Pbenjay's Blog

Worry (Photo credit: StormKatt)

Good morning everybody – It’s Monday morning and it’s snowing (again) but I’m not going get crazy over it.  I’m pleased to present the second mental health tip from Dr. Barry Lubetkin.  

“Can you Guess what the most common psychiatric diagnosis presented to mental health professionals is?  It is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and its primary symptom is persistent anxious worrying. Worrying that leads to headaches,stomach problems,agitation,etc,etc.  Not just rational worrying about the IRS audit, or concern about your hospitalized child, but chronic irrational worrying about relatively trivial matters…….”.Will the hairdresser get it right?” “Did I say the wrong thing on last nights date?” Those who suffer from GAD often anticipate the next event in their life with terror, with difficulty concentrating. Judgement is often flawed.

GAD is best treated with Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, where the sufferer is taught to challenge the basic irrationality of their anticipatory anxiety with more reasonable beliefs that demonstrate there is little evidence to support their fears. Meditation,relaxation training,and sometimes medication are also beneficial.  Patients are taught to quiet down their catastrophizing by modifying their “what if” thinking with “so what if” thinking!”

**Barry Lubetkin received his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Kent State University in 1969 and was a fellow in the National Institute of Mental Health Alcoholism Training Program at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and an NIMH fellow in Behavior Modification at Stony Brook. He has had faculty positions at Rutgers, Hofstra, Stony Brook, Yeshiva and New York University. Lubetkin has lectured internationally as well as being a popular guest expert on TV shows such as Oprah, Sally, CNN, Fox and others.