levels of depression, allowing you to live your life to the fullest potential.

Will Lee
Counselor Network Writer

Crisis

A few months ago, you and your family experienced a loss with the death of your grandfather.  Since then, you have had problems with coping with the loss.  Where can you go to find help with coping with the loss?  Crisis counseling may be the answer for you.

A crisis, in terms of mental health, is defined as a situation or event where the person feels overwhelmed or unable to cope.  A typical crisis may include a death in the family, being let go at your job, or a rough ending to a relationship.  People are emotional beings, and crisis counseling may help one deal with feelings such as being frightened, anxious, or depressed.

In crisis counseling, a counselor works to provide mental health support and guidance to his or her client.  The effect of mental health on emotions is well documented.  Crisis counseling, then, works to reduce emotional pain, provide a safety net, and develop a plan to increase mental health.  It helps people develop skills that may help them anticipate and cope with a crisis.  These mental health skills can help a person improve their quality of life.  Understanding your own mental health attitudes during crisis can be the first step to better mental health.

Crisis counseling is more advantageous than many other forms of counseling or therapy due to its low cost and simplicity.  While other forms of counseling or therapy use psychotherapists or others trained in psychology, crisis counseling may be used by doctors, psychologists, and social workers.  In addition to the many different professionals who use it, crisis counseling is also especially versatile in it’s availability.  As it is a low-cost form of counseling, it can be provided in hospitals, police stations, local clinics, and military bases.  Crisis counseling is also available over the phone or the internet, providing protection of mental health during a crisis.

Crisis counseling may last only a few weeks, but it is important to understand that crisis counseling is not a form of psychotherapy.  Instead, it is focused on the management of mental health during the time of a crisis.  There are a few common step that describe the process of crisis counseling, and the rest of this article focuses on these steps:

1.  Assess the situation

The first step is to assess the client’s situation.  Crisis counselors will usually ask the client questions to better understand what each client needs.  During this step, the counselor will often provide the client with emotional and mental health support while ensuring the emotional and physical safety of the client.

2.  Educating the client

Counselors must inform their client of their condition during the crisis.  Steps that need to be taken by the client are spelled out.  The counselor will help the client to understand that their situation is common, and that, through work, they will return to their normal functionality.

3.  Offering support

The counselor should stabilize the mental health of the patient through emotional support and the offering of resources.   It is important in this step to listen actively to the client and provide nonjudgmental, encouraging support.  Hopefully, a dependency between counselor and client will develop, strengthening the emotional and mental health of the client.

4.  Development of coping skills

As the inability to cope is one of the symptoms of a crisis, developing skills to deal with coping is of utmost importance.  Such skills may include exploring and listing different solutions to problems, stress lowering techniques, and techniques for positive thinking.

Tim Du
Counselor Network Writer