Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety by Sally M. Winston and Martin N. Seif uses a cognitive behaviour therapy approach to help readers deal with chronic indecisiveness, avoidance, and catastrophic thinking. The book begins by explaining what anticipatory anxiety is—the expectation of distress and the push towards avoidance that occurs before you encounter the situation you fear in …
Freedom From Health Anxiety by Karen Lynn Cassiday uses a primarily cognitive behavioural therapy approach to support people dealing with illness anxiety disorder (formerly known as hypochondriasis) and other forms of health anxiety. The book begins with a checklist to assess the negative impact of health anxiety in the areas of negative reactions of others, …
Super Simple CBT by Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, and Patrick Fanning provides a quick and easy introduction to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). While it addresses depression and anxiety, it’s not diagnosis-specific; rather, it provides strategies that are useful for dealing with difficult thoughts and emotions in general. The book consists of six chapters, one devoted …
Relationship OCD by Sheva Rajaee is written from the perspective of a therapist who herself has dealt with relationship OCD (ROCD). What a perfect combination! I love that more and more mental health professionals are willing to talk about their own mental health challenges. Throughout the book, the author emphasizes the importance of learning to …
I started the draft for this post quite a while back when I wrote about the COVID pandemic being better suited to introverts than extroverts. I thought I’d treat to tease apart the constructs of loneliness, social anxiety, and introversion/extroversion, similar to a post I did quite some time ago about introversion, shyness, and social …
Loneliness, Social Anxiety, and Introversion–Extroversion Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is selective mutism. Selective mutism (SM) is a rare disorder that begins in childhood and is characterized by an inability to speak in select social contexts (hence the “selective” part of the name). It used to be called …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a type of eating disorder that involves restricting food intake, not with the aim of weight loss, but more along the lines of picky eating twisted to …
What Is… Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) Read More »
The Anxiety Book for Trans People by Freiya Benson aims to support trans and other non-cis identities in dealing with anxiety. Benson has previously published Trans Love, an anthology of trans and non-binary voices. The book focuses on experiences of anxiety, and in particular anxiety related to having non-cis identities, rather specifically on anxiety disorders. …
Maja at Lampelina wrote quite a while back about the influence of fear on decision-making, and I’m finally getting around to exploring it on my own. Looking back, I don’t think fear was a big factor in most of my decisions. If I wanted to do something, I did it, including some perhaps high-ish fear …
How Big a Role Has Fear Played in Your Decisions? Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is avoidant personality disorder. Avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) falls within the DSM-5‘s cluster C of anxious/fearful personality disorders. It’s characterized by intense feelings of inadequacy and fear of social rejection, and avoidance is relied upon as a coping …
