So we are discussing how to provide support to your loved ones without swinging back and forth between feeling overwhelmed and getting frustrated.  (For the blog post where I outline the common pattern that leads to those outcomes, click here.) Rather than providing endless reassurance (the HUG), or getting stuck feeling judgmental (the HARSH), I suggest you…
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Everyone wants to be helpful when their spouse or kid or good friend is having an episode of anxiety.  It’s a tough spot to be in, because we have all experienced a case of nerves, and we intuitively know that sometimes it can be hard to calm down. So we try to help, but most…
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Most people have trouble sleeping on occasion, but severe, long stretches of insomnia can be very distressing.  What’s the dividing line between someone in the distressed camp and someone in the occasional-bout-of-insomnia camp? It’s very simple:  it starts with how alarmed you get about disrupted sleep, and how unacceptable and disabling you believe reduced sleep…
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In dealing with health anxiety, the key fact to keep in mind is that there is no certainty.  If you tend to worry about your health, slipping from one concern to the next, often alarmed about physical sensations or perceived changes in your body, you probably tend to seek reassurance that you are OK. The…
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