Own Your Courage

Living with mental illness or mood disorder day after day can be taxing and tiring.  You have to be more disciplined, stronger, more organized and more on top of things than anyone else you know.  You are bombarded with advice about dealing with a chronic illness: exercise helps, diet is important, be sure to get enough sleep, but not too …

Attention Bias Modification

Attention Bias Modification (ABM) – also sometimes called Cognitive Bias Modification – may be an inexpensive and effective way of enhancing standard treatment for social anxiety. The standard approach to social anxiety is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT focuses on teaching people to modify their thoughts about social situations. First the client is asked to track thoughts before a group …

Herd Instinct in Humans: The Source of Anxiety and Depression?

Jeffrey Kahn has written a fascinating book (Angst: Origins of Anxiety and Depression in Oxford Press) suggesting an evolutionary source for much of human psychopathology. He gave a Grand Rounds presentation at UCLA in February of 2015 that outlined some of his theories and that presentation has been the subject of a vigorous discussion online. In essence, Jeffrey argues that …