anxiety

Heightened anxiety linked to an impaired ability to simulate alternative versions of past events

People with higher trait anxiety tend to have a harder time creating detailed mental simulations, according to new research published in the journal Cognition and Emotion. “My research has convinced me that our capacity to imagine possible personal events critically depends on our capacity to remember our personal past,” said study author Felipe De Brigard, an associate professor at Duke University and principal investigator at the Imagination and Modal Cognition Lab. “Some of those imagined episodes concern alternative ways past personal events could have occurred, but didn’t. These episodic ...

Study suggests a cognitive bias toward social threat contributes to the maintenance of social anxiety in children

New research published in Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy offers evidence that the maintenance of social anxiety in children is not unlike that in adults. The study found that children with social anxiety disorder displayed a cognitive bias characterized by heightened negative automatic thoughts concerning social threats. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is marked by an unrelenting fear of being judged by other people, which hinders a person’s social experiences. Most studies exploring the features of SAD have used adult samples, and much less is known about how the disorder is maintained...

Women with higher levels of social anxiety may be more accurate in identifying emotions

New research indicates that women with higher levels of social anxiety display heightened performance in a test of cognitive empathy compared to less anxious women. The study has been published in the journal Psychological Reports. “I became interested in researching empathy and anxiety because I wanted to better understand how anxiety presents itself and what cognitive changes may occur as a result,” said lead researcher Samantha Berg of the University of Central Florida. In the study, 701 participants completed self-report measures of social anxiety, depression, and empathy. They also comple...

Patients with public speaking anxiety show improvement after VR exposure therapy, study finds

A new study suggests that exposure therapy using virtual reality (VR) technology may be an effective way for patients with public speaking anxiety to overcome their fears. These findings were published in Cognitive Behavior Therapy. VR technology continues to improve and evolve, becoming more affordable and accessible for potential use in therapy. VR offers unique advantages for mental health interventions, and one example of this has to do with exposure therapy — a technique for treating anxiety that involves exposing the patient to a feared event in order to reduce the associated fears. Usin...

Combining yoga with cognitive behavioral therapy helps treatment-resistant patients with generalized anxiety disorder

A new study suggests that integrating yoga practice into cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) might be an especially effective treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The findings were published in Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy. GAD is a relatively common mental health diagnosis, and people who meet the criteria often present with additional psychological disorders. While CBT has been established as an effective treatment for GAD, many sufferers simply do not respond to it. There has been great interest, therefore, in uncovering ways to improve upon traditional CBT. A research te...

Google searches related to anxiety attacks jumped up to 52% during the pandemic, study finds

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found evidence to suggest that acute anxiety reached an all-time high in the United States following the declaration of COVID-19 as a national emergency. This evidence came from an unusual source of data — Google searches.There has been extensive concern that anxiety levels have risen around the world due to fears and uncertainty regarding the coronavirus. Study authors John W. Ayers and associates set out to search for empirical evidence for this increased anxiety. Since nationwide surveys and the monitoring of health records are time-consuming meth...

Making It Up 142: Colors easing quarantine anxiety and stealing great ideas

On Making It Up 142, Charis and Eugene talk about the new color choices people have made during quarantine for their interior spaces and whether that’s potentially soothing. They also discuss the importance of looking outside your area of expertise and industry to find new creative solutions.Timestamps00:02:21 Quarantine colors00:17:40 Steal ideasLinksArt News: The Surprising Power of Color to Ease Quarantine Anxiety by Kyle ChaykaGreat Ideas Are Yours to Steal by Bob RoitblatThe post Making It Up 142: Colors easing quarantine anxiety and stealing great ideas appeared first on MAEKAN.