Depressed & Anxious

As if coping with feelings of depression or anxiety by themselves weren’t difficult enough, clinical research suggests that as many as 60 percent of depression sufferers concurrently experience some kind of anxiety disorder. If you are in this group, it is quite common to simultaneously experience profound loss of energy and initiative along with substantial stress and anxiety. Caught between the push and pull of these two conditions, you might find that neither is easy even to recognize, much less cope with. But, by adapting for the first time the powerful techniques of dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, to the special needs of people troubled by co-occurring depression and anxiety, this book offers powerful tools for overcoming this condition. DBT is designed for people who have lost hope and meaningfulness in life, who question their own ability to be influential in their world, who find their emotions intolerable, and who find that they try to escape and avoid important aspects of their lives. DBT may be just the tool you’ve been looking for to move beyond depression and anxiety.

The step-by-step exercises, techniques, and worksheets in this book work to identify painful inner conflicts that might underlie depression and anxiety symptoms. Then, by negotiating a series of compromises, the techniques help acknowledge these issues while limiting their ability to interfere with your life—effectively reducing the extent to which your emotions govern who you are or what you are capable of. This book explains mindfulness techniques that encourage participation in the world and allow easier adaptation to change. It treats the difference between “threat cues” and “safety cues” and how recognizing and reacting to them constructively can reduce the effects of anxiety and depression. By teaching you how to monitor and limit negative self-evaluations and how to best tolerate negative experience, this book gives you a powerful set of tools for the control of co-occurring depression and anxiety.

Imagine feeling depressed and drained of energy and initiative while also being overwhelmed with feelings of dread and anxiety about the future. The consequence of this intolerable state of mind amounts to behavioral paralysis, a profound loss of control and quality of life. Therapist call this condition co-occuring depression and anxiety. Clinical research suggests that 60 percent of depression sufferers concurrently experience some kind of anxiety disorder. This book, the first written to general readers about this condition, uses the powerful techniques of dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, to help readers control both conditions.

DBT begins with the assumption that psychological problems are the result of feeling or emotional responses that are in conflict. It integrates a range of theraputic techniques to "tease apart" and resolve the competing internal needs and urges that generate anger, depression, and anxiety. By recognizing these conflicting emotions and forming new expectations, readers alleviate the symptoms generated by these conflicts. The book begins by having readers identify their most painful inner conflict. Then they develop compromises that acknowledge the issue but limit its ability to interfere with their lives-effectively reducing the extent to which their emotions govern who they are or what that are capable of. Exercises focus on assisting readers to become more responsive to uplifitng aspects of their enviroment and tolerant of unavoidable emotions.

A revolutionary, proven-effective model that shows you how to:

• Identify symptoms of mixed anxiety and depression
• Cope with negative and painful emotions
• Calm your anxious mind
• Regulate dramatic mood shifts
• Learn how to soothe yourself
• Increase energy and enthusiasm

• This is the first book to address co-occurring depression and anxiety From a leading expert in dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT-the newest, breakthrough model in psychology today