Word: braine
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BEHAVIORAL THERAPY When the brain sets anxiety alarms ringing, our first inclination is to find the off switch. Behavioral scientists take the opposite approach. They want you to get so accustomed to the noise that you don't hear it anymore. The standard behavioral treatment for such anxiety conditions as phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and panic disorder is to expose patients to a tiny bit of the very thing that causes them anxiety, ratcheting up the exposure over a number of sessions until the brain habituates to the fear. A patient suffering from a blood phobia, for example, might...
...face. Patients suffering from social-anxiety disorder, for example, might see a group of people whispering at a party and assume the gossip is about them. A cognitive therapist would teach them to rethink that assumption. Some behavioral therapists question cognitive techniques, arguing--not without some justification--that a brain that was so receptive to reason wouldn't be all that anxious in the first place. Cognitive therapists dispute that idea, though some have begun incorporating behavior-modification techniques into their treatment...
ANTIDEPRESSANTS When talk therapy doesn't work--or needs a boost--drugs can help, especially the class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Prozac is the best known of these drugs, which work by preventing the brain from reabsorbing too much of the neurotransmitter serotonin, leaving more in nerve synapses and thus helping to improve mood. Another SSRI, Paxil, was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for the treatment of social-anxiety disorder, though the others seem to work as well. A third, Zoloft, has been approved for OCD and panic disorder. Each formulation of SSRI...
...Scientists once believed the effect to be due to the release of natural opiates known as endorphins, but new research has called this into question. Regardless, working out regularly--most days of the week, if possible for at least 30 minutes or so--may well help recalibrate the anxious brain...
...founder of the Center for Internet Studies in West Hartford, Conn., believes that at least 6% of us are what he would classify as compulsive e-mail checkers. "It sounds silly, but people report withdrawal symptoms when they're away from it," he says. "It's very likely the brain gets the same kind of hit from e-mail as it does from gambling...