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Seasonal Mental Health

Five Tips for Dealing with Social Anxiety During the Holidays

The holiday season can be both a blessing and a curse, especially the latter for those suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder. I am brought to tears by the stories my patients have shared with me, stories about being the only one missing at family gatherings, missed opportunities with a loved one before they passed, and the myriad consequences people experience by avoiding the holiday dinner. I wanted to share five quick tips based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that might help reduce your social anxiety at the next family holiday. For more tips, watch my video on Dealing with Social Anxiety: Holidays, Birthdays & Social Gatherings. 1) Choose a…

Dr. Russ MorfittNovember 20, 2013

Mental Health Stress & Anxiety

What’s the Worst that Could Happen?

One of the most common misconceptions needing clarification in CBT is the belief that challenging one’s thoughts --we call it “Thought Inspection” at Learn To Live—is the same as “Positive Thinking.” The two are very different. Every day I work with people who have no interest in pretending that the world is perfect, that everything is great.

Dr. Russ MorfittOctober 29, 2013

On the Difference Between Introversion and Social Anxiety

If you’ve been reading past blog entries, you know that I have touched on the distinction between problematic social anxiety and introversion before. The difference between the two is subtle but important. Sometimes people assume that social anxiety is simply another word for shyness.

Dr. Russ MorfittOctober 2, 2013

Mental Health

Of Veggies and CBT

We psychologists, and our cousins in related disciplines, are notorious for creating terms that we enjoy but that others struggle to comprehend. One such term is locus of control. It refers to a source of power or influence or, rather, where we perceive the power or influence to be.

Dr. Russ MorfittSeptember 19, 2013

Seasonal Mental Health

Of Resolutions and TeamMates

A friend of mine makes a resolution every year at about this time. He’s a bit countercultural and so prefers the new school year to the New Year. His newest determined action got me thinking about our resolve as people, in general. Do you remember your most recent resolution?

Dr. Russ MorfittSeptember 10, 2013

dealing with anxiety, a crowd at a concert

Even Crowd-Pleasers Get Scared

When I was a kid, my siblings and I watched a lot of TV, probably too much. Before video killed the radio star, we watched pop bands perform on a show called American Bandstand and others like it (Does Solid Gold ring a bell for anyone?). One of the bands we saw several times was a group of brothers called The Osmonds.

Dr. Russ MorfittSeptember 3, 2013

Panic Stress & Anxiety

Gender Differences and Anxiety

We have known for a long time that women are twice as likely as men to suffer from an anxiety problem, like Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and others. You might assume that women are more likely to ask for professional help (and studies suggest they are), but they are also more likely to report the symptoms for these problems in community surveys.

Dr. Russ MorfittAugust 21, 2013

Mental Health Stress & Anxiety

The Relationship Between Posture and Self-Confidence

I remember how amazed I was when taking my first psychology class and learning about research demonstrating that we can change our moods simply by changing our facial expressions. In many of those studies, participants started to feel happier after simply tensing certain muscles associated with smiling.

Dr. Russ MorfittJuly 31, 2013

Mental Health

On Beyond the Old Ways

I often find myself thinking inside the box of my personal experience and the ways of thinking and behaving I was taught. I think there is often a lot of good in these acquired and inherited thought patterns. We can learn plenty from our peers and siblings and from those with more miles on their odometers.

Dr. Russ MorfittJuly 22, 2013

On Beyond the Old Ways

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