Millions of people suffer from anxiety disorders. Flying, public speaking, bridges, tunnels dogs, cats, leaving home, can all cause disabling panic attacks in people with an anxiety disorder. Some suffer with obsessive-compulsive disorders and spend many hours washing, or are so fearful of contamination that normal daily activities like shopping or using public transportation is torture for them. The good news is that there is effective treatment for anxiety disorders. Cognitive/behavioral therapy, sometimes in combination with medication, has proven to help people recover from the debilitating effects of anxiety disorders and avoidant behavior. Cognitive/behavioral treatment is a double-barreled approach to the problem. The cognitive aspect examines the person's thoughts. We help the person elicit the thoughts that create unrealistic fears and change the thoughts to a more realistic appraisal. The behavioral aspect of the treatment helps the person cope with difficult situations and avoidance through gentle exposure to the feared situation. In addition to office visits we also do "in vivo" cognitive/behavioral treatment. In vivo means "in life". that is, whenever necessary, we accompany the person into the phobic situation. We drive over bridges; ride in elevators; go to supermarkets with our clients. In this way we gradually and gently desensitize the person to the feared situation. We help them to understand that the frightening physical sensations they experience are normal responses to anxiety, and not dangerous. In the case of obsessive-compulsive disorders, we help to expose the person to the feared situation in a manageable way and to assess the destructive thinking pattern that creates the anxiety. In this way they can replace the negative thinking with reality based positive thoughts.

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