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Treating Anxiety

Summary & Participants

We've all experienced anxiety at one time or another, and a little anxiety never hurt anyone. But too much anxiety can interfere with your ability to function in the everyday world, and may have harmful consequences on your body. Join our panel of experts as they discuss anxiety and offer some helpful tips on how to overcome it.

Medically Reviewed On: July 03, 2008

Webcast Transcript

PAUL MONIZ: I'm Paul Moniz. Thank you for joining us. If you feel stressed out from time to time consider yourself normal. The demands of the business world, parenting and modern-day life are enough to drive just about anyone over the edge. But being stressed out is certainly different from suffering from clinical anxiety. Many people can weather even heavy stress; some even thrive on it. But sometimes the stress crosses the line to anxiety and knowing the warning signs could mean the difference between hopelessness and relative normalcy with treatment.

Here to talk about that are two clinical psychologists who work together. We have Dr. Fran Massino and Dr. Willy Wiener. Both are from the Institute for Performance Advancement in Manhattan and both deal with stress and anxiety in the workplace.

There are anti-anxiety medications. There are also some other treatments. Tell us about those.

FRANCIS MASSINO, PhD: A lot of times we will make a referral for psychopharmacological intervention when that is mandated. A lot of people want to try it on their own. A lot of people are resistant to that, but a lot of times we see a real need and make a referral to a psychiatrist.

PAUL MONIZ: What kinds of medications are prescribed?

WILLY WIENER, PhD: Paxil, Celexa, Prozac, Zoloft, all of these SSRIs have been shown to be quite effective in helping. The way we see it as psychologists is those drugs help you get to a point where you can learn to deal with your stress more effectively. So that if someone has become absolutely fearful of sitting in a conference at work, the drugs may make them take the edge off to the extent where they can walk in that room. But they've still got to learn how to cope in those situations for lasting changes to endure.

PAUL MONIZ: Is it generally a short term treatment? If someone removes the stressors in your lives, takes the medication for a certain amount of time while they're doing that, can they then get off the medication, or in some people, do they just have to take it indefinitely?

FRANCIS MASSINO, PhD: It really depends. I've seen both. When people really get it there are ways to change your thinking about your ability to problem solve, your ability to tackle a situation, to feel hopeful that there will be a more successful outcome. There are other people who are just predisposed to a more negative disposition. Those are people who come in and say I don't think I will ever be off the Paxil. So it really does vary due to individual differences.

PAUL MONIZ: For those patients who don't want to take any medicine, what kinds of cognitive therapies can you recommend?

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